Rethinking OPAC and web-mediatedLibrary Services –Placement and Integration,Enrichment and Enhancement,Social Computing and Web 2.0

Abstract

Current research shows that only a minority of undergraduate and graduate students is initially addressing the services offered at their affiliated institutional libraries when searching for information. Instead, 89% of college students begin information searches by consulting a commercial search engine on the open web, with 62% using Google as the most recent choice. This raises concerns throughout librarianship, as webmediated library services are established to provide dedicated audiences with access to owned and offered assets and the high-quality information stored within, and by-passing the provided services places in jeopardy the financial spending and library collections themselves. Therefore revitalizing strategies have to be observed in order to remain relevant to contemporary information customers, and it is advised to rethink the offered services while concentrating on quite more user-centric approaches – in short, focusing on users and uses. Karen Calhoun, librarian for technical services at Cornell University Library, is providing us with several possible options and actions, leading to the three key strategies discussed in this paper.