Considers some of the major technical and organizational issues involved in virtual-catalog production, contrasting them with the traditional union catalog approach exemplified by COPAC, an online public-access catalog composed of academic libraries in the United Kingdom. Suggest a method of integrating these two models of the union catalog.…

The Institute of Library Research converted to machine-readable form over one million catalog cards representing about 750,000 Roman-language titles catalogued by the University of California (UC) libraries from 1963 to 1967. From this data base they printed the UC Union Catalog Supplement (UCUCS-1). From 1968 to 1972, an additional set of card…

Modern academic libraries have a great number of information resources available online in the form of electronic catalogs, books, journals, and subject subscription databases. To determine whether users can easily retrieve the information they are seeking, academic librarians conduct usability testing of their libraries' Web sites. There has been…

Discusses the need to reevaluate bibliographic instruction in academic libraries for an expanded online environment based on experiences at Moorhead State University (Minnesota). Topics addressed include the addition of databases to local online catalogs; student searching; search patterns; database characteristics; student search skills; library…

This report on the Automated Library Information Control System (ALIS) of the National Technological Library of Denmark focuses on the circulation control functions of the integrated, distributed processing system, which also functions as an online catalog for a bibliographic database of approximately 120,000 records with library location codes.…

This is a general descriptive and comparative report on alternative forms of library catalogs. The specific problems and factors associated with library catalogs are introduced briefly and then treated with respect to the following physical forms: card catalogs, book catalogs, microforms, and on-line catalogs. Whenever possible, examples of…

Considers the increase in the variety of electronic reference options in academic libraries based on surveys of ARL (Association of Research Libraries) members. Discusses online catalogs; CD-ROM databases; World Wide Web access; and changes in library instruction, including formal instruction, point-of-use instruction, and Internet instruction.…

Provides an overview of research conducted at Victoria University of Wellington regarding differing perceptions and expectations of user communities and librarians related to the usability of digital services. Considers access to services, currency of information on the Web site, the online public access catalog, databases, electronic journals,…

An experiment in manipulating machine-readable library records for use in subject searching indicated that such programs would be useful to extend service outside a single library location. (Author/PF)

In this research project, subject terms from the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) Schedules and Relative Index were incorporated into an online catalog as searcher's tools for subject access, browsing, and display. Four features of the DDC were employed to help searchers browse for and match their own subject terms with the online catalog's…

This review of the research on subject access to library collections focuses on the problems of and prospects for improved online subject access to library collections. Summaries of the general findings of studies on library catalog use and catalog users and some reasons for the frequent failure of subject searches in library catalogs are followed…

Research programs of the University of California (UC) Institute of Library Research (ILR) for the period July 1975 to June 1976 included: (1) error analysis of the UC Union Catalog Supplement (UCUCS), (2) error analysis of on-line bibliographic data bases, (3) planning data for UCUCS-2 conversion planning, and (4) document delivery support for…

This study investigated the use patterns of four CD-ROM systems--Newsbank Electronic Index, SilverPlatter's ERIC and PsycLIT, and Dissertation Abstracts Ondisc--and their print index counterparts in the University of Georgia (UGA) Main Library, which houses collections and provides library services for the humanities, the social sciences, and…

A cost-benefit analysis of the 43-library, 260,000-title Midwest Medical Union Catalog (MMUC) of books, conducted from June, 1973, through May, 1975, under a grant from the National Library of Medicine, studied the 49-year-old catalog in the context of the interlibrary loan activity of the Midwest Health Science Library Network. The study tested…

Discusses transition of the small library into twenty-first century, highlighting evaluation of collection development plans and procedures, examination of catalog in terms of collection control, building of machine databases for future online catalogs to improve access to collections, and involvement in research to improve bibliographic control…