GPO Cataloging Records in the Online Catalog:

Reference staff at many libraries are facing a sudden and dramatic change in the size and composition of their library's online catalog as a result of loading large files of Government Printing Office (GPO) retrospective cataloging records. While these records provide a much-needed increase in access to federal documents, they have special characteristics which make them difficult to work with. This article is intended to provide reference librarians with the basic "GPO cataloging record literacy" they need to deal successfully with the load of these records into an online catalog, and also to explore some of the specific implications of such a load for reference service.     

Link It or Lump It

Abstract

Mounting digital images of art objects on a Web site is only the first step in providing patron access to such materials. Libraries and museums have a responsibility to provide not only high-quality digital reproductions but also high-quality access from an integrated library catalog with controlled vocabulary and consistent access points. While some digital collections may have excellent internal searchability and require no more than collection level cataloging in a library's OPAC, others may demand cataloging of individual components of the collection. A particular collection's significance, its potential audience, the types of access required, as well as factors such as its size and cohesiveness need to be considered before becoming locked into a specific Web designespecially when it is that of another institution.

This paper examines several online library catalogs in which records for art objects as well as historical objects and natural history specimens have been merged, with varying degrees of success, and briefly addresses a modest proposal to catalog ceramic objects at the Ohio State University Libraries. The importance of consistent subject access in a merged catalog, regardless of the thesaurus or thesauri used, is stressed. Library consortia and bibliographic utilities may offer an economically appealing alternative for libraries that cannot design and construct their own digital libraries but these external organizations often have limited capability for-or interest in-modifying the design for a particular library and even less interest in cataloging the collections. Libraries, too, must be faulted for simply listing available electronic resources, either alphabetically or in broad subject categories, on a separate portion of their Web page and failing to provide full catalog records in their catalog. Finally, it is emphasized that the current debate over the viability of MARC 21 versus other metadata standards remains largely irrelevant to the importance of continuing to cultivate a monolithic online catalog, maintaining cataloging standards, and not mindlessly developing what amounts to a separate, rudimentary catalog solely for electronic resources.     

PART V: ALTERNATIVES TO CURRENT ACCESS MODELS IN RESEARCH LIBRARIES

Abstract

With the transformation of the card catalog into the online public access catalog came the expectation of its increased functionality. For the most part, today's online catalogs perform an expanded list of tasks quite effectively. Bibliographic utilities, system vendors, and individual libraries continue to improve bibliographic retrieval by providing new and better services through the catalog. In spite of these improvements, many observers believe that online catalogs have reached their maturity. Today's information environment includes a wealth of material to which online catalogs cannot provide universal and up-to-date access. Increasingly, librarians are turning to federated searching portal applications to find a means of managing the flood of digital information that threatens to engulf users. This chapter describes essential functionality of such tools, suggesting directions and strategies for improving them. The author concludes that, while the online catalog will continue to function as the principal tool for access control of the library's physical collections, the federated searching portal will ultimately serve as the library's principal Web gateway to digital resources.     

Choosing Discovery: A Literature Review on the Selection and Evaluation of Discovery Layers

Within the next few years, traditional online public access catalogs will be replaced by more robust and interconnected discovery layers that can serve as primary public interfaces to simultaneously search many separate collections of resources. Librarians have envisioned this type of discovery tool since the 1980s, and research shows that discovery layer functionality and features have already resolved, or will soon remedy, many of the known issues with the traditional online public access catalog. The authors of this article review the literature on discovery, focusing on the evolution from the traditional online public access catalog to newer discovery interfaces, and summarize what has been published regarding the selection and evaluation of these new tools. Based on this review, emerging trends in the acquisition of discovery layers are described, including: the amount of time libraries devote to selection and evaluation, the staff involved and their areas of expertise, which discovery tools were selected to review, the evaluation methods used, and the features and functionality evaluated. The authors conclude with a discussion of the opportunities and concerns for libraries and their patrons related to discovery efforts, and provide direction for future research. While discovery layers are still developing, they show great promise in increasing the use and usability of library resources.     

Federal documents in the online catalog: Problems,options, and the future

The Government Printing Office Cataloging Tapes appear at first glance to be a cost-effective and efficient method for adding bibliographic records for U.S. documents to an online catalog. However, errors and inconsistencies in these tapes compounded by the lack of documentation make it virtually impossible to load them directly into an online catalog. Currently the only options available for libraries wishing to make use of these tapes are: to purchase them from a commercial cataloging service, to catalog documents one at a time using a bibliographic utility, or to contract with a commercial data base vendor which offers access to the GPO Cataloging Tapes.     

Regional Online Union Catalog of the Greater Midwest Regional Medical Library Network: development and operation

The GMRMLN Online Catalog was developed as an easily accessible locator tool for monographs and audiovisuals held within the Greater Midwest Regional Medical Library Network. The catalog was generated from machine-readable records in MARC formats contributed by regional libraries. It was mounted by BRS as a private database and is fully free text searchable using BRS search. Each institutional file was merged and purged of duplicates to create a single entry for each title. The catalog features an online interlibrary loan system that automatically routes a request to the two nearest, smallest libraries that own the title. If the request is not filled within the region, the system automatically routes it to the National Library of Medicine without the need to rekeyboard data. The system collects management data on interlibrary loan processing. Funding for the catalog permitted a trial period of use with cost support. Data on system operation were gathered during this demonstration.     

Searching and Browsing the Dewey Decimal Classification in an Online Catalog

In the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) Online Project, subject searching and browsing of DDC Schedules and Relative Index were featured in an experimental online catalog. The effectiveness of this DDC in an online catalog was tested in online retrieval experiments at four participating libraries. These experiments provided data for analyses of subject searchers' use of a library classification in the information retrieval environment of an online catalog. Recommendations were provided for the enhancement of bibliographic records, online catalogs, and online cataloging systems with a library classification. In this paper, subject searchers' use of the subject outline search capability of the experimental online catalog is described. This capability was unique to the experimental online catalog and all other online catalogs, because it referred searchers to online displays of the classification schedules based on their entry of subject terms. Failure analyses of subject outline searches demonstrated its specific strengths and weaknesses. Users' postsearch interview comments highlighted their experiences and their satisfaction with this search. Based on the failure analyses and users' interview comments, recommendations are provided for the improvement of the subject outline search in online catalogs.     

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.     

The Relationship of Metadata to Item Circulation

This study analyzes the relationship between online public access catalog (OPAC) searches entered in a small academic library's catalog and the circulation of items during the same time period. Rather than identifying all searches resulting in a reasonable number of retrievals as successful, searches in this study were determined most useful if items on the results list were subsequently borrowed from the library. This comparison of search results with subsequent material checkouts indicates which metadata elements seem most useful to searchers, and suggests ways libraries might use this knowledge to enhance their users’ search experiences.     

Dinosaurs in a Jetson world: A dozen ways to revitalize your microforms collection

Microforms collections are at a crossroads and how effective libraries are in increasing the visibility and usability of these collections will determine whether they endure. In the last decade many libraries have made significant changes in how they process, catalog, and provide access to their traditional book and journal collections, even in how they view their library's physical spaces and the role of library services in providing support for their collections. This article will suggest changes libraries will need to make if they expect to mainstream the most useful and valuable parts of their microforms collections by applying some of the same innovative and change-oriented approaches they have used in other areas of their libraries.     

Student workers wave goodbye to the government documents default list

Many libraries with federal depository collections have relied on loading large files of MARC records to add catalog records into their online systems. The addition of tens of thousands of MARC records created a catalog maintenance problem for the Sterling C. Evans Library of Texas A&M University. This paper discusses the use of student workers to clean the catalog of these problem records, describing lessons learned and procedures developed.     

Cataloging and Archiving State Government Publications

The academic libraries in Alabama have been hampered in their ability to provide government information to researchers by the lack of a functioning state depository system. Digital publishing can make timely distribution and widespread accessibility of state government information possible if these online documents can be captured and archived before they are removed from agency Web sites. This article describes a year-long project to capture, archive, and catalog government publications by a catalog unit.     

The OCLC online union catalog: An incomparable library resource

Furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs are the major goals of Online Computer Library Center, (OCLC) a nonprofit library computer service and research organization based in Dublin, Ohio. OCLC pioneered the computer revolution in libraries in 1971 when it introduced a computer system that enabled libraries to catalog books and order custom-printed catalog cards rapidly and efficiently. Today, OCLC provides a spectrum of services for libraries and their users. OCLC systems in cataloging, interlibrary loan, document delivery, reference, and electronic publishing provide an integrated approach to navigating the sea of knowledge for libraries and their users.     

Accessing Locally Created Subject Guides via the Library's Catalog

Abstract

For decades libraries have created subject guides to assist users in navigating their collections. These guides are universally accepted as a core library product of high value across all user groups. No longer confined to paper stashed in kiosks and on counter tops, subject guides are now available online from library Web sites and often emphasize and link to other Web resources. Typically, a link on the library's home page directs users to a Subject Guide List which offers active links to the topical guides. But are these links and listings sufficient to attract users? This article describes the results of a study to catalog selected subject guides on U.S. and British History and analyze usage statistics before and after cataloging. It appears that the library catalog is effective at exposing subject guides and should be considered an additional point of access amidst a growing number of discovery mechanisms.     

Cataloging Digitized Continuing Resources in a Shared Record Environment

ABSTRACT

Cataloging digitized continuing resources is a challenging task for many libraries because of their complex cataloging rules and characteristics of format. As libraries provide their digitized content and catalog records in shared environments, like HathiTrust, and use them as an access point, libraries also have to work with holdings and item records created by each contributing institution's local practice. This article discusses common challenges imposed on libraries when creating and providing access to digitized continuing resources available in a shared environment, stresses the importance of having shareable holdings and items records, and suggests possible ways to work with those challenges.     

RLIN Research Access Project:

The increasing availability of computerized information sources and networking capabilities, along with the proliferation of microcomputers in faculty homes and offices, has led to increased demands for direct access to databases. The librarian's role as online search intermediary appears to be changing from performing searches directly to aiding users in doing their own searching. The Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN), one of the major cataloging utilities, offers a wealth of bibliographic information in both its online union catalog, and its many specialized files. The University at Albany Libraries participated in a pilot project involving faculty end-user access to RLIN. This paper reports on the Libraries' experience with the pilot project and the continuing end-user access program for faculty. Despite some reservations about the relative user-friendliness of the RLIN search system, the author enthusiastcally endorses the use of RLIN as an end-user database.     

我国期刊联合目录建设现状及对策研究

从期刊联合目录建设调研入手,总结我国现阶段图书馆期刊联合目录的发展状况,认为我国已经初步建立国家级、地区中心级和省级期刊联合目录三级保障体系,指出目前期刊联合目录建设中存在的主要问题,并提出今后我国期刊联合目录的发展方向、具体措施等。     

Health care machine-readable data files: secondary analysis, access, and the role of the library

Access to health care machine-readable data files (MRDF) is becoming increasingly important to students and researchers in the health care field who use the data in secondary analysis. Health sciences libraries must play a role in providing such access, and this role should consist primarily in providing users with information about the identity and contents of available MRDF and about how they may be obtained. Libraries should therefore collect extensive materials containing information about the MRDF that may be of interest to their users. Many such materials are available in print, and their quality may be expected to improve as newly developed methods and procedures for constructing bibliographic citations, abstracts, and catalog entries for MRDF are put into practice. Also, it is now feasible to incorporate data file abstracts into existing online bibliographic databases.