Barn-OPACers grafiska gränssnitt
En studie av tre barn-OPACer på webben
Lunds stadsbiblioteks barn-opacGrafiska gränssnittBarnOPACLena lundgrenKia gumbelKids catalog web (denver)Kids catalogue (brisbane)
Already in the late 1970´s it became clear that the traditional catalogs in libraries were not suited for children, neither their interests nor their way expressing themselves were accounted for. The goal of this thesis is to investigate if and how children?s OPACs (Open public access catalogs) interface design is at present adapted to the presumed audience of children. My method consists of literature studies and an investigation on the graphical interfaces in OPACs for children, according to the five criteria formulated by childrens library consultant Lena Lundgren and IT-consultant Kia Gumbel. The aims are to find out: a) what requirements for children?s OPAC interfaces and their usability are defined in literature and b) what the actual (real) features of the children?s OPAC interfaces are. What interests me, regarding the graphical interfaces, is the actual appearance seen by the children, and partly the interactivity supplied by the OPACs. Using the criteria of Lundgren and Gumbel, I analyse figures, the front page, key-words, the text and the quality appearing in the different OPACs. In conclusion, the graphical interfaces of the three OPACs for children are somewhat adapted for children according to the Lundgren/Gumbel criteria. By using for example more user-polls, individualized graphical interfaces and reference groups consisting of children, the graphical interface for OPACs can be modified, and hopefully optimised, to take full account of the varied abilities of children.