International Journal of Digital Library Services (IJODLS)
April - June, 2012, Volume-2, Issue-2, ISSN:2250-1142
OPAC AS DOCUMENT RETRIEVAL TOOL: A CASE STUDY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KASHMIR
Uzma Qadri
ABSTRACT
The application of the information and communication technology has changed the entire environment of the library including cataloguing. Today, a number of libraries are providing Online Public Access Cataloguing service to their users to find out their documents and the Allama Iqbal Library, University of Kashmir isn’t an exception. The main purpose of the study is to measure the faculty wise use of OPAC by the P G students of University of Kashmir. To accomplish the purpose of the study, survey method was adopted and questionnaire was used as data collection tool. The questionnaire was distributed among 260 students selecting 10 students from each department in the month of May 2012. However, only 241 students returned the filled questionnaire with response rate of 92.69 %. The results revealed that 60% of the respondents use OPAC to search the library collection whereas 40% don’t use it at all. The students who use OPAC cite many features like time saving; fast response; remote access etc. and the students don’t use OPAC mostly due to awareness problem. This study found that most of the student learn to operate OPAC from themselves followed by friends/colleagues and library staff. The students search the library material mostly through subject, author and title approach. At the end, the fruitful suggestions are provided for greater use of OPAC.
