Toward a Twenty-First Century Library Catalog - Blog #1

To be honest, this article was a snoozer. While the title seemed interesting, the content was yesterday's news. It feels like Academics as well as the "Baby Boomers" think they've caught on to something new once its existed for a few years.

The crux of the article is the idea that library catalogs are still functioning the way they did in the eighties. They are, of course, obsolete. It is overwhelmingly difficult to find exactly what you want. This can be said of academic databases as well. If you're not well versed in "Controlled vocabulary" and "Boolean terms," you're out of luck.

To remedy this problem, NC State Univ. decided to try using a catalog that bases itself on, essentially, popular search engines. It encompasses ratings, like terms, similar searches, and corrects spelling.

I like this idea. I'm actually a bit confused as to why it hasn't been done before.
The conclusion was that integrating the more user-centric approach, as opposed to a rigid librarian based one, was a better option.