[Web4lib] How to label the OPAC (was: Role of the OPAC)

[bernhard Eversberg]

K.G. Schneider wrote:
> 
> Bingo. Many users will only encounter us through the Web--that has to be the
> primary assumption going in. And how many potential users do we
> lose--reasonably intelligent people who are making every effort to apply
> what they know to our websites--because they look, they apply knowledge,
> then they conclude we don't offer what we need? They aren't "dumb," and it's
> not dumbing anything down to design the system around their task knowledge. 
> 
Well, wouldn't that argument hold for *every* Web service, not just for 
ours? What, then, is the core "task knowledge" we can safely assume 
every user to possess? This gets us nowhere, I'm afraid.
I'm amazed that one should even *consider*  avoiding a term like 
"catalog" which is at the very core of library services and without 
which no library can function. Are we telling users, "You dont't have to 
learn *anything* here, its all easy as pie", or what? They'll find out 
soon enough it isn't true. I'm not saying we should be proud of 
catalogs, but they are nothing to be ashamed of either.

On one of our earlier designs, we had
    "Catalog (Find and borrow books)"
(and the parenth in smaller script). There were no complaints with this 
or our present design saying just "Catalogue":
    http://www.biblio.tu-bs.de/english/
or in German, "Der Katalog". Just adding the article, "The Catalog", and 
placing this link prominently  might emphasize that this is something 
not to be ignored if in fact it doesn't ring a bell for someone.

Bernhard Eversberg
Universitätsbibliothek Braunschweig