Week 13 OPAC

Well, I interviewed myself about the OPAC at my school. Basically I have already ranted and raved about how much I loathe my automated library system but there is always room for more of that!
One of the biggest problems with my OPAC is the fact that it is not kid or user friendly at all. Part of the issue is the system that was chosen is not meant for a school library. Softlink has specific systems that are for schools but ALICE is not one of them. The system was in place when I started in the district 6 years ago.
ALICE OPAC is very difficult for middle school kids to navigate as it doesn't distinguish between title, author, subject, keyword but just lumps them all together in one long tedious list. The kids then have to read through this never ending list to find what they are looking for. Needless to say, some kids have a really hard time with it.
The screen is also small without many colors or icons. Many of the kids do use it but I think it would be used by everyone if it were easier to navigate.
There are a few cataloging issues that create other issues with the OPAC. For every entry into the catalog there is an entry line in OPAC which means that if there are 4 different records for one title, 4 different titles will show in the list. This could mean that the kids are going back and forth between the list and the next 2 screens before they find the title they need!
The OPAC itself has 3 screens before you can find out if the book is available! Because the company is from Australia, some of the terminology is different. Instead of saying the the items are on loan/not available it will say Available 0 of 2. This is confusing for the lower middle school grades.
The record is 3 screens in from the "list" of items which also means that students might not know for a few screens that the item they are looking at is a DVD (not accessible to students) and not a book.
Another issue with OPAC is that this particular one does not have links to other items, does not have a "bookbag" option to save and print out later and has no capabilities for self checkout (or at least to let students check their account to see what is due when).
I think that an OPAC in a middle school must be kid friendly!
OPAC must help the students locate the items!
OPAC must help students become independent users of the library.
OPAC needs to have an option to choose which type of search is being conducted (title, author, keyword, subject).
OPAC needs an option to save searches or items into a bookbag for a bibiliography of sources.
OPAC needs to contain an option for cataloging websites to allow students access to other online sources.
Without these criteria, students may become very frustrated by the tool and prefer not to use OPAC.
As one of my goals is to prepare students to use an OPAC in any library it would be beneficial to have an OPAC with these capabilities.