Use of OPAC by the Users of First Grade Colleges Affiliated to the University of Mysore, Karnataka

The present paper provides the use of OPAC (Online Public Access catalogue) by users of first grade colleges affiliated to the University of Mysore. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary inputs from users of college libraries to understand the present status. Out of the 160 colleges total of 29 college libraries satisfied this criterion. Stratified random sampling was adopted for the data collected from four districts, Mysuru, Mandya, Chamrajnagara and Hassan, coming under the jurisdiction of the University of Mysore A total of 1200 questionnaires were distributed among the  Students, Research Scholars and Faculty members of First Grade Colleges affiliated to the University of Mysore, Mysore, Of which 994  filled-up questionnaires were received back consisting of  82.83% responses. The study's findings reveal that 738 (81.54%) respondents access  OPAC from the stand-alone system, 867 (95.80%)  search OPAC by ‘Author’, followed by 770 (85.08%) by ‘Title’,   It is suggested that the librarians have to provide through the orientation programs to familiarize new members with the library resources and services. The use of OPAC, retrieving and reserving documents, including Boolean search, should be imparted to users during orientation programs and the libraries must create e-resources portals to facilitate access to various information resources and surrogates.