The evaluation of New Zealand academic library OPACs: a checklist approach

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the usability features of online public access catalogues (OPACs) in New Zealand academic libraries. It also makes a comparison of how libraries using the same library software are customizing their interfaces to make them useful to their users.

Design/methodology/approach

The interface/usability features of 13 academic library OPACs in New Zealand are analyzed using a usability inspection evaluation method. More specifically, the paper uses a modified checklist based on the checklists of Cherry et al. and Ibrahim.

Findings

Most OPACs in the paper sample receive high scores in the areas of bibliographic display, text, layout, labels, and user assistance. Many new features that are associated with search engines such as word cloud, faceted navigation, the most popular ranking and related items are however, not found in the surveyed OPACs. OPACs built on the Voyager library systems on average, score higher in most feature categories in the checklist. Features found in the OPACs during the evaluation that are not part of the checklist are noted and recommended for inclusion in future evaluation checklists.

Originality/value

Findings from the research will be of interest to not only researchers and practitioners in the field of library and information science in New Zealand, but also in other countries as the sample in this research include OPACs built on library software such as Voyager or Liberty3 that are used in many other countries.

Citation

Dai Luong, T. and Li Liew, C. (2009), "The evaluation of New Zealand academic library OPACs: a checklist approach", The Electronic Library, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 376-393. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470910966844