Anecdotal evidence (and probably statistics as well, although they are much the
same thing) at the Bodleian Library in Oxford is that the increasing
availability of the catalogues on-line is one of the factors creating an
explosion in use of the library. People are much more likely to visit a library
if they know what they want is there before they set out, especially in a
closed access library where there is an appreciable wait while books are
fetched from the stack. Also, the catalogue has some of the broadest and most
flexible search tools of any so that with a little lateral thinking you can
greatly extend a literature search and find that you have filled unsuspected
major gaps in your work. I think in the information age visits will, as before,
will depend mainly on what is in the collection and how good the catalogue is.
Peter Northover,
Dept. of Materials, University of Oxford
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