Thesis (M.A.)(Hons)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1996. / Includes bibliography.

Research shows children in an online environment often search by browsing, which relies heavily on recognition and content knowledge, so catalog systems for children must use effective symbols or pictorial representations, which correspond with children's own cognitive schema and level of recognition knowledge. This study was designed to look at the success of young children (ages 5 to 8) in searching 3 online public library catalogs designed for them, and it focused specifically on the pictorial representations and text descriptors used in the systems' browsing hierarchy. The research sought answer whether young children (ages 5 to 8) are really poor searchers because of cognitive development and lack of technology skills or if system design is the major reason for poor search results; i.e., Do current children's online catalog designs function in a manner that is compatible with information seeking by children? Although these results can not be generalized, this study indicates that there was a disconnect between the cognitive abilities of young users and catalog design. The study looked at search success on the 3 catalogs in relation to the catalog characteristics and individual user characteristics and makes 3 significant contributions to the field of library and information science. The first contribution is the modification of an existing model posed by Cooper and O'Connor and modified by Abbas (2002). The second significant contribution is the proposal of a new model, Creel's second best choice (SBC) model, that addresses the cognitive gap and design flaws that impact the choices participants made. The third significant contribution is that this study addresses and fills a gap in the literature.

The objective of this study was to provide information on the characteristics of a specific group of international college students from a developing country in order to assist system managers in the selection of OPACs.

Library automation is approaching its 90th birthday (deduced from Pace, 2009:1), and many librarians no longer remember the inefficiencies of the manual systems that were previously in place. For some, however, automation has not gone nearly far enough. In this second decade of the new millennium some libraries in Lesotho face multiple challenges in automating their services while libraries internationally are staying relevant by rapidly adapting their services to address the needs and demands of the clients. It was anticipated that full library automation is a prerequisite for delivering 21st-century library services and the researcher embarked on a process to establish whether libraries belonging to the Lesotho Library Consortium (LELICO) have automated to the extent where they will be able to provide the services that are currently in demand. The purpose of this study was to analysewhether full library automation is indeed a prerequisite for libraries to offer the services required in the current millennium. The study focused on LELICO member libraries. Benchmarking was done with selected South African academic libraries. Data were collected by means of interviews with all respondents, namely, LELICO member libraries, librarians from South African libraries and with international system vendors operating from South Africa. The study found that LELICO member libraries are indeed lagging behindin terms of service provision. LELICO member libraries do not appear to understand; which library services are possible when state-of-the-art technology is fully implemented. The study found furthermore that the laggard status is caused by factors such as a lack of funding, too few professional staff and ineffective support from management. These and other findings helped formulate recommendations that would underpin a renewal strategy for LELICO. The proposed recommendations include that LELICO should deliver a more meaningful service to its current members. LELICO member libraries should be using technology more effectively in their operations and good relationship between a system vendor and its clients should be seen as an asset that should be maintained.LELICO should be playing a key role in making change a reality. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)