This essay offers suggestions to make online public access catalogs (OPACs) less idiosyncratic and more usable. Discussion covers qualitative difference between online catalog and predecessors, challenge of debunking assumptions, skills for success, maintaining an instructional perspective, catalog development for the people by the people, and the…

Components of planning, developing, implementing, publicizing, and integrating were incorporated into a model of user education for an online catalog (OPAC) in academic library. Key elements in model's success were initial full-time coordination by project manager and subsequent merger of OPAC user education with existing bibliographic instruction…

Describes how the development of a women's studies component for the Gateway to Information (a front-end interface to Ohio State University's online library catalog and other reference sources) minimized the special challenges facing students conducting research on women and changes the focus of bibliographic instruction. (Author/LRW)

Reviews the online public access catalog (OPAC) literature from 1980 through 1989 to assist librarians in their efforts to examine this growing body of literature. The 35 articles reviewed address the value of OPAC instruction, teaching methods, staffing needs, faculty education, and serving remote users. (Author/CLB)