Do you remember the good old days, when you would go to a library and spend hours filing through the card catalog in search of your coveted books? I'm finding that less and less people even know what a card catalog is. On one hand it makes me kind of sad and nostalgic. On the other hand, the ease and convenience of searching an online catalog makes me really tingly inside! For those of you who are unfamiliar with libraries (shame on you!), the OPAC is more or less a database that allows users (that's you) to search for library items. Libraries store bibliographic data in a special place, with special codes (most commonly MARC records, if you're interested). This assists the institutions in tracking all sorts of information about any item: the author, ISBN, size of item, subject, publication information, title, etc.
As a library user, you do not need to know all of the data stored in a library's database--this is where OPACs come in handy. They take all of the complex information held in a library record, and translate it into user-friendly, non-librarian language. The OPAC is exactly what it claims to be; an online database that provides public access to library catalogs. Nowadays, if I wanted to look up a book title, I would hop online (either from home or at the library), and simply look it up. I can search by keyword, title, subject, author, whatever strikes my fancy. Voila! The OPAC has guided me to my desired results!
Now these systems are not without their flaws. In today's techno-savvy society, we are conditioned to use various search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Clusty (my personal favorite) and so forth. Oftentimes a person will use his or her own vocabulary to search for items through these search engines--simply type in a keyword or a phrase, and you're off! OPACs do not generally work this easily. Remember, they are reading library-created data from a library-created MARC record. Catalogers use a strict set of vocabulary guidelines when creating MARC records, and this makes it difficult for the average Joe to quickly find information. If you do not enter the predetermined (or controlled) vocabulary, chances are that you won't find the information you need.
OPACs are not all Doom and Gloom...
With the increased use of Internet services, OPACs provide an excellent stepping stone for the transition of how libraries used to operate (i.e. card catalogs) to how the can/will operate in the future! OPACs and society are co-evolving; in a sense, they significantly impact each other. The OPAC had initially been an extension of the card catalog, using standard library procedure to assist individuals in finding their desired items. This worked well in an era during which librarians were the sole providers of information. Now people can easily find and access their own information, without the help of a librarian. They are forcing the OPAC to abandon Library of Congress controlled vocabularies, and adapt new user-friendly search mechanisms (such as tags, tag clouds, and folksonomies). With these new features, OPACs are evolving in such a way that they increase information access for the public. OPAC searches were once frustrating and challenging; they are increasingly becoming more user-friendly. This is another means through which information access is spreading across the world.
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