While the idea of enriching the OPAC sounds great, I find myself thinking that there is only so much that one can do that will reach the middle of the ground user. The new bells and whistles that the Deng article "Beyond the OPAC" suggests range in complexity and use. Not all features will be used or even should be used by all patrons. But so long as a critical mass of patrons use the new advantages made available by a retooling of the OPAC in the ways Deng illustrates, it very well could be worth the man power and time involved to create and maintain such features.
However, it would certainly not be enough to build this amazing new search tool and then simply sit back and wait, like Kevin Costner in a late 80's movie, for them to come. Students, especially in the digital age, desire and expect quick and easy results. They will follow the path of least resistance to gain info that works, not necessarily keep searching for the best info out there. Additionally, Mooers' Law comes into play, in that giving patrons all this access to new forms of information and new ways of getting the info both old and new may be more of a nuisance than not having the info. Especially with long standing researchers, any change, especially drastic ones, means a time of adjustment and perhaps disenchantment with the system.
All of that being said, it is still the best course of action to innovate and push things forward, so long as some of the time and effort being spent is used in utilization study to help craft something that will both be useful and stand the test of time, even in the ever changing world of the internet and information search and retrieval.
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