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Short Cut Cataloguing

Page history last edited by Dianne 13 years, 1 month ago

Dianne McKenzie

 

This is an update and condensed version of a paper I presented at IASL conference in 2002 in Malaysia.

 

Introduction
Cataloguing is one of those chores of the library that needs to be done, is never ending, time consuming and at all times needs to be consistent and accurate. This creates a dilemma for the school librarians who need to be a jack of trades, and, a master of all, in most cases with little or no trained support. It is a vicious cycle - the libraries need to expand their library collection through purchase of new resources but have little time to get it to the point so the end users can access it because they need to catalogue it - and who has time for that?


This guide addresses a number of avenues that School Librarians can use to reduce the time and money they spend on cataloguing whilst maintaining the integrity of the cataloguing standards. These are:-

 

  1. Purchasing the records when you purchase resources from suppliers
  2. Catalogue subscription services
  3. Free Z39.5 software downloads
  4. Manual Copy cataloging
  5. Original cataloguing

 

I am coming from the reference point of an international school librarian based in Hong Kong, that purchases resources from all over the world, in different languages.

 

Purchasing the MARC records with resources

There are a number of companies that offer marc records when you purchase resources  - Follett being a major player in the field with Wiley, Bound to stay bound, Overdrive, Books Asia, Brodart , Baker & Taylor offering a similar service, and many others. Many schools order from these suppliers just for this reason alone, and if the resources are ordered from the same supplier, then in theory the records should be consistent.

 

Advantages :

Receive the records of the resources to download

Have accounts with the companies

Records should be consistent.

 

Disadvantages

Limited by what these suppliers can supply and ties to the prices they ask you to pay.

 

Just purchasing Marc records :

There are a number of companies that will sell you, or create marc records for your collection that you specify Cassidy Cataloguing , Marc4 media, and OCLC  all offer these services, and I am sure there are others as well.

 

Catalogue subscription services

 
Subscription services are usually huge databases of records that can be searched, accessed and download into a local system for a fee - sometimes it is just a flat fee per annum, or it could also involve a membership fee and then a charge for every record searched and downloaded. Depending on where they get their records from, the standard of cataloguing can vary. Some use a credit system for those libraries prepared to share their records to reduce their download fee, and some hire professional cataloguers to input just for their database.
 
Advantages:
The hit rate can be quite high due to there being so many records available.
The service is quick, and usually supported.
Internet based - can be globally supported.
The protocols used can be suited to the local system such as SCIS in Australia with particular Subject Headings.
 
Problems
The cost is an annual fee and can be quite high.
The rate at which items are catalogued can sometimes be delayed due to the volume.
Schools may not need the volume of records to search through and may not get cost effectiveness.
 
Some examples of catalogue databases are:-
 
Follett's Alliance Plus Online (9+ million records)
http://www.follettsoftware.com/pg75/alliance-products
 
Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS) Australia
Contains over 700,000 records. Mainly Australian in origin, but the international collection is growing rapidly.

http://www.curriculum.edu.au/scis/
 
Precision One by Brodart.com
2 million records http://www.books.brodart.com/Content3.aspx?P=35

 
IT's Marc
US based online based, 15 million records
http://www.tlcdelivers.com/tlc/what-we-do/cataloging.asp


OCLC Catexpress - access to 47 million records
membership fee plus download per record fee
http://www.oclc.org/catexpress/


MarciveWeb Select
http://home.marcive.com/

 

Bookwhere

http://www.webclarity.info/products/bookwhere/

 

Lyrasis -

A/V Access is a MARC records database of professionally cataloged audio and visual materials.

http://www.lyrasis.org/Products%20and%20Services/Catalog/A/AV%20Access.aspx

 

Z39.50 Software
Z39.5 is a protocol that allows downloads of marc records from one library system to another. It allows users to search one or more collections over the internet simultaneously, searching by author, title, subject, ISBN, ISSN, LCCN etc...and then downloads the marc records required into the searchers system. It has shown rapid growth since its inception in 1988. Many recently developed library systems have an inbuilt Z39.5 module.
 
Advantages
A one off fee for the software - no further budgeting required.
Huge number of records available, and each record is a 'free' download.
Through a selection of target servers, the searcher can narrow the type of library searched, making the search more specific.
The records gained are usually recorded by professionals.
International records - no regional limitations.
 
Disadvantages
Records may need to be checked and have some modification before being loaded into the local OPAC.

If you use too many different targets, there may be inconsistencies in the cataloguing.

 

If you do not have a module that will allow you to do this, you can purchase software that will do it

http://www.booksys.com/v3/products/ezcat/

 

Generally what needs to happen in the module is you set targets of libraries you want to search which have their own code to input into your LMS.

A list of targets is here http://irspy.indexdata.com/

 

 

Manual Copy Cataloguing

The School Librarian may perform copy cataloging by finding a record in another catalogue, and either downloading it, or copying and pasting the the information from the found record into the local OPAC fields, taking or leaving the information required.
 
The advantages of this are :
The records have usually been catalogued by 'professionals' and will have a high chance of being accurate.
All the information you need will be there, and you will see in which fields information needs to go.
This method is suitable for libraries who do not catalogue many resources, or who cannot afford to subscribe to a large database or service, or need to find a few things to top up the subscription hits.
 
Problems
It may take time to find the Library OPAC with the record on it.

It can take the same amount of time as doing the original cataloguing.
The need to ensure the record is being copied is actually the resource you want.
There may also be the need to modify the record to suit local requirements.
 
Some of the Library OPACs we have found useful to copy records from are:-

 

World Cat

http://www.worldcat.org/

 

National Library of Australia (NLA)
http://webpac.nla.gov.au/webclientmain.html
 
Library of Congress (LOC)
http://catalog.loc.gov/
 
British Library Public Catalogue (BLPC)
http://blpc.bl.uk/
 
A list of library catalogues from the USA
http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/faq/marc_download/default.html
 
Suffolk County Library Catalogue

http://www.live-brary.com/

 

Scottish National library

http://www.nls.uk/

 

Chopac will take records from Amazon and convert them to marc and has some interesting cataloging tools. There is an Amazon to MARC converter, DDC22 summaries, Amazon review server, and some others. They also have an ILS to download. Runs in the LAMP environment. They seem to have it up and running on their site. It gets additional info from Amazon and Google Books to enrich the records.Chopac.org

 

For specific local resources, or international languages, visit the national libraries and universities of the language/ resource that you need the record for.

 

Original cataloguing


The librarian performs original cataloguing by inputting a new master record, catalogued according to AACR2 or RAD protocols and current cataloguing practice.
 
This is slow and sometimes inaccurate if you haven't spent years training to be an original cataloguer. In my experience in schools, items which need to be original catalogued are left to when there is enough time to do it - and eventually get done when the need arises for those resources.There are so many different types of formats of resources with different requirements, the decision as to what classification number and subject headings sometimes takes more time than it is worth for the non trained cataloguer.

 

The other important consideration about being a School Librarian is that we have other things to do which do not include original cataloguing. A reflection on the time and resources required in original cataloguing is reflected in the costs charged by cataloguing companies - if it was an easy job, it would be free.
 
However, original cataloguing is sometimes required when the resource can not be found anywhere else. There are a few of online helpers to assist in this task, below is one of them :
 
Marc 21 Concise Format for Bibliographic data (Library of Congress)
http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdhome.html
This gives a brief description of the field and what should go in there and the appropriate punctuations.

The OCLC Classify is also a brilliant tool to help with figuring out where the best non fiction resources need to be kept. http://classify.oclc.org/classify2/

It also helps with subject headings.

 

With the number of online catalogues and services available, school librarians should not have to spend their time doing original cataloguing - we have much better things to do!

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