Beyond Boolean: Designing the Next Generation of Online Catalogs

THEONLINE CATALOG will never be a finished, perfected product. Nor will the library catalog in its many online manifestations ever achieve the universal, familiar uniformity experienced by users of the twentiethcentury card catalog. These twin realities threaten many librarians, represent a myriad of problems for catalog users, and challenge designers and developers of online catalogs to improve their systems specifically for the untrained occasional user of the library catalog. Some writers view the online catalog as a new form of the library catalog, succeeding the earlier book, card, and COM catalogs. This perspective, although too narrow and unimaginative, has served as a useful point of departure for identifying the unique characteristics of the online catalog. Five years of examination and reflection have led this author to conclude that the online, interactive catalog has the potential to overcome all the major limitations of earlier forms of the library catalog (book, card, and COM). When its unique characteristics are fully understood, it becomes clear that the online catalog is far more than the traditional (read “card”) library catalog executed in a new medium. Stated in somewhat general terms, the online catalog stands apart from earlier catalogs because it is interactive, infinitely expandable, and public. As an interactive system, the online catalog can dynamically communicate with its user; i t can be responsive and informative at a given time to a given need. The online catalog is “fence resistant.” Its form