An Overview of Future Role of Catalog in Academic Libraries

Abstract

Catalog used to be a one point resource locater in Library in earlier days. Library professionals and users are happy with that practice in the print only era. Due to emergence of Electronic Resources, the role of catalog is also changing. Electronic resources have become reality along with print resources. Accessing electronic resources shows that librarians and users are facing a complex set of challenges. While a number of products have evolved for each aspect of the problem, the question is, how can they all be designed and implemented in such a way that they all work together, providing a clear and seamless interface for library users and avoiding redundant work for library staff? To date, no single product exists that provides comprehensive management of electronic resources. Will portals or federated search solutions be the answer to managing and providing access to resources available from academic libraries as well as other content needed by the academic community? With many, disparate electronic information sources available today, users are challenged with identifying and locating resources that match their needs. This paper explores some of the issues related to future of the catalog.