I agree that we are going about this all wrong.
For me, the fundamental issues with why too many of our users bypass the
OPAC have little to do with the OPAC's search inferface. To adapt an
overused phrase, it's the content, stupid. Our users see the OPAC a place to
search for known items to which they have been referred. They do not go to
it to answer a quick reference question--they don't want to read a book and
(generally) don't have the skills to use online indexes to find quick
answers to specific questions and then navigate from indexes to the full
text of online journals. They use the library (if at all) for more in-depth
research when they don't find what they need online.
Google is the search engine of choice for preliminary research because of
the (incorrect) notion that it covers everything. Library catalogs are
perceived as covering books, periodicals, and government documents.
Academic publishing often omits the kind of information that users
want--information from vendors websites, opinion pieces that are easier to
find on the internet, comparisons of products, etc.
I certainly do believe that it's important to improve the interface to
library OPAC's and indexes. But the fundamental issue is to have the
library's collections and discovery tools provide access to the content that
users want.
Bruce Abbott
Science Assessment Librarian
UGA Libraries
Science Collections and Facilities
Athens, GA 30602-7412
babbot_at_uga.edu
706-542-6641
Received on Tue Jun 13 2006 - 09:44:11 EDT