Online User Assistance: A Symposium Available to Purchase

Most second‐generation online catalogs give libraries some capability to customize help messages, screen displays, and system prompts. Microcomputer applications designed or mounted locally may offer even more flexibility. Commercially available information systems offer the user some type of assistance, even when not totally profitable. The librarian has become an active, if not always willing, participant in the design of his or her system's user interface. Knowledge of both patrons and collections can have direct bearing on the structure and effectiveness of the library's automated system, its interface, and online help features.