Kelli Carr 991628323

CIMT 522 Proficiency # 5 Option # 1

November 24, 2012

Carr, CIMT 522 Option #1:

Visit the web sites for two (2) college or university libraries of your choice and locate the section for user guides or how to handouts developed for use of the librarys online public access catalog (OPAC). Compare and contrast the manner in which each library has chosen to provide point of use help for students and other users. Pay particular attention to the emphasis given to author, title, subject and keyword search options. How is Boolean logic as a search tool addressed (if at all). Note the level of detail, organization of content, the use of embedded links within the online help guide. To what extent has the library relied solely on the Help options provided by the OPAC vendor. Finally, note whether or not information is provided regarding who/what entity developed the guide, when it was last updated, etc.

End your essay with an assessment as to which has done the better job of providing assistance to users and why.

When preparing your paper, be sure to follow the formatting guidelines and instructions provided in the Syllabus.

For this assignment I actually looked at three different library catalogs because I wasnt sure if the libraries Help menus were created by a person in the library or the company that created the catalog. So I quickly looked at the University of South Carolina and Coastal Carolina University to do the initial comparison. CCU and USC have the same Help Topic entries, and in doing some digging I have found that both universities are members of PASCALCAT which is Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries. There are only about 8 universities and colleges in South Carolina who are not yet members. PASCAL was created to get books into the hands of students who needed them as efficiently and fairly as possible. This systems allows students who attend a university or college who is a member to use all available library materials and databases across the state. Deliveries of books are usually made within three days. In

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order for the state to be able to do this they had to unify the catalogs they were using in order for patrons to see and use the available resources. With that said, I decided to compare universities from two different states. I chose to compare the University of South Carolina (Columbia) to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. I had to do a little digging to find the Help tab for both universities only because they have Help tabs on just about every page, and I had to click on a few to find the tab just dealing with the OPAC in both cases. Just as I was sure that UNC Chapel Hill did not have a Help tab, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they indeed had a Help tab that included help on every type of search they offered, and in-depth at that. Both universities give examples of a keyword or basic search. The University of North Carolina gives you a definition of what it means to do a keyword search, and then gives you an example. I will have to say that I had to do some digging to find this document. The examples of how to do a search are embedded in a document in the universitys classic catalog. This information is not available when you do a search on their new catalog, and it is not readily accessible. The schools offer wildcard searches, and both give the same explanation for truncation and using question marks in place of a single character within a word. As well, both schools give an example of using both tools. In the University of South Carolina OPAC, words such as of and as are indexed and searchable. There was not indication in the Help document that we are searchable terms in the UNC catalog. What I did find curious is that there was no explanation on either document about what it

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means to truncate a word and how it may affect your search. Perhaps they are intending the examples to be of sufficient explanation for this; or that the user may learn by trial and error, which usually leads to Patron frustration. These can easily be resolved by the Ask a Librarian tool offered by both universities, however. In the option of using Boolean operators, each university has a unique explanation on how to use them. In this case the University of South Carolina seems to have simplified the task and has given specific understandable examples, where as UNC gives search tips as usual, but fails in the examples category in comparison. The University of South Carolina gives examples for using Boolean operators: and/or/and not. The document explains that using Nesting if you are joining using or and you have also included and. The University of North Carolina emphasizes using quotes with Boolean operators and using the Advanced Search tool for a drop down menu of the Proximity or Boolean operators. In the case of Proximity operators, again, the examples given by the USC catalog prevail in terms of ease of understanding. In this document, it goes on to say that using Boolean Operators are sufficient enough in searching the catalog. Finally, because of and as are searchable terms in the USC catalog, the document gives an explanation titled Searching Operators as Words and the importance of using quotation marks for this. I found the USC Help document much more efficient in explaining the use of Boolean Operators. I took a quick peek at the one for Coastal Carolina University, a member of PASCAL, and I can see where USC has put an extra emphasis on Boolean Operators and how to use them, otherwise even the examples are the same; CCU just relies solely on what is given by the creator is my assumption here.
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In comparing both catalogs in the use of Field Limits, the University of North Carolina suggests that the user uses the pull down menu when searching. The limiter is set by using brackets in this catalog per the example given. In the document provided by the University of South Carolina, an explanation is given as to what field limits are and how they are used. Here again, USC offers multiple examples of how to use this feature; the limiters in this catalog are set by using a colon. I am impressed at the amount of information that is given in this document in comparison to the other. When I first printed these documents, I thought that UNC really had their act together in being user friendly, and that USC was going to be subpar. I have found this to be untrue; they have managed to be quite efficient in this minimalist set of directions which I can imagine would be more useful to a student looking for information as quickly as possible. The attention given to searches for author, title, and subject are very explicit on the University of North Carolina documents. The University of South Carolina does not include this on the Help document, however, they offer it on the screen as you are doing the search, whereas, UNC does not. Again, UNC is using a new system, and the instructions that I found were under a tab for the old catalog. In my opinion, a patron is not going to do the digging for searching if their main goal is to get the research finished to meet a deadline. I really like how USC offers the help right on the screen, otherwise, both universities offer a great and similar explanation of each of the searches for these three categories; where they differ is the accessibility of help in using the features. You can also search each of the schools catalogs by Library of Congress Call Number, ISBN, SuDoc Call Number, Dewey Call Number, and Reserves (Course and
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Instructor). The University of North Carolina offers searches in Journals, e-Journals, eBooks, and Series, in addition. Where the two schools differ is in the ease of access to the Help topics for using these search types. I have found that the University of South Carolina has made the catalog user friendly in that the Help can be found on the page while you are using the catalog. Should it be necessary that a patron print out the document (I am not sure that the Digital Natives would agree that this is an efficient use of their time.), they would find it more efficient to cut and paste the Help topics into one document if possible; something that is already provided by the University of North Carolina. I could not find where the University of South Carolina has last updated the catalog search in the Help Center. It looks as if this information is provided by Millennium Web Catalog. The Catalog Search Tips on the University of North Carolinas page was last updated on August 18, 2006; February 24, 2007; and November 29, 2007. The site also provides the name of a person to contact for questions or comments; there is no indication that this person is still the contact.

Sources: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved from http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/opachelp/index.html November 20, 2012. The University of South Carolina at Columbia. Retrieved from http://libcat.csd.sc.edu/ November 20, 2012.
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PROJECT SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

NOTE: The most frequently occurring problem with projects has to do with not following instructions regarding submission. These errors, particularly a few of them, are time consuming for you and for me to troubleshoot. As a result, the following checklist has been developed in an effort to eliminate the problem. Failure to include this checklist with each submitted project or failure to adhere to any submission rule will be costly in my grading of your worka deduction of 10 pts. Each item on the checklist is referenced in the course syllabus, so you might want to check there for further clarification. INSTRUCTIONS: Include this checklist as the last page of all submitted project work

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hsd 8/2011