Option 2
At Southampton Solent University we have static catalogue terminals that
display full records and appear to give access to electronic resources but
the student, on clicking on the link, gets a error page to say that the
opac does not allow them to navigate outside of the opac. This means that
the student then has to go to a full access pc to login, repeat the search
and then access the ejournal or ebook. As you can imagine - this annoys
students who want to go through to an eresource
We offer a catalogue and Metalib quick search interface on the catalogue
screen for full access pcs but only the catalogue on the dedicated opac
terminals. So we are already offering two levels of service.
We are thinking of services such as Primo Central so this might force us
even more to re-evaluate the dedicated locked down opac as it would be
even more anachronistic if we open access to a greater range of resources
and then lock it down at the same time.
I personally would prefer the catalogue to be completely open but IT
require a login so that we know who is searching what and there are also
fears that people will start doing long searches on the opacs with other
students hanging around just wanting to check if a book is in.
So we are thinking at SSU about the future of the dedicated opac - perhaps
this discussion will help us come to a conclusion
I
Margaret Feetham, Deputy University Librarian (Information Services and
Systems), Southampton Solent University
Extn 3220, 023 80 319 220, [log in to unmask]
Follow us on Twitter! http://twitter.com/SolentLibrary
From: Jo Field <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: 22/11/2010 16:52
Subject: The role of catalogue terminals.....
Sent by: "A general Library and Information Science list for news
and discussion." <[log in to unmask]>
Hi all,
Here at the University of Wolverhampton, we are looking at the role that
our static catalogue terminals play in our learning centres.
I hoped to gather some information regarding what other universities are
doing by asking which of the following type of terminals are used at your
institution:
1) Catalogue terminals that reflect physical stock only - electronic
resources are available elsewhere.
2) Static catalogue terminals that display full records but do not allow
access to electronic resources - if so, are there any future plans to
change them?.
3) Catalogue terminals that display full records AND allow access to all
resources, including electronic resources via links.
I would be very grateful and eagerly await your responses on this, as I'm
sure 'best practice' will prevail!!!
Kind regards
Jo Field
Resources Librarian, University of Wolverhampton
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