Academic Libraries as Digital Gateways: Linking Students to the Burgeoning Wealth of Open Online Collections

ABSTRACT

Digital collections of full-text e-books are proliferating on the Web and provide a wealth of open content for students. To examine whether academic libraries are providing a digital gateway to these resources, ten e-book titles from open digital collections were searched in the online catalogs and Web pages of ten academic libraries serving distance learners. Only three of the digital collection e-books were available from any of the library catalogs, and none were found on library Web pages. Availability of the ten e-book titles through Google and other digital discovery tools also had mixed results. Continued projects for improved delivery of open online content are necessary. In order to fulfill their role as digital gateways for their academic communities, libraries must pursue metadata standards to support cross-searching, collaborative projects, and development of e-resource search software, which integrates with the library catalog.     

Results of Using Vendor-Supplied Analog Technology to Create a Virtual Collection: A Case Study

ABSTRACT

Expanded Collection was an analog version of a “virtual” collection that relied on the Document Delivery Department and vendor intervention to obtain materials. Developed to offset budget cuts, it was a list of 205 periodical titles that were cut from the collection but remained listed in the library catalog. Although initially successful, it became difficult to administer. Court interpretations of copyright law caused the Document Delivery Department to rely on standard interlibrary loan procedures and raised ethical questions about Expanded Collection. Improved efficiency in the interlibrary loan process and the increased access to electronic journals made Expanded Collection obsolete.     

VERSO Graphic Interface to Reference Sources: A Project of Quinnipiac University's Arnold Bernhard Library

ABSTRACT

Librarians at the Arnold Bernhard Library of Quinnipiac University were concerned with the usage levels of their electronic reference titles. They added the titles to the library's Web page, made individual records in the online catalog, and even established links between an OPAC keyword search and a search through electronic reference titles. It was still felt that the collection was underutilized. In 2007, the Automation Librarian began a project to add one more level of access to these titles—a graphic interface that simulated the process of walking into a reference room and picking out a title. A preliminary version was loaded in the Fall of 2007, and early results indicate that it has found an audience.     

A Graphic Interface to Online Reference Sources

Librarians at the Arnold Bernhard Library of Quinnipiac University were at a crossroads with electronic reference books. At first they had added the titles to the library's web page, generated records to individual titles in the online catalog, and even established links to their content using the link resolver in the online catalog. It was still felt that the collection was not living up to its potential. In 2007, the automation librarian began a project to add one more level of access to these titles – a graphic interface that simulated the process of walking into a reference room and picking out a title – all of this done with no programming beyond basic HTML. Early usage reports beginning in the Fall of 2007 prove that the concept has found an audience.     

Determining shelving accuracy via sampling in a community college library

Abstract

During the Fall 2017 semester, staff at the Hudson County Community College (HCCC), Library began to notice that many books listed as available in the catalog were often not being found on the shelves when patrons attempted to retrieve them. This situation puzzled library leadership because HCCC had recently conducted an inventory and removed all missing items from its holdings. To determine the cause of this discrepancy, HCCC staff decided to sample the library’s collection to determine if books were available at the expected locations. From this, the library found that a high percentage of its books were not present where they were expected to be. In response, library staff implemented a variety of changes to HCCC’s shelving and access services operations.     

The CIC Electronic Journals Collection Project

Summary

The Committee on Inter-institutional Cooperation (CIC) is an academic consortium of thirteen large research institutions in the midwest with its own regional network, CICNet. The CIC libraries and CICNet are building a managed electronic journal collection out of the content and collection experience of the CICNet E_Serials Archive-a collection of over 800 freely distributed electronic serials. The libraries have developed and endorsed a broad collecting policy for the new collection, the CIC Libraries Electronic Journal Collection (CIC EJC). CIC Librarians are selecting a complete, authoritative and permanent collection of electronic journals to be shared by the CIC libraries. The collection will be actively managed, cataloged and maintained by CIC libraries and CICNet staff. Some titles from the E-Serials Archive are being selected for the EJC, and many new journals are being included as well. Cataiogers from six CIC institutions are creating bibliographic records for each selected title. The records will be entered into OCLC and made available to each CIC library's online catalog. This paper focuses on the specific problems encountered in creating the managed collection: locating all issues of each title, cataloging the collection, providing access and managing the collection as a long-term cooperative resource for all the CIC-libraries, and making it accessible to the scholarly research community at large.     

All Things Being Unequal . . . .

Abstract

The aim of this series is to highlight English language books that recently have been granted awards by major scholarly societies. This installment focuses on disciplines in the natural sciences and engineering/technology. Because award winning books have high core collection potential, selectors may want to give them priority for purchase.     

Rare Polonica in The New York Public Library: Books of the Fifteenth–Eighteenth Centuries: Introduction

The New York Public Library (NYPL) holds one of North America's largest and oldest collections of books pertaining to the Slavic, Baltic, East European and Eurasian languages and peoples. The present catalog describes 514 volumes dating from the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries held by the NYPL. The following categories of material are included: books printed in the Polish‐Lithuanian Commonwealth; books printed outside of the homelands by Polish printers; titles by ethnic Polish authors, regardless of place of imprint or language of publication; works by foreign authors printed in the Polish language, or on subjects connected with Poland and/or the Rzeczpospolita. The catalog includes incunabula and 62 works of the sixteenth century.     

Free Books: Loading Brief MARC Records for Open-Access Books in an Academic Library Catalog

Mbooks are open-access, digitized books freely available on the Internet. This article describes the Auraria Library's experience of loading brief MARC records for Mbooks into its online public access catalog and looks at some of the issues that arose from the record-loading project. Despite the low quality of the records, librarians in Auraria Library thought that loading them into the catalog was advantageous because of the rich content in the collection and because many of the records could be improved using the global update functionality in the catalog. Making the records available through the catalog, as opposed to merely linking to the entire collection from the Library's Web page, was considered to be valuable because of the aggregation a catalog provides and because the Mbooks collection helped fill gaps in the Library's physical collections. As more open-access, digitized books become available, libraries will need to plan and manage how best to provide access to them.     

Applying Library of Congress Demographic Group Characteristics for Creators

Abstract

This research project explores how to ethically, efficiently, and accurately add demographic terms for African American authors to catalog records. A Department of History graduate student located evidence of self-identification as African American for authors, and catalogers added the demographic term to bibliographic records and are in the process of creating work level Name Title Authority Records for titles written by those authors. This work is the beginning of systematically enhancing catalog data with author characteristics to support making such information available in faceted results.     

Retrospective Cataloging of Maps in a Small Liberal Arts College

Abstract

In February 2002, members of Saint Anselm College Geisel Library's Cataloging Unit started a project to retrospectively catalog the Library's small, but diverse, collection of cartographic materials. The Cataloging Unit of Geisel's Technical Services Department is comprised of two full-time catalogers plus one half-time cataloger. The Library's Government Documents Department (Geisel is a selective, 15% depository), where much of these materials are housed, does not have a dedicated cataloging staff. The collection of approximately 950 titles included topographic series maps, topographic/bathymetric maps (367), CIA country study maps (480), remote sensing image maps (20), hanging wall maps (6), globes (3), political ward maps (40), atlases (21), and monographic maps from the late 19th and early 20th centuries (10).

This article describes the planning, requirements and challenges faced by a Baccalaureate College Liberal Arts library performing an inhouse retrospective cataloging project of cartographic materials.     

Cataloging as Cartography

Abstract

This paper, based on a presentation given at a continuing-education conference at Mississippi State University (MSU), explains how to catalog electronic journals. Among the topics discussed are what e-journals should be cataloged, the need for collection development policies, and the fields used by MSU Libraries to catalog their e-journals.     

《出三藏记集》是一部版本目录

僧祐《出三藏记集》著录了20多种佛经版本,考证了古书版本的源流,找出了同书异本中的善本,又鉴定了佛经的伪本。它不仅是现存最早的一部版本目录,也是现存最早的佛经目录,对后世产生了深远影响。参考文献10。     

Truth vs. Authenticity: Dealing with More “Good” Books Going “Bad” and Seeking Opportunities for Catalog Record Enhancement

ABSTRACT

Discusses the challenges and opportunities inherent in enhancing the catalog record for books that have developed documented reputations at odds with earlier certifications of authenticity, credibility, and quality. Librarians, as historically arbiters only of order and access, are reluctant to engage books beyond their organization and their facts. The author features a number of books and authors whose reputations have been recently and rightly sullied and argues that libraries should approach these works with the goal and giving them new contexts for the patron.     

Making the connection between processing and access: do cataloging decisions affect user access?

One function of a call number is to organize the library collection to promote browsability either on the shelf or in an online catalog. This study, based on research done at the Ohio State University Libraries, examines the impact on library collection organization if call numbers are not changed to fit into the shelf list sequence. The browsability of items were tracked by assessing how many screens away titles appear from like items in the online public access catalog, if call numbers by a bibliographic utility were not changed. The study assesses whether not reviewing the call numbers affects patrons’ ability to find the items.     

The Rowing Collection in the Free Library of Philadelphia OPAC

Abstract

An evaluation of the Free Library of Philadelphia's (FLP) rowing collection by the checklist method is reported. A literature review demonstrates that the checklist method has been used for multiple purposes for over a century and a half, but no evaluations of library rowing collections by the checklist or any other method were identified. In this study, an ad hoc70-item list, compiled by a rowing expert, was checked against the FLP's OPAC from a remote location in Indiana. The FLP held 53% of the listed items and no fewer than 40% in any of six topical categories. A keyword search found that the FLP holds over 100 fiction and nonfiction rowing books. An analysis of those titles by publication date shows considerable depth in the FLP collection and a correspondence between its collecting patterns and broader trends in publishing and rowing. It is concluded that the FLP has an in-depth, high quality rowing collection. A number of problems encountered while searching the OPAC are discussed and questions for further research are proposed.     

E-Journal Subscription Management Systems and Beyond

SUMMARY

York University of Pennsylvania, like many libraries, has been grappling with the issue of serials control for titles in aggregator databases. Historically the librarians have adapted the methods they used (word processing lists, lists on Web sites, online catalog, etc.) to provide journal access as technology has advanced. However, as the number of titles has increased beyond the capabilities of the staff, other options needed to be reviewed. In 2001 a task force was set up to evaluate three management systems: Serials Solutions, JournalWebCite, and TDNet. The librarians reviewed the technical requirements, the display and organization, searching capabilities, how often the systems are updated, usage statistics, management reports, cost and other special features.     

CONSER's Aggregator Survey and the Work of the PCC Task Group

ABSTRACT

The author presents the results of the December 1998 CONSER “Survey on Providing Access to Serial Titles within Aggregator Databases.” Major findings include 71% of respondents desiring to see full-text serial titles incorporated into the online catalog and nearly 75% interested in acquiring record sets. Also included are an analysis of the numerous survey comments received, strategies toward creating the necessary records and integrating them into OPACs, examples of aggregator analytic records, and other background information on the work of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging's Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases.¹     

Racism for Sale

Abstract

Publications sold via catalog by the American racist organizations Noontide Press, Sons of Liberty, and National Alliance are studied for subject and media type. Of 1941 titles sold by the groups, only twenty appear in all three catalogs, and 134 titles appear in two of the three catalogs. A majority of materials sell with Jews and Zionism, conspiracy theories, religion, race, and the Second World War, print is the predominant media type. This study points to the existence of a wide body of literature supporting modern racist opinion, and that particular organizations sell those items that support their own specific ideologies.     

Outsourcing Copy Cataloging at Adelphi University Libraries

ABSTRACT

Adelphi University Libraries contracted to outsource copy cataloging and physical processing with Blackwell's Book Services in 1995. Since May 1996, 17,000 shelf-ready titles and over 16,000 catalog records have been received and loaded to our Innovative Interfaces OPAC. Costs, implementation, workflow, and benefits are discussed in this article. The outsourcing program, although hampered by staff shortages in the Libraries, has been highly successful in achieving enhanced cataloging and improved processing at reasonable costs.