Cover Story: NYU's BobCat.

NEW York (N.Y.); NEW York (State)

This article focuses on the BobCat online public access catalog at the New York University (NYU) Libraries. BobCat was developed in 1984 to NYU specifications by Geac. It is one of the earliest minicomputer-driven online catalogs. Well over 100 public access terminals are located throughout the 15 floors of the Bobst Library, the NYU branch libraries in fine arts, business, law, real estate, and at the libraries of the New School for Social Research, Parsons School of Design, and Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. BobCat serves as a union catalog for the libraries of NYU and the three other consortium members. It features 24-hour access for anyone in the NYU community with a terminal and modem. Currently the system database includes records for 700,000 of 1.5 million eligible titles at NYU and the consortium. BobCat searches can be conducted by author, title, subject, combined author and title, keyword, or any of several numbers including the International Standard Book Numbers, Library of Congress card number, or call number.