Searching Using an OPAC

Searching an Online Library Catalogue

By Ismael K. Isikel 13/02/2015
Matheson Library
Papua New Guinea University of Technology


Students in academic institutions need to have the skills and knowledge of searching and retrieval of information through online catalogues in order to be successful in learning. The online library catalogue is now used in a number of universities in Papua New Guinea. They are also commonly known as Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) and are usually found in library systems.

Search Options

There are four options of searching: 1. Quick  Search; 2. Advance Search; 3. Visual Search; and 4. Searching from Search Results. Each of these are explained next.

1. Quick  Search

Quick Search allows you to use one search term or phrase at one time. Type in the search term (author, title, or subject) in the prompt slot and right click on the mouse or press <Enter>. A result screen will appear showing the result of your search. The advantage with quick search is it is fast but the result may be minimum.

2. Advance Search

Advance Search allows the user to use more than one search term at one time. There are three prompt slots and requires the searcher to use the Boolean Operators AND, OR and NOT to string together multiple search terms.The procedure is you type a term in each prompt slot and specify the range of search by using whichever is appropriate of AND, OR, and NOT. Right click on the mouse or press <Enter> and a result screen will appear showing the result of your search.

3. Visual Search

Visual Search employs graphics (icons)  indicating subjects that are provided. The procedure is you select Go to Visual Home, select the appropriate icon, left click and it will give another set of icons and subjects which are: 1. Brows the Library; 2.Reading Programs; 3. Animals; 4. Holidays; 5. People, 6. Science, 7. Sports, 8. Stories, 9. Places, 10. Word Processor. Do a left click on the appropriate icon and a further set of icons with subjects will appear. Left click on the icon of your choice and a set of titles will appear.

4. Searching from Search Results

You can do a Search from Search Result by highlighting a term or phrase. A green light will appear on Select Search on a menu on the right of the screen. Left click on  Select Search and a result screen will appear showing further titles related to your highlighted term.

Sorting Search Results

There are 21 different ways to sort a search result. It simply means that the list of titles that appear on the screen can be rearranged in 21 different ways for convenience.These 21 different ways are actually based on the items in a library catalogue card. The twenty-one different ways are:

Title Words
Author Words
Subject Words
Notes Words
Title Index
Author Index
Subject Index
Publisher
Series
Bar Code Number
Call Number
ISBN
LCCN
Location
Format
Fund
Date of Publication
Date Acquired
Full Subjects
Reading Program
Lexile

When your search result appear the menu on the right side of the screen changes from Search, Author, Title, Subject, Reading Level to Previous, Next, Go to, A to Z Sort. Click on A to Z Sort and the above 21 options of sorting will appear. Choose whichever option you want and click on it. For example, if you choose Title Words the catalogue will rearrange the list alphabetically. It usually takes less than a minute for the catalogue to sort. This is particularly helpful when compiling your bibliography or Reference list at the end of your paper.

Web Links

One other feature of the online catalogue is Web Links. This allows you to connect to the internet via a link in a book. This may be helpful if you need further information that is not available locally.

Caution: This guide is based on  a library system known as Athena and therefore, there may be variations between this OPAC guide and other OPACs in other library systems. Variation may appear in terminology or navigation.