Subject searching in the OPAC of a special library : problems and issues

Sridhar, M. S. Subject searching in the OPAC of a special library : problems and issues. OCLC Systems & Services, 2004, vol. 20, n. 4, pp. 183-191. [Journal article (Paginated)]

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English abstract

This paper drawing data from a comparative study of use of Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) and card catalogue of ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) library examines the steady decline in use of subject searching by end-users and the associated problems and issues; presents data to highlights negligible use of Boolean operators and combination searches, variations in descriptors assigned to books of the same class numbers, too many records tagged too broad descriptors, etc.; Concludes that moving from traditional card catalogue to modern OPAC has not made subject searching more attractive and effective.

Item type: Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords: online catalogue, information retrieval, user studies, subject searching
Subjects: L. Information technology and library technology > LR. OPAC systems.
Depositing user: Dr. M S Sridhar
Date deposited: 01 Mar 2007
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:06
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/9044

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