I agree with you completely, Peter. The scope for using enhanced content
within catalogue records to make connections with all sorts of material on
the web, including ways of using information that's already on the web to
promote local stock, is immense and very exciting.
I don't see that there's an either/or here, so long as we make sure that the
access to the OPAC functions isn't lost in the pursuit of all the other
online functions we'd hope to make available. Given the fairly low limit on
the number of workstations many library buildings can physically hold and
the demand for non-OPAC functions, this is going to be a challenge for many
of us.
And I do worry about who's going to be available to do this sort of work. I
expect commercial considerations would make some publishers and suppliers
move along the lines of providing enhanced catalogue records for the next
Harry Potter -type sensation, though there'd still be scope for concerns
about validation and consistency. Some national projects could, resources
willing, provide a wider range and depth of catalogue record content, I
hope. But there'd still be the need for local input, perhaps to flag up
parochial material such as a link between a web site an a local history
book, perhaps to make connections between resources that are only apparent
or appropriate to a local community. The potential scope for using the
combination of OPAC and internet to help the hard sell of our local
resources *and* to provide a gateway to international information resources
tailored to the needs of local communities is really very exciting.
Steven Heywood
Systems Manager
Rochdale Library Service
Wheatsheaf Library
Baillie Street
Rochdale OL16 1JZ
Tel: 01706 864967
Fax: 01706 864992
The story of the Hen-pecked Club
http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/living/libraries.asp?url=DPhenpecked
-----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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