The croatian union catalogue of the national and university library in zagreb and the academic and research libraries: Interoperability issues

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to present a model of the union catalogue of the Croatian academic and research libraries in the context of technical, semantic, and organizational interoperability. Approach: The paper problematizes a specific crisis of the traditional library catalogues in the segment of technical and authority data preconditions and gives some new perspectives on the development of union catalogues in the context of digital transformation of modern libraries and interoperability issues in a complex system for distributed information resources sharing. Methodology: A case study method was used to describe problem-solving approaches to the questions of interoperability of the information retrieval and resources sharing in the national union catalogue of the National and University Library in Zagreb and Croatian academic and research libraries. Findings: The paper summarizes and advocates the necessity of introducing a comprehensive approach to interoperability issues, essential for functioning of a complex information system, which would comprise technical, semantic, and process, that is organizational interoperability. Value: The paper can be quite valuable to anyone who deals with information retrieval and resources sharing on theoretical or practical levels, as well as library cooperation.