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The Use of OPACs ( Online Public Access Catalogues ) in Map Libraries
James Elliot, British Library, Map Library
© LIBER and author
Published from: The LIBER Quarterly 2(1992)1
Introduction: What is an OPAC?
The OPAC or 'Online Public Access Catalogue' is an increasingly familiar piece of equipment in libraries. It consists of a machine-readable catalogue file interrogated online by the user through a vdu (visual display unit) or terminal using what computer specialists are fond of describing as an 'user-friendly interface'. This generally means a set of programs or software designed around a menu displayed on the vdu screen. From this, the user may select from a limited range one of a number of types of catalogue search. These may be: author-; title-; date-; publisher-; subject index terms; or a combination of any of these. The user receives relatively little instruction or support other than that presented to him on the vdu screen. Ideally, the screen instructions are purposely designed to be as simple to follow and self-contained as possible. Such systems offer the advantage to the user of sophisticated information retrieval technology which can process tens of thousands of bibliographic records in a matter of seconds. To the librarian, such systems reduce the necessity encountered in conventional online search services of having to act as an intermediary between the user and a complex system.
OPAC's and the British Library
I do not think that I am stating anything new or controversial when I claim that the automation of library functions so common in the world of book librarianship has penetrated but slowly into map libraries. One reason, of course, is that book librarians, being more numerous and in command of greater resources, have dominated a market for the design and development of such systems, whilst their poorer cartographic colleagues have either had to continue to make do with manual methods or have had to adapt as best they can the systems already developed for their more wealthy book brethren. Here, I wish to outline our plans at the British Library Map Library to provide a publicly-available online catalogue which we have endeavoured to adapt from the developments now under way to provide OPAC's throughout the London reading rooms of the British Library.
One of the fundamental aims of the Library's automation strategy is to improve access to the collections for the reader. Not only is speed considered important in this respect; the old catalogues with their complexity and idiosyncrasies erected a considerable intellectual barrier to the effective retrieval of information. Only the flexibility of online access to as wide a range of data elements as possible can overcome the deficiencies of the 19th Century catalogues and provide the reader with a library system appropriate to the 21st Century. This objective is vital in view of the forthcoming opening of the new St. Pancras building in 1992, and the higher levels of expectation our readers wi1l in consequence have of our services. In order to satisfy this expectation, three interlinked automated systems are being devised:
- An online catalogue with a simple user interface -the OPAC. A prototype system consisting of a menu-driven 'front end' to the Humanities and Social Sciences current catalogue of over 500,000 bibliographic records is already operational in the main reading room. A similar interface has also been developed for use in conjunction with the 11,000 current records on the British Library Cartographic Materials file.
- 2. An automated request system that wi1l route readers requests from the OPAC direct to print stations in the various stores.
- A mechanised book handling system that will transport the requested books direct from the stores to the reading rooms where they are required. It is perhaps worth adding at this point that this system cannot accommodate maps or indeed oversize volumes of any kind. Deliveries of these categories of materials will have to rely on lifts and barrows much as they do at present.
Automated cataloguing in the British Library Map Library
The Map Library, in common with the Library as a whole, uses the BLAISE system as the basis for the automation of its catalogue files. At present, all our post-1974 accessions have been converted to machine-readable form giving a file of about 11,000 records. The extensions to the UKMARC format undertaken to accommodate map records has been described elsewhere (1). It is sufficient to say here that this file is used to generate, on a monthly basis, a set of fiche catalogues in three sequences: one for geographic names, another for interfiled names and titles, and another of subject heading specifically designed to control the considerable collection of books about the various aspects of cartography. On March 28th 1988, this catalogue file was inverted and mounted onto the BLAISE-LINE online system. It is the first publicly available database of cartographic materials in the UK, and is known as the British Library Cartographic Materials file.
Searching the Cartographic Materials online file
BLAISE-LINE is the host to a family of databases generated as the result of the record creation activities of the British Library and related institutions. It employs the powerful ELHILL software, developed initially by the United States National Library of Medicine in the mid-1960s to handle information retrieval of their vast corpus of biomedical journal literature. Consequently, it is possible to retrieve records or groups of records for both subject purposes and for bibliographic control and catalogue checking. Searches may be carried out on the Cartographic Materials file using any one or any combination of the following terms:
- Searches replicating the 'hard copy' catalogue approach:
- Author's name, whether of an individual or of an institution. It is also possible to retrieve on the name of a cartographer, surveyor or engraver where these have been included as part of the record.
- Title words, given that the ful1 title is know.
- British Library Map Library geographic headings, searchable by place as in the old printed catalogue.
- Searches made possible only by the online system:
- Title words, including both GSGS (War Office Geographical Section General Staff) and Standard Series Designation numbers.
- British Library Map Library geographic headings. It is possible using the online searching facilities not only to search on place as above; you can also search on the so-called subject subdivisions of place. For example, all economics maps and atlases or all population maps and atlases can be retrieved irrespective of the area of the world they may cover.
- Hierarchical searching facilities in the form of the area tables from the 19th edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification. This enables us to search, for example, on Africa and all its component parts, or for all maps of Lincolnshire and all towns, districts, rivers, etc., in Lincolnshire.
- Scale can be ranged on - in other words, it is possible to search for all maps of France between the scales of 1:20,000 and 1:50,000.
- Place and country of publication, name of publisher and dates of publication are also searchable. Ranging operations can be carried out on dates in the same manner as on scales. Therefore, someone looking for all maps and atlases published in the Netherlands between 1500 and 1799 could retrieve an instant bibliography on this subject, at least from our post-1974 accessions.
- A number of other search terms, perhaps of less use to readers than to staff are also incorporated - for example, record control number, shelfmark, accession date. The boolean operators OR, AND and AND NOT can be used with the system to combine any number or variety of search terms. Results of searches can be displayed on the screen and/or output to a printer by means of the PRINT command.
Coordinate searching: pitfalls and problems
It will be noted that BLAISE-LINE does not permit the use of searching by geographic coordinates, nor are we in the Map Library attempting to supply coordinates to catalogue records. Whilst we recognise that there is a belief amongst information specialists in the field of cartography that coordinate searching is the answer to the accurate location of geographic information, these continue to pose a frustrating problem in the absence of any agreed standard coordinates for all the world's political and administrative divisions, towns, geographical features and geological formations. Cobb refers to the problems for staff and users of 'guessing' coordinates in the OCLC library system installed at the University of Illinois. Our annual intake of individual sheets maps, in the region of some 40,000 a year, renders it impossible for the limited number of staff at the Map Library to catalogue each one ; similarly, it would just not be possible to supply each sheet with coordinates. Moreover, the survey of map use and user habits confirms what we already suspected : that the majority of our enquiries -perhaps as many as 84%- relate to historical rather than current materials for which the typical reader's request is along the lines of "have you any maps of Paris in about 1789 showing the Bastille"; for purposes such as these, I suspect that both staff and readers would find the provision of geographic coordinates an expensive luxury. The UK Ordnance Survey, used by over 30% of our readers, employs the UK National Grid for sheet referencing, and can at present be exploited adequately by manual means.
Towards public access: full OPAC operation
As mentioned earlier, a prototype OPAC system is already installed in the main Reading Room on an experimental basis using a BBC micro programmed in BBC BASIC. This presents the reader with a simple menu-based system which:
- eliminates the need for logon/logoff procedures;
- can automatically link together the words in a search statement. It is thus possible for a reader to enter a complete title of a 'known item'; the micro eliminates 'stop words' such as 'the', 'for', and 'from' and automatically provides the logic;
- can search on geographical headings, dates and scales;
- relies on coloured keys on the vdu keyboard for specific functions such as HELP and STOP;
- produces a simple display of any records retrieved which, in due course, may be sent via the ABRS (Automatic Book Request System) to the appropriate terminal in the bookstacks.
The 'maps OPAC' so far developed is only a prototype, and further programming will be required to refine the system. In this connection we will need to consider carefully exactly what demands our readers will make on the OPAC, and we will be seeking to involve them actively in the design process. In the confines of the Map Library, where we serve a relatively discrete clientele, this process of gathering 'feedback' should be easier to obtain than in other , larger, departments of the British Library.
A decision will be taken in the near future as to when an OPAC terminal will be sited in the Students room for the purpose of testing readers' reactions. The use of the system will have the additional benefit of fostering familiarity with the concept of using a vdu to access a catalogue.
We hope that a further stimulus to use the system will be provided when the pre-1974 catalogues of the Map Library are converted to machine-readable form in time for our occupancy of the final stage of St. Pancras in 1995-1996. This will provide staff and scholars alike with a major historical research tool with computerised retrieval being possible across the full range of the historical collections.
References
(1) S.J. TYACKE. Computer-based British Library map records. In LIBER Bulletin, 28 (1986),17-21.
(2) David A. COBB. Online bibliographic and circulation systems: the Illinois example. In: INSPEL, 22 (1988), 48-55.
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