New model for multimedia interfaces to online public access catalogues

The Book House is an interactive, multimedia, online public access catalogue designed to support casual, novice users in information retrieval. It uses icons, text and animation in the display interface in order to enhance the utility of the system. A prerequisite for the design of The Book House was a cognitive analysis of users' information needs and search queries. The paper describes The Book House and discusses its relevance as a solution to the current OPAC developments.