The future of Penn's online catalog - Penn Printout, Apr 1992

The University of Pennsylvania's Online Computing Magazine

April 1992 - Volume 8:7

Not in our cards: The future of Penn's online catalog

By Bob Walther

Penn Library users will discover three major changes to the Franklin online catalog some time this summer, as a new version of the software is installed. First, and most obvious, will be completely new screen displays; second, a new "call number browsing" feature will be available; and third, the Library's PennData citation databases will be fully integrated into the structure of the Franklin system.

Beyond the card catalog paradigm

In a certain sense the upgrade this summer will complete the move beyond the card catalog paradigm for the Library's automation system. An important step in this move occurred a year and half ago with the introduction of keyword searching with boolean logic. This enhancement allowed users to search practically any word or phrase in a record and to specify the logical relationships of search terms. Thus users gained a kind of access to the bibliographic records in Franklin beyond anything possible using the traditional card catalog.

The new software goes even further, abandoning the current card- catalog-like display altogether. The online catalog was originally conceived simply as an "automated" card catalog, a computerized analog to an existing (and venerable) library tool for locating materials. The current screen displays in Franklin intentionally mimic the "look" of the cards in our card catalog in order to present the computerized information in as familiar a format as possible. However, as online catalog users became more sophisticated, libraries continued to upgrade their systems, adding more powerful search capabilities and more informative displays (adding, for example, information about whether a book is checked out). At the same time, software designers realized that the physical constraints that had dictated the traditional card catalog format need never have applied to computerized displays. And in fact, continued adherence to the card catalog format resulted in screens that were overly compressed and often difficult for patrons to decode.

To display the information in as clear and useful a manner as possible required replacing the current screen displays with two new format options: a "brief" display and a "long" display for each record. The new screens will label each part of a record (the author, the title, the publishing information, the editors, series title, etc.). The brief display is designed to fit on one screen and contains the most essential information for each item: author, title, publisher, library location, and call number. The long display, which will often require multiple screens, contains the complete record, including subject headings and "notes." The new labels will also make Franklin records more useful for those users who want to download them into their own personal bibliographic software programs.

c=the joy of browsing

All of the current search commands in Franklin (a= for author, t= for title, s= for subject headings, sm= for medical subjects, and k= for keyword searches) will work in the new system, but we are adding a sixth search, c=, for browsing by call number. With this new command a user will be able to enter a call number and view a display of the items with adjacent call numbers-that is, those books or periodicals that are "on the shelf next to" the one selected. Users have long known that browsing in the stacks in the vicinity of books that interest them often results in the fortuitous discovery of still other "interesting" books. Browsing, in other words, helps library patrons find what they don't exactly know they're looking for.

There will be a direct and instantaneous links from each entry in the citation databases to the Penn libraries' holdings information.

The call number browsing that will be possible with Franklin has two advantages over physically scanning the shelves. First, Franklin browsing will gather together into a single (call number) sequence all the Penn libraries' collections insofar as they are entered into Franklin (currently about 65 percent of the total and growing). Second, the sequence will contain all items in the database regardless of whether they are then checked out or actually on the shelves. Thus automated browsing by call number will create, so to speak, an endless "virtual library shelf" on the computer screen.

Article citations in Franklin

The new Franklin software has one more important capability: It will allow the Library to load into Franklin itself the journal citation databases now housed in the PennData system. Currently PennData contains Medline, a database of citations to medical literature; ABI/Inform, a business and management database; and PsycInfo, an online version of Psychological Abstracts; as well as a number of smaller, locally produced files. We will soon be able to integrate these databases into the Franklin system (and add new ones). Users will no longer have to access and search one system (PennData) to find citations to journal literature and then exit and re-enter Franklin to find out if the Penn Libraries hold the material. Instead, there will be a direct and instantaneous link from each entry in the citation databases to the Penn libraries' holdings information. Another big advantage will be the uniform user interface this integration will create. There will be a consistent set of search and display commands for both the Library catalog and the citation databases, and all files will be available at every Franklin terminal in the libraries and remotely through PennNet.

All these changes are designed to bring the Library closer to the goal of a "seamless web" of access to information sources-an information infrastructure that will increasingly empower users in support of Penn's mission of research and instruction.

BOB WALTHER is Online Services Coordinator, Reference Department, Van Pelt Library.