IRIS OPAC should be viewed mainly as a resource location tool. It has been tested for search accuracy, and the seach interface customised to only allow searches which work correctly over the collective set of catalogues of the IRIS members and the major research databases of COPAC, BL and LC. It cuts down considerably on the amount of time required to locate a particular item, and reduces the need to input the same search into many individual catalogues.
Within individual libraries, the local library OPAC can be tailored very precisely, and mapped back to database indexes, to retrieve information on a variety of fields, with high levels of boolean logic, word truncation, and other variables. In addition, information from other local library management modules, such as circulation and holdings data, may be attached to the MARC catalogue record. This high level retrieval functionality and external record linking is still difficult to achieve within distributed multi-catalogue systems.
In addition, small differences in the underlying cataloguing, local library system indexing, local search engines and support for retrieval functionality such as word and phrase truncation and boolean logic, can collectively make a significant difference in information retrieval on distributed systems offering cross-catalogue searching. This is discussed more fully under the TECH INFO link.
Thus IRIS OPAC works extremely well in terms of pinpointing the location of a resource, but may not have as much record detail, for example, in terms of circulation status, and possibly individual journal holdings issue information, as that of the local library web catalogue.
However development is continuing, both within the Z39.50 Implementor's group, at Z client developer level, by IRIS and other implementors of distributed systems such as the CLUMPS groups in the UK, state level consortia in the US, and distributed National Union Catalogue initiatives such as the Canadian VUC, to eventually enhance the retrieval functionality to the level currently being achieved by local web OPACs.
Gateways to information.....Gateways to information....Gateways to information
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