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.     

Cards and Reflections: The Eugene Gros Collection of Sputnik-Era Technical Literature at Texas A&M University

ABSTRACT

British translator and publisher of Russian technical literature Eugene Gros, evidently of Czech origin, collected over two thousand titles published in the Soviet Union from approximately 1945 to 1965. These books are now at Texas A&M University library, which introduced the books into the OCLC online union catalog from Library of Congress catalog cards while updating name entries, series, subject headings, and classification numbers. Publishers, notable authors, and titles in the Gros collection are surveyed, proceeding from power, mechanical and civil engineering, metallurgy and defense (e.g., aerospace and electrical engineering) to Academy of Sciences and popular publications on science and technology. Book title imagery and style are another perspective on the collection.     

西文图书的主要检索点与MARC21

西图书主要检索点的确定以及使用MARC21格式对其进行正确录，是提高西图书利用率的重要保障。讨论了ISBN、责任、题名、主题词、分类号等检索点的录。     

Government documents and the online catalog

Prior to planning for implementing the NOTIS system, the Vanderbilt Medical Center Library had not fully cataloged its government publications, and records for these materials were not in machine-readable format. A decision was made that patrons should need to look in only one place for all library materials, including the Health and Human Services Department publications received each year from the central library's Government Documents Unit. Beginning in 1985, these publications were added to the library's database, and the entire 7,200-piece collection is now in the online catalog. Working with these publications has taught the library much about the advantages and disadvantages of cataloging government documents in an online environment. It was found that OCLC cataloging copy is eventually available for most titles, although only about 10% of the records have MeSH headings. Staff time is the major expenditure; problems are caused by documents' irregular nature, frequent format changes, and difficult authority work. Since their addition to the online catalog, documents are used more and the library has better control.     

Shelf-ready: A cost-benefit analysis

Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library conducted a time-task cost study to compare the cost and processing time of shelf-ready books to non-shelf-ready books to determine if it could better use its human resources and if it should expand the use of shelf-ready to include its approval books. The results showed that shelf-ready was, on average, 5.7% cheaper, took 47% less processing time, and arrived on the shelves 33 sooner than books processed in-house. Based on the results of the study, the library moved its approval books to the shelf-ready program and was able to reallocate catalogers tasks.     

基于论题视角的图情中文期刊论文关键词标注探析——以"基于"类论文为例

[目的/意义]关键词是检索期刊论文的重要入口之一,其标注质量直接影响检索效果。规范、科学的关键词,不仅可以提高论文的检准率,而且可以更准确地揭示论文的主题内容。[方法/过程]利用语言学的直接成分分析法和统计学的分析方法,以近5年图书情报学科"基于……的……"论题的3 636篇论文的题录为数据,通过对论题要素的识别与标注,并与作者标注的关键词进行对比分析,判断作者标注关键词所反映论文研究内容的科学性。同时将作者标注的关键词与领域主题词表进行比对,判断其关键词标注的规范性。[结果/结论]通过对比与统计分析后得出如下结论:①37.16%的论文关键词存在与论题要素不一致,不能准确描述论文研究主题内容的情况;②96.88%的论文关键词存在不同程度的标注不规范情况。在此基础上,提出关键词规范选取的策略。     

Measuring Success in Outsourced Cataloging: A Data-Driven Investigation

This article investigates the error rates in shelf-ready cataloged monographs from Ingram Coutts Information Services that were received at The University of Western Ontario. Using quality control reports from a period of two years, over 500 cataloging errors were entered into a database organized by frequency, severity, and other factors. With this information, we analyzed the frequency of errors and their root causes. We found that overall error rates are low, and the quality of shelf-ready cataloging has improved since first implementing the outsourcing program.     

Author's Comments on “College Librarians and the University-Library Syndrome”

Abstract

Adding contents notes to a bibliographic record enhances the accessibility of the record beyond the usual title, author, and subject headings. Does increased accessibility necessarily mean increased circulation? This article summarizes the results of a 22-month study at Stetson University in Florida, a small liberal arts university. The study tracked circulation statistics for over 2,500 titles enhanced by the addition of contents notes in their catalog records. Contents notes were added locally through the OCLC Bibliographic Notification Service and were added manually upon a librarian's recommendation. The results include the number of titles which saw increased circulation, and the amount of staff time taken and costs incurred to add contents notes.     

Characteristics of the 670 Field in Records for Names in the Anglo-American Authority File

Increasing amounts of time and expense required to provide authority control for OPACS has stimulated interest in the automated generation of name authority records. At the same time, national cooperative cataloging programs such as NACO are seeking participants on a wider scale. A better understanding of the nature of authority records, the possibilities and limitations of the machine creation, and the resources needed for institutions to participate in national programs is needed to assist decision making in these areas. THe 670 field is used to justify the form and content of established headings and their cross references. The 670 fields from national level name authority records pertaining to the subject area of the Catholic Church were examined. Information was sought on the number of 670s per record, on the types of work cited, and on the works themselves. Findings indicate that considerable difference exist among the categories of authority records, with some (modern personal names and uniform titles) being more amenable to machine generation. It was also possible to tentatively identify a core reference for authority work in a subject area.     

The Books Are Shelf-Ready; Are You?

Over the past 2 years, shelf-ready services, the outsourcing of cataloging and processing services, has become the hot topic in the library world. This article examines the implications of shelf-ready service, both operationally and organizationally, for both library and vendor. Using the format of a dialog between librarian and vendor, the article discusses the following questions: Why are you interested in contracting for (or providing) these services? What do you hope to gain? What are the stumbling blocks to implementing a shelf-ready program? What is the impact on workflow and staffing in your organization? How many and what kinds of jobs are affected? How do library/vendor responsibilities change when shelf-ready procedures are applied to an approval plan … to firm orders … to standing orders? How can quality control be assured? Which errors really matter? Are the same standards applied to vendor staff as to in-house staff? How are standards affected by shelf-ready? How do both library and vendor know when they’re “ready for shelf-ready” in a given situation?     

Building a Serials Database on NOTIS at the University of Louisville

The implementation of the NOTIS system at the University of Louisville Libraries has introduced various changes to Serials cataloging in Ekstrom Library. An initial goal was to provide a clean database, containing all currently received serial titles. The decision by Ekstrom Library to maintain a permanent order record on the current title necessitates frequent record manipulation as serial titles change. Bibliographic records are overlaid, which requires correcting copy holdings records and moving item records. Procedures within the Serials Section continue to change as staff work to provide a complete database of serial holdings.     

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.     

丛书编目问题探讨

丛书构成的复杂性致使丛书在编目过程中常出现很多错误,主要包括:不编制丛书综合记录,误认为4--字段能生成丛书题名检索点,错误使用连接字段,使用5--字段为不同丛书题名做检索点时选错书目记录,等等。这些错误成为影响当前丛书编目质量的严重问题,需要图书馆同仁共同探讨与努力解决。     

Cataloging Pierre Bourdieu's Books

The problems of culture and ideology have been studied in phenomenology, structuralism, and historical materialism, but they fail to make connections between theory and social reality. To solve this situation, Pierre Bourdieu proposes the Theory of Practice. This Theory of Practice, together with his notions of Cultural capital, Field, Habitus, Social reproduction, Symbolic power, and so on, are the subjects of 23 books written by Bourdieu up to 1991. Because the purpose of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) is to guide users to the subject(s) of a given book, one would expect to find those conceptual categories present in the subject headings assigned to Bourdieu's books. This paper is a study of the subject headings given to those 23 books, and their different translations into English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, comprising 89 records in OCLC as of December 1991. However, due to lack of availability one book and its respective record were eliminated, reducing the universe to 22 books and 88 records. It was found that most of the books erroneously received headings that do not correspond to their content, as the headings were assigned from the functi onalist paradigm. In general, LCSHs ignore the conceptual categories of other paradigms, do not match the current vocabulary used by social scientists, and are ideologically biased.     

CALIS西文联合目录数据库中个人名称标目的质量分析

通过对CALIS西文联合数据库中个人名称标目的整理,分析了CALIS西文联合目录数据库中个人名称标目存在的质量问题,并提出了正确著录的方法和改进个人名称标目质量的措施。     

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     

How far have we come? benchmarking time and costs for monograph purchasing

The University of Oregon Library System conducted a benchmark study during autumn 1997 to determine time and costs for monograph purchasing, cataloging, and processing. The goals of the study were first to assess if it would be cost effective to contract out some or all of the cataloging and final processing for some monographs, and secondly, to provide data that could be used as a management tool and shared with other libraries. The acquisition and QuickCat costs per unit for various types of purchases were calculated showing that cost alone would not be a sufficient reason to outsource or purchase shelf-ready books. However, opportunity costs should also be considered. Additionally, the data are compared with a task analysis study conducted in 1982/83, just prior to automating.