For example, a citation database could be dumped into individual OPAC's with a Z39.50 interface which includes a display differentiation between serial and analytical titles. Teel also raised the question of whether or not MARC was adequate to deal with this level of access and suggested some possible alternatives such as hypertext mark-up and other enhanced Web tools. Another characteristic of serials described by Teel is that they change over time, and that serials catalogers spend much time updating information. An ideal situation would include a central repository which could automatically update information for each library. The catalogers could then spend more time doing analytics and other locally relevant projects.
Some journals are only available online.
This type of material presents both descriptive and access-related challenges to catalogers. In an ideal world, software would also be centrally updated in a repository which could then update each local system. According to Dickey, there are basically three ways in which indexes assist searchers in overcoming difficulties inherent in art scholarship. One is their selective function in bringing under control a deliberately chosen portion of scholarship, depending on the exact field chosen. A selective device like an index prevents people from being overwhelmed by information at the beginning of their research.