Interviewee: Ms.

Linda Malinis (Head Librarian, NKTI)

Subject: The OPAC, DB, and DBMS software suite used by NKTI

For their database and OPAC, they use a software suite called The InMagic DB/Text Library suite.
The following are the conclusions derived from past usage experience of the two members of our team
and from observations made during the interview.

1. Interface is not user-friendly nor intuitive. This leads to users (the head librarian and any
cataloguer/s) eschewing the system altogether.
a. This is as evidenced by Ms. Malinis’ responses, saying she nor any patron uses the OPAC
provided by the software suite.
b. Also evidenced by aforementioned past usage experience
i. No separate interface for cataloguing functions and searching functions (unlike,
for example, the UPD Web OPAC which has separate modules for cataloguing
and searching)
2. The database management system is flawed and/or unsuited for the library as it currently
stands:
a. The database is unresponsive for unknown reasons
i. As evidenced by our members’ past experience of having to use the save
function twice just so the changes would actually reflect and save in the
database
b. Since the interface is unintuitive, human error occurs often. This in turn causes errors in
the database. The DBMS does not have corrective actions in case such errors occur,
resulting in the users having to correct the errors manually.
c. The DBMS does not support their in-house accessioning use of the barcode system.

While the software suite is the primary subject in this research, it is imperative to include the
following observations regarding the management and the user/s:

1. It is very apparent that the end-users were not consulted in the selection of the software to
be used.
2. The primary user (being the head librarian) claims that they had been trained to use the
software. However, no effort is seen to actually try and use the said software.
a. This is as evidenced by Ms. Malinis’ response of “not having used the software at all
in recent memory”.
3. Neither the organization nor the primary user had ever considered the dysfunctional system
to be an issue, leading to this state of their system.