For an intelligent comparison of the effectiveness of OPACs with that of
Google, I recommend this article (available in full text through EBSCO's
Academic Search Premier as Accession Number 17663772):
Campbell, D. Grant and Karl V. Fast. "Panizzi, Lubetzky, and Google: How the
Modern Web Environment is Reinventing the Theory of Cataloguing." _The
Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science_ (Sep 2004), vol. 28,
no. 3, pgs. 25-38.
The authors observed 16 college students search for information using both
an OPAC and Google, and interviewed each student in depth immediately
afterwards. Based on those observations and interviews, they posed two
questions: "Does the OPAC do justice to cataloguing theory and practice?"
and "Does cataloguing theory have relevance to search engine design?" Their
answers to those questions are clearly written and thought-provoking.
Steve
--
*Steve Casburn*
ILS Coordinator
Multnomah County Library
Phone: 503.988.4549
stevencm_at_multcolib.org
www.multcolib.org <http://www.multcolib.org/>
Received on Wed May 25 2011 - 20:49:13 EDT