Library Online Public Access Research Articles

Seek and You Shall Find? An Observational Study of Music Students' Library Catalog Search Behavior

This observational study examined the strategies that music students used to locate scores and media items in an academic library's online public access catalog (OPAC). During a usability test, investigators tracked students' search strategies and behaviors, and measured their success in identifying appropriate items. Students experienced briefer, less complicated, and more successful queries for media items than for music scores (the latter of which they struggled to find and properly identify). Class standing, library catalog experience, and prior library instruction had no significant effect on positive outcomes. Searches for music scores were highly sensitive to variations in query wording, and students frequently struggled to revise their searches.

An Investigation into the Knowledge and Use of Electronic Library Resources in Jamaican Community Colleges

ABSTRACTThis study used a quantitative survey to investigate the knowledge and use of online databases and the library's online public access catalog by final-year business associate degree students in five selected Jamaican community colleges. The study sought to determine students’ knowledge of electronic library resources, their value for electronic and print resources, the purposes for which students use electronic library resources, the influences on student use of electronic library resources, and the effects of training and instruction. Results from the study indicated that students are increasingly using Internet search engines for research purposes rather than online databases. Results also indicated that electronic library resources such as the OPAC are being underutilized by community college students. It was evident that proper instructional guidance is needed and welcomed by students. The findings of the study are critical to the implementation of policies and procedures geared toward sensitizing school administrators, library professionals, and other stakeholders to the benefits of increasing students’ knowledge and use of electronic library resources. Data will aid administrators in strategic planning and investments pertaining to these resources, and provide recommendations to improve knowledge and use of these resources within libraries. The research illustrates the special needs of community college students in Jamaica, particularly relating to needed instructional programs, in an effort to impart knowledge and promote the use of electronic library resources in these colleges.

Measuring Dhaka University students' perceptions of ease‐of‐use and their satisfaction with University Library's online public access catalogue

PurposeThe main aim of this paper is to assess Dhaka University students' perceptions of ease‐of‐use and their satisfaction with University Library's online public access catalogue (DUL OPAC).Design/methodology/approachA survey questionnaire was developed and used to collect data on students' demographics, online catalogue use and their perceptions of ease‐of‐use and satisfaction with OPAC. In order to analyze the influence of students' demographic and individual characteristics on their perceptions and satisfaction, Mann‐Whitney and Kruskal‐Wallis tests were carried out.FindingsThe results showed that students are overwhelmingly satisfied with the DUL OPAC. Although there are some differences in students' perceptions of and satisfaction with the university OPAC, a formal task‐based usability testing and adopting a user‐centered design can ensure the usability of the OPAC in the future. The paper suggested some heuristic guidelines for designing interfaces for online catalogues.Originality/valueThis is the first time an effort has been made to assess students' perceptions of and satisfaction with a library OPAC in Bangladesh. The authors feel this study may encourage more such research on usability evaluation of OPACs in Bangladesh and beyond.

Agriculture and Food Related Theses and Dissertations Available on the Web

ABSTRACT Electronic theses and dissertations (ET/Ds) produced by graduate students in agricultural and food science programs at land-grant universities provide current research results as Web-based information that can be accessed from one's own computer. Those land-grant universities that are members of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) participate in the addition of their electronically submitted or digitally scanned theses and dissertations to NDLTD's union catalog. Full-text access is also provided through the contributing library's Web page. Additionally, access may be provided through the library's online public access catalog (OPAC). Google and Google Scholar searches may also procure ET/D information. The relative merits of searching for ET/D information through an NDLTD catalog, Google, Google Scholar, and a library's Web page and its OPAC are discussed. This study looks for the presence or absence of an abstract, keywords, full-text availability, classification number, and subject headings for citations obtained by each of these Web-based methods of access. Comparison of search options, the description of types of information in ET/D citations, and the appendix, a webliography of the sites discussed in the article, encourage efficient, effective electronic retrieval of agricultural and food information.

Providing Better Subject Access to Nonprint Fire Emergency Materials for Illinois Firefighters

SUMMARY The Illinois Fire Service Institute Library (FSI Library) has the most comprehensive and popular nonprint fire emergency collection in Illinois. Besides providing descriptive cataloging for nonprint materials, the Library assigns in-depth subject terms and modified Library of Congress Classification to the catalog records. The Library reviewed its subject list and found numerous inconsistencies and duplications, because catalog records are acquired from sources using different subject vocabularies. The Library began a project in August 1999 to map the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) from the National Library of Medicine, and other fire vocabulary systems. The project developers created FireTalk, a new FSI thesaurus with a mix of LCSH, MeSH terms (identified as such), plus more specific fire science terms. FireTalk is used with the Library's Online Public Access Catalog at the Institute's website to enhance retrieval of relevant bibliographic citations and facilitate multiple database searching.

Personal bibliographic systems (PBS) for the PC: A generic survey of features

Personal bibliographic systems (PBS) manage the input, storage, retrieval and output of bibliographic references, allowing for a number of different document types to accommodate for journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, reports, unpublished documents, etc. Unlike general purpose database management packages they are made to measure for bibliographic information, featuring amongst other things a variety of import profiles for records downloaded from the major commercial databases and automatic generation of dozens of different output styles, including those used by the most popular journals. This paper concentrates on low‐cost mainstream bibliographic software for personal use or smaller libraries. Full‐scale integrated library automation systems and online public access catalogue (OPAC) software, which specialise in finding a specific title within a vast amount of book‐type references, are not discussed. This paper does not review or compare individual products but focuses on the various...