The Online Library Catalog
Karen Markey · D-Lib Magazine · 2007
Further discussion among those of us responsible for this work item resulted in the understanding that there are three distinct sub-areas to address within it:1. User access vocabulary 2. Links among bibliographic families 3. Staging of access to resources in the interfaceThe author is to prepare a review of the literature on catalog users and use, and, taking into account the state of information system design, make recommendations on how the library and cataloging communities might respond.Here is a more detailed description of these three areas and why they are of interest:User Access Vocabulary: An extensive body of research has documented that the range of vocabulary used by information system users is extremely wide and varied, the most popular terms seldom being used in more than 20 or 30 percent of all searches, with the total number of different terms used among a group of people found to be almost always high.Traditional cross-references seldom equal the number of search terms nor match their informality or range. Key question:Is there a cost-effective way to enable users to get easily from their chosen search term(s) to the richest and most relevant contents of the catalog or database they are searching?Links among Bibliographic Families.Links among related bibliographic items have long been provided, through a variety of means, in cataloging records.However, the