International Journal of Computer science engineering Techniques-– Volume 1 Issue 2, Jan - Feb

2016
RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS
Information Technology Tool in Library Online Public
Access Catalog (OPAC)
P.R. Kolhe, M.H .Tharkar, R.M.Dharaskar,S.D.Desai , S. Joshi
Abstract:
This paper focuses on implementation of OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) using
Internet Search Engine Technology. Libraries see themselves as central information providers for
their clients. Today is the world of Digital Library and the libraries are expanding digitally with
respect to digital content and amount. Internet Search Engine is a tool to Search the Web with
software using keywords chosen by searcher. The base of the search engine is to help a searcher
to isolate relevant information or resources on the Internet.

Introduction: and diversity, this advance search

The library technology world is
changing quickly driven by the fast
alterations in the information technology
sector. Library clients typically need
access to both library holdings and other
subject specific information resources,
e.g., free access publications. They are
usually comfortable using different
search tools, but have difficulties in
identifying and locating the appropriate
resources. As a result of the large
amounts of digital content becoming
available, modern search engines are
now being introduced in digital libraries.
Online users are familiar to Internet
search engines: they expect simplicity,
speed and cross-collection searching.
Given the difficulty and amount of
digital content, advance search
technology is required to provide highly
relevant search capabilities. This search
technology also scales in a cost–efficient
manner and provides proven
methodologies for the operation and
maintenance of these systems. Hence, as
digital libraries grow in content volume
ISSN: 2455-135X http://www.ijcsejournal.org
technology provides a convenient
platform to give users what they expect
with respect to relevance, functionality,
and speed.
Effect of Internet search engines on
digital libraries
Current digital library systems
integrate predominantly online library
catalogs and databases with some full
text repositories. Beyond online catalogs,
databases and e-journals, researchers
started to place their pre-prints or post-
prints on the website. The Library Search
Engine offers common search engine
features, relevance ranking, fast retrieval,
intuitive interface, and stable
performance. Libraries using the new
search index must be able to select only
those data segments that are of relevance
specifically to their local or subject
specific clients. In the era of popular
internet full text search indexes these
engines are focusing mainly on metadata
by giving reference information about
the resource (e.g. a certain server or
database) rather than searching within
the content sources (such as the full text
Page 1
International Journal of Computer science engineering Techniques-– Volume 1 Issue 2, Jan - Feb
2016
itself). Most systems focus solely on the
search of metadata (bibliographic fields,
keywords, abstracts). The cross-search of
full text has only recently been
introduced and is often restricted to a
very limited range of data formats
(primarily "html" and "txt").
Advanced search engine
technology is designed to combine the
scalability of Internet search engines
with new and improved relevance
models. This will include contextual
relevance, allowing searches to be
performed across any type of content and
any type and number of sources.
Libraries already have a wealth of
experience in harvesting information to
build centralized repositories of both
metadata and content. Such
environments are well suited for
exploiting the capabilities of search
engine technology and thus meeting the
challenge. With the use of search
engines, a completely different approach
is necessary. Current search services are
encapsulated and hard-coded within
library management and digital library
systems. This type of monolithic system
architecture is not any longer up to date.
The strengths of the OPACs lie in
the areas relevant for elaborate research
by information professionals, while the
search engines are strong in all areas
related to broadly untrained users.
Accordingly, OPACs offer a wide
number of functions that can be used for
the specific query but also require
advanced knowledge of refinement
techniques and search languages. Search
engines, however, contain only a very
ISSN: 2455-135X http://www.ijcsejournal.org
limited number of functions for a broader
search.
The Web is so prevalent today
that many who use it to search OPAC
while in the library, especially those in
academic libraries, are likely to be users
of the Web outside of the library and will
bring their mental models of Web
searching to OPACs. New users of Web-
based OPACs are likely to have used the
Web and thus them, too, bring that
familiarity with them.
As an increasing number of users
access online library catalogs remotely,
assistance needs to be embedded into
intuitive systems. On-site training and
online documentation can help make it
easier to use OPAC. Users are not
willing to devote much of their time to
learning to use these systems. They just
want to get their search results quickly
and expect the catalog to be easy to use
with little or no time invested in learning
the system. With the advent of
information literacy, the shift in library
instruction from procedure based query
formulation to question-being-answered
has taken place. Web users typically do
not know how a search engine works.
Therefore, fundamental features in the
design of the next generation of the
OPAC interface should include changing
the search to allow natural-language
searching with keyword search first, and
focus on meeting the quick-search need.
Conclusion
The library community needs to
acknowledge the relevance of a new
action plan in order to improve current
search services. The impression is that
many libraries "somehow" see the need
Page 2
International Journal of Computer science engineering Techniques-– Volume 1 Issue 2, Jan - Feb
2016

but it's still unclear for them how to

address the problem. Current pragmatic
approaches to make academic content
available to commercial internet indexes
should be seen only as a first step on the
way to a new service that is driven by the
libraries themselves.
References:
1. Beall, J. (2008). The weaknesses
of full-text searching. The Journal
of Academic Librarianship, 34
(5), 438-444.
2. Broder, A. (2002). A taxonomy of
Web search. SIGIR Forum, 36
(2), 3-10.
3. Buckland, M.K., Norgard, B.A.,
& Plaunt, C. (1993). Filing,
filtering, and the first few found.
4. Information Technology and
Libraries, 12(3), 311-319.

ISSN: 2455-135X http://www.ijcsejournal.org Page 3