OPAC stands for online public access catalog. It is your way to find the print resources you need in our library. Take a look at Fred C. Fischer's OPAC (click on catalog when you enter the library's site). You can access most OPAC's on the Internet. That way, you can locate the book you want online, before you make the trip to the building.

The OPAC for the SMS library is under construction and will be available in the fall of 2006. Until this year, our entire book collection (around 6,000) books was catalogued on 3x5 cards in a wooden file called the card catalog. This method of cataloguing was very unreliable and time consuming. Our new OPAC will allow you to find a book much more efficiently and effectively.

You will learn to use the SMS OPAC during a presentation in class.