Enhancing library services with web 2.0 functionalities

Abstract

In this paper, a prototype of an Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) is presented. This new OPAC features new functionalities and utilizes web 2.0 technologies in order to deliver improved search and retrieval services. Some of these new services include social tag annotations, user opinions and ranks and tag-based similarity searches. The prototype is evaluated by a user group through questionnaires, interviews and with the system's integrated logging mechanism. The results are encouraging enough and show that Library 2.0 technologies seem to be acceptable by the majority of the users.