OWL-Cat: A Web-Based OPAC Appealing End-Users to Exploit Library Resources

Databases have always been the most appropriate tool to catalogue library items, but their most important feature, to instantly retrieve sets of data which satisfy search criteria, has often represented an awkward task to be accomplished, depending on the different kinds of query languages, which vary with hardware and software architecture. WWW browsers and the development of the Internet have offered Information specialists a unique opportunity both to facilitate end-users in the search and retrieval process and to remove barriers which have always separated local from remote resources. At the crossover point between libraries' supply and users' requests, Web-based OPAC's allow not only the location of items which are physically owned by the library, but also access to remote resources (either full-text documents or databases, free and fee-based, or selected links relevant to the library community) and actually display or retrieve them on the desktop of any registered user. Indexing digital resources also means recording type of data which require appropriate database fields such as MARC 856, designed to accommodate URL (Uniform Resource Locator) addresses, as well as others which contain information accessible only to authorized users. This will allow librarians to distribute the appropriate data in a more timely and secure manner than alerting different classes of users on 'bits and pieces' of information at any occurring change (e.g. URL changes, passwords and so on), therefore saving time to implement other specific features.