I agree largely with Peter.
To have just the catalogue on PCs is a compromise that we introduced in
response to a very small number of vocal users who asked for it. Some of
the additional enhancing extras like linking to reader development sites and
so on are limited more by either availability of current technology to do
what is wanted, or by resources to buy or develop the technology that does
exist.
A standalone OPAC is to my mind a limited service compared with a fully
operational PC with the same PLUS the Internet, Office, and more. In other
words it is there for a small minority, and as such is only there where we
can have the luxury of capacity to accommodate this. This is the big
libraries.
As for waiting times, the reason why we don't have standalone OPACs in the
small libraries is because of the very small number of people who want to
use them.
Most people are busy writing CVs, surfing the Web using post-coordinate
indexing search tools (Google to you and I) or communicating round the
world via e-mail to family, friends etc., and they don't want to wait longer
because one computer, mostly standing idle, does not have the Internet.
Must leave this debate for Smart Card stuff!
Andrew Lewis
e-Services Officer
Library and Information Services
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
01628 796 592
[log in to unmask]
www.rbwm.gov.uk/libraries
-----Original Message-----
From: Marshall, Peter [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 14 January 2004 12:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: FW: Is this the end for OPACs?
I fear that some of today's contributions (though not all) on this subject
have taken a very limited view of OPACs.
Will any self-respecting OPAC of the future not give access to
www.whichbook.net and (in London)
www.londonlibraries.org.uk/will/ - and for that matter http://blpc.bl.uk/,
www.m25lib.ac.uk/ or http://copac.ac.uk/copac/?
Will catalogue entries not contain hyperlinks to authors' websites, or
film-of-the-book websites like www.bloomsburymagazine.com/harrypotter and
http://harrypotter.warnerbros.co.uk/home.html?
Will information resources available over the web, like
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/Woodhouse/ to quote a particularly well
digitised example, not be "catalogued" alongside their hard-copy
equivalents, and why should you not be able to get these resources simply to
appear on the screen when you click in the right place, as opposed to having
to go to another "People's Network" terminal somewhere else in the library
to look at them?
I quite accept that there is a need for some terminals at all libraries
which give access only to a very simple record of what items the Library
Authority holds to enable quick enquiries to be made, but it would be a
great mistake not to offer proper fully-functional web-enabled OPACs as
well, which gives you the opportunity to explore fully what you can get
through your local library, either on-line or via ILL.
After all, isn't broadening people's horizons about what they can get from
any public library what we are all about? About 20 years ago we moved from
card/sheaf catalogues which just told you what was in stock at your local
branch, to on-line versions which tell you what is in stock of the entire
library authority or consortium. Is not telling you what is available in the
UK or on planet earth the next step?
Peter Marshall
Project Development Librarian
Bexley Council
Tel: 020 8309 4135 (Direct Line)
email: [log in to unmask]
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