Awareness and use of OPACs in five Delhi libraries.
Purpose - The objective of this study is to establish the opinion of users with respect to the awareness and utilisation of, as well as their satisfaction level with, the use of the online public access catalogue (OPAC). Design/methodology/approach - The paper deals with the applicability and utilit...
| Publicado en: | Electronic Library Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 111 - 130 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Emerald Publishing Limited
2008
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=105755671&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 105755671 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 02640473 2OJ jtl: Electronic Library issn: 02640473 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2008 vid: 26 iid: 1 pid: 465 pub: Emerald Publishing Limited artinfo: ui: 105755671 105755671 2009943103 10.1108/02640470810851789 105755671 ppf: 111 ppct: 19 formats: tig: atl: Awareness and use of OPACs in five Delhi libraries. aug: au: Ansari MA Amita affil: Lecturer, Department of Library and Information Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India; mehtaba@rediffmail.com sug: subj: Libraries, Academic India Online Public Access Catalogs Utilization Data Analysis Software India Information Retrieval Methods Information Seeking Behavior Integrated Library Systems Questionnaires Summated Rating Scaling Human ab: Purpose - The objective of this study is to establish the opinion of users with respect to the awareness and utilisation of, as well as their satisfaction level with, the use of the online public access catalogue (OPAC). Design/methodology/approach - The paper deals with the applicability and utility of OPACs in five libraries in New Delhi, namely the Indian Institute of Technology; Jawaharlal Nehru University Library; Dr Zakir Husain Library, Jamia Millia Islamia; National Information System for Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR); and the Defence Science Information and Documentation Centre (DESIDOC). A questionnaire was developed and distributed randomly to 128 users including undergraduates and post graduate students as well as MPhil. and PhD scholars. Users returned 115 completed questionnaires of which 100 were selected for analysis. Findings - The paper finds that the OPAC system has changed the traditional concept of access to library resources. It allows simple as well as complex searches. Document access is still one of the most important approaches of users to visit the library, and a study of the effectiveness of an OPAC is useful in this respect. Regarding results, sometimes users face problems of recall and precision. However, in some searches users are not able to find relevant documents on account of various factors. Data show that a high percentage of respondents are utilising the OPAC as a search tool for retrieving documents. Also, most of the users handle the OPAC themselves. Significantly, the satisfaction level of users was high with the OPAC facilities. Nevertheless, not many users are aware of the expert searches provided by OPAC. Originality/value - The paper focuses on many aspects of OPACs, particularly those in India. Librarians, especially those from developing nations, may choose their library automation software packages keeping in view the user's expectation with respect to OPACs. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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