We have performed an evaluation of the use of online collective catalogs from university libraries in the information retrieval interface and in the socio-cognitive context of the users. The methodology consisted of the production of an organizational diagnostic study with the application of a questionnaire to the directors of the three libraries at the Universidade Federal de São Carlos and data collection using the verbal protocol technique. The protocol technique was performed on eight undergraduate students from the Chemistry, Biological Sciences and pedagogy courses for the information retrieval via the access points of author, title, subject, among others, in the collective catalog of this university. The results revealed a need to adopt standards for the descriptive and thematic representation of information resources and a single indexing language; the lack of continuous training in the use of the catalog; improving the recall ability and the accuracy of the system; the implementation of tools to facilitate user navigation and interconnectivity between systems. It was concluded that the libraries need to act systematically, prioritizing the development of an indexing policy from an interactionist viewpoint between the medium and the perception of the individuals involved in the modeling of an information retrieval system that is socio-historically and culturally integrated.
University library; Online catalog; Information retrieval