Content area
Full Text
The introduction of an OPAC (online public access catalogue) into the libraries of Liverpool Polytechnic (now Liverpool John Moores University), in January 1992, meant that there were three forms of library catalogue available to users of the John Moores University libraries and Liverpool City Libraries -- sheaf, microfiche and computer. The two catalogues available before January 1992 were limited in the searches which they allowed, and were also time-consuming. The OPAC offers many ways to search for information and is also much quicker.
This investigation had the following three aims, which were all concerned with user reactions to the different forms of catalogue. They sought to discover:
(1) whether library catalogue users at Liverpool John Moores University feel that the introduction of the OPAC has had a beneficial effect;
(2) whether the OPAC has changed the way users search the catalogue; and
(3) whether users at Liverpool John Moores University prefer a sheaf, microfiche or computerized library catalogue.
From these aims, the following hypothesis was developed: The staff and students at Liverpool John Moores University feel that they have benefited from the introduction of an OPAC and prefer the system to the old microfiche catalogue and the sheaf catalogue in Liverpool City Libraries.
METHODOLOGY
Interviews were held with 52 people -- 45 undergraduate students, two postgraduate students and five lecturers (see Figure 1).
Most of the interviewees were young people who had probably experienced computers, though not necessarily OPACs, and this could have affected their preference of catalogue.
Because of the limited time available, the interviews all took place in one site of the university library, meaning that the interviewees were not a representative sample. They did, however, represent 26 courses -although many courses were only represented by one or two interviewees which, again, is not a representative sample. The five lecturers who were interviewed represent only two courses -- Information and Library Studies and Health Science -- and the two postgraduate students represent Sports and Science and Economics. (Table I gives details of the courses, and the number of interviewees who were associated with each course.)
FINDINGS
USE OF CATALOGUES
Almost half of the 52 interviewees had used all three forms of catalogue available...