The Research On The Application Of Open Source Software In OPAC

Globalization of information technology is the most significant characteristics currently.With the rapid development of internet, we have entered the era of Web2.0, internet usersbegan to play the role of disseminating information and creating information instead ofreceiving information purely as before. A new age of user-centered which is interactive,shared as well as open has formed. The emergence of Web2.0brought the libraries withtotally new thinking. OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) is the leading edge of libraryresources and user interaction, the characteristics of Web2.0can be used to arm the OPACsystem, such as search suggestions, category browsing, RSS feeds, search word errorcorrection, etc,in order to fulfill a better experience of searching and much more effectiveinformation of the users.The paper studied of the theory of OPAC systems, investigated and analyzed the OPACsystem of the libraries of the mainstream universities through the domestic network logonmethod and drew the conclusion that OPAC systems of university libraries were purchasedfrom the developer’s system mostly, updated slowly and replacement cost as well as longwaiting period was required, thus the cost is relatively large; at the same time, vendors didn’topen the core code to the library for the copyright issues of software developers, sometimeslibraries could not tailor according to their need for the existing OPAC system. With themature of Web2.0, the spring up of Open Source software broke some barriers of copyright.Open Source software shared a common nature of “information sharing, free access” withlibraries. The characteristics of Open Source software which is free to copy or modify andfree features, set a new direction of the development of library. Based on this consideration inorder to achieve the application of Open Source in the OPAC research, combined with thepopular open-source OPAC system abroad, an analysis on how to adapt to the localization andthe advantages and disadvantages of it in China in the country was made, in order to provide atheoretical reference for promotion of the information service of university libraries...