Trends in Italian opacs seen through the MAI

Abstract

This paper focuses on the recent evolution of Italian online catalogues, analyzed through statistical data from the Italian Azalai Metaopac (Mai), born in 1999 as an evolution of Riccardo Ridi's Italian opac directory <http://www.aib.it/aib/opac/opac1.htm>. Indeed, MAI is based on a database where Italian online catalogues are described, in terms of the kinds and localizations of the covered libraries, their searchable materials, and their interfaces. In the database, an opac is meant as the online catalogue of a defined group of libraries, and includes one or more sections (such as monographs, serials, special funds, etc.), which in turn include one or more interfaces (HTTP, telnet, Z39.50). Besides being the basis for Mai meta-searches, this structure allows to collect annual statistical data, which are an interesting mirror of the situation and the evolution of Italian opacs.
As at December 31, 2005, the database includes 849 opacs, 1068 sections, and 1131 interfaces. This means 89 opacs (12.4%) more than in 2004. This increasing rate has been quite constant in recent years. The opacs of the local poles of Sbn, the union catalogue of the National Library Service, are 41.
Of these opacs, some are not connected to the meta-search service, due to reasons either of technical compatibility or of service convenience (e.g. other national general catalogues, and catalogues only including material already present in other ones, are not connected), though they are still reachable through the opac directory and thus searchable one at a time. Currently there are 248 connected opacs, meaning an increase of 25 (11.4%) in the last year. The increase rate is more than 30% for school libraries, 11.4% for public libraries, and almost 0% for academic libraries. Tuscany (26%) and Lombardy (15%) are the regions which contribute most to the overall number of opacs.
Most opacs (649) have a municipal coverage, i.e. include libraries located in only one municipality, while 93 have a provincial coverage (more than one municipality), 62 have a regional coverage (more than one province), 41 have a national coverage (more than one region), and 13 are outside the national territory. A large majority of interfaces use the HTTP protocol, while some are Z39.50, either directly or through a Web gateway developed by CILEA; opacs using the telnet protocol are constantly disappearing.
The technical staff of CILEA continuously works in order to make Mai compatible with more opac software applications, also cooperating with the local opac staffs. A directory of software products used in Italian opacs was recently published; another directory, gathering links to lists of serials in Italian libraries, has been maintained for many years, though currently this kind of resources tends to disappear.
From the directory of opacs, a number of interfaces are selected to produce metaopacs specialized in single domains, such as architecture, biology, slavistic studies, aerospatial sciences, public administration, or specialized in limited regions and library kinds, such as Lombard university libraries, Lombard public libraries, and school libraries.
Users can access the metaopac choosing from three different interfaces. Log data show that most users prefer the global search, instead of the selective search or the regional search. Such preference for generality affects the traffic of the searched opac servers, which receive requests even for trivial searches that could be performed in a more local scope: this is currently one of the main problems to be faced by the Mai staff.
Besides CILEA computer scientists, the staff is formed by some 30 volunteer librarians, each charged of keeping the data concerning opacs of a given region updated. This editorial work is entirely performed via Web and email; it is an interesting way to be involved in an important collaborative project, especially for young librarians who are familiar with the Internet.
Though born just as a tool to gather access to the hundreds of opacs spreaded in the country, Mai has become a major service for Italian librarians and library users, and is producing valuable experience at one time on the bibliographic, the technological, and the organizational sides.