The online public access catalog (OPAC), now frequently synonymous with ''
library catalog'', is an
online database An online database is a database accessible from a local network or the Internet, as opposed to one that is stored locally on an individual computer or its attached storage (such as a CD). Online databases are hosted on websites, made available as s ...
of materials held by a
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
or
group of libraries. Online catalogs have largely replaced the analog
card catalog
A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libraries is also c ...
s previously used in libraries.
History
Early online
![Dynix-Main-Menu-via-Telnet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Dynix-Main-Menu-via-Telnet.jpg)
Although a handful of experimental systems existed as early as the 1960s, the first large-scale online catalogs were developed at
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
in 1975 and the
Dallas Public Library
The Dallas Public Library system serves as the municipal library system of the city of Dallas, Texas ( USA).
History
In 1899, the idea to create a free public library in Dallas was conceived by the Dallas Federation of Women's Clubs, led by pr ...
in 1978.
These and other early online catalog systems tended to closely reflect the
card catalog
A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libraries is also c ...
s that they were intended to replace. Using a dedicated
terminal
Terminal may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together
* Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line
* Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...
or
telnet
Telnet is an application protocol used on the Internet or local area network to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communication facility using a virtual terminal connection. User data is interspersed in-band with Telnet control i ...
client, users could search a handful of pre-coordinate indexes and browse the resulting display in much the same way they had previously navigated the card catalog.
Throughout the 1980s, the number and sophistication of online catalogs grew. The first commercial systems appeared, and would by the end of the decade largely replace systems built by libraries themselves. Library catalogs began providing improved search mechanisms, including Boolean and keyword searching, as well as ancillary functions, such as the ability to place holds on items that had been checked-out.
At the same time, libraries began to develop applications to automate the purchase, cataloging, and circulation of books and other library materials. These applications, collectively known as an
integrated library system
An integrated library system (ILS), also known as a library management system (LMS),
is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed.
An ILS usually is co ...
(ILS) or library management system, included an online catalog as the public interface to the system's inventory. Most library catalogs are closely tied to their underlying ILS system.
Stagnation and dissatisfaction
The 1990s saw a relative stagnation in the development of online catalogs. Although the earlier character-based interfaces were replaced with ones for the Web, both the design and the underlying search technology of most systems did not advance much beyond that developed in the late 1980s.
At the same time, organizations outside of libraries began developing more sophisticated information retrieval systems. Web search engines like
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
and popular e-commerce websites such as
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
provided simpler to use (yet more powerful) systems that could provide relevancy ranked search results using probabilistic and vector-based queries.
Prior to the widespread use of the Internet, the online catalog was often the first information retrieval system library users ever encountered. Now accustomed to web search engines, newer generations of library users have grown increasingly dissatisfied with the complex (and often arcane) search mechanisms of older online catalog systems.
This has, in turn, led to vocal criticisms of these systems within the library community itself, and in recent years to the development of newer (often termed 'next-generation') catalogs.
Next-generation catalogs
Newer generations of library catalog systems, typically called
discovery systems (or a
discovery layer A discovery system is a bibliographic search system based on search engine technology. It is part of the concept of Library 2.0 and is intended to supplement or even replace the existing OPAC catalogs. These systems emerged in the late 2000s in r ...
), are distinguished from earlier OPACs by their use of more sophisticated search technologies, including relevancy ranking and
faceted search
Faceted search is a technique that involves augmenting traditional search techniques with a faceted navigation system, allowing users to narrow down search results by applying multiple filters based on faceted classification of the items. It is som ...
, as well as features aimed at greater user interaction and participation with the system, including tagging and reviews. These new features rely heavily on existing
metadata
Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...
which may be poor or inconsistent, particularly for older records.
Newer catalog platforms may be independent of the organization's
integrated library system
An integrated library system (ILS), also known as a library management system (LMS),
is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed.
An ILS usually is co ...
(ILS), instead providing drivers that allow for the synchronization of data between the two systems. While the original online catalog interfaces were almost exclusively built by ILS vendors, libraries have increasingly sought next-generation catalogs built by
enterprise search
Enterprise search is the practice of making content from multiple enterprise-type sources, such as databases and intranets, searchable to a defined audience.
"Enterprise search" is used to describe the software of search information within an ente ...
companies and
open-source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
projects, often led by libraries themselves.
Union catalogs
Although library catalogs typically reflect the holdings of a single library, they can also contain the holdings of a group or
consortium
A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for ...
of libraries. These systems, known as
union catalog
A union catalog is a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of libraries. Union catalogs have been created in a range of media, including book format, microform, cards and more recently, networked electronic databases. Pr ...
s, are usually designed to aid the borrowing of books and other materials among the member institutions via
interlibrary loan
Interlibrary loan (abbreviated ILL, and sometimes called interloan, interlending, document delivery, document supply, or interlibrary services, abbreviated ILS) is a service where patrons of one library can borrow materials and receive photocopies ...
. Examples of this type of catalogs include
COPAC
Copac (originally an acronym of Consortium of Online Public Access Catalogues) was a union catalogue which provided free access to the merged online catalogues of many major research libraries and specialist libraries in the United Kingdom and Ire ...
,
SUNCAT
The Serials Union Catalogue, or SUNCAT, was a freely available source of information about serials holdings in the United Kingdom, for the UK research community.
For both electronic and print serials, including academic journals, periodicals, ne ...
,
NLA Trove
Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text document ...
, and
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...
—the latter catalogs the collections of libraries worldwide.
Related systems
There are a number of systems that share much in common with library catalogs, but have traditionally been distinguished from them. Libraries utilize these systems to search for items not traditionally covered by a library catalog, although these systems are sometimes integrated into a more comprehensive
discovery system.
Bibliographic database
A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic records, an organized digital collection of references to published literature, including journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publications, p ...
s—such as
Medline
MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, or MEDLARS Online) is a bibliographic database of life sciences and biomedical information. It includes bibliographic information for articles from academic journals covering medic ...
,
ERIC
The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization).
The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...
,
PsycINFO
PsycINFO is a database of abstracts of literature in the field of psychology. It is produced by the American Psychological Association and distributed on the association's APA PsycNET and through third-party vendors. It is the electronic versio ...
, and many others—index journal articles and other research data.
There are also a number of applications aimed at managing documents, photographs, and other digitized or
born-digital
The term born-digital refers to materials that originate in a digital form.NDIIPP"Preserving Digital Culture,"Library of Congress. This is in contrast to digital reformatting, through which analog materials become digital, as in the case of file ...
items such as
Digital Commons
Digital Commons is a commercial, hosted institutional repository platform owned by RELX Group. This hosted service, licensed by bepress, is used by over 500 academic institutions, healthcare centers, public libraries, and research centers to show ...
and
DSpace
DSpace is an open source repository software package typically used for creating open access repositories for scholarly and/or published digital content. While DSpace shares some feature overlap with content management systems and document manag ...
. Particularly in academic libraries, these systems (often known as
digital library
A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital me ...
systems or
institutional repository
An institutional repository is an archive for collecting, preserving, and disseminating digital copies of the intellectual output of an institution, particularly a research institution. Academics also utilize their IRs for archiving published work ...
systems) assist with efforts to preserve documents created by faculty and students.
Electronic resource management Electronic resource management (ERM) is the practices and techniques used by librarians and library staff to track the selection, acquisition, licensing, access, maintenance, usage, evaluation, retention, and de-selection of a library's electronic i ...
helps librarians to track selection, acquisition, and licensing of a library's electronic information resources.
See also
*
International Cataloguing Principles
The (Statement of) International Cataloguing Principles (ICP) define(s) the foundation for the creation of bibliographical cataloging rules for libraries. The ICPs are an initiative of the International Federation of Library Associations and Ins ...
(ICP)
References
{{Authority control
Information science
Library science
Library automation
Library cataloging and classification
Online databases