Dynamics of the demand for the union Internet-catalog of books and periodicals in the collections of the RAS LNS Centralized Library System

Abstract

The organization principles and retrieval functionalities of RAS LNS Centralized Library System union Internet-catalog of books and periodicals are examined. The catalog embraces every publication centrally acquired into the collections of over 50 RAS research institutions within RAS LNS Centralized Library System. The catalog entries are generated within “Bibliobus” integrated library system designed by RAS LNS professionals. Unlike other Internet-catalogs oriented toward the search logic of the traditional catalogs, the RAS LNS catalog enables to process practically unlimited range of queries embracing any elements of bibliographic entries and subject headings linked with Boolean operators “AND”, “OR”, “AND NOT”. Adding complexity of the search interface was chosen to minimize noise. To define whether the clients use the advanced search functionality and how often they do so, the analysis of demand was accomplished. The comparative qualitative and quantitative analysis data characterizes the demand for two periods: the first after 9 months of operation started in the mid-2016; the second – in 2018 for the following 18 months of operation. Main use indicators are compared and their dynamics is discussed.