EDITORIAL By Ruth Carter
GUEST
EDITORIAL
CONSER’s
Aggregator Survey and the Work of the PCC Task Group, by John J. Riemer
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.
Note: This essay is based on a presentation made at the American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans on June 26, 1999, as part of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services’ Technical Services Administrators of Medium-sized Research Libraries Discussion Group Program, “Aggravating or Aggregating? Providing Effective Access to Contents of Aggregator Databases.”
KEYWORDS: Aggregator databases, online catalogs, vendor-supplied cataloging, analytic cataloging.
Aggravating
or Aggregating?
Providing Effective Access to
Contents of Aggregator Databases: Reference/Collection Development
Librarian’s Perspective, by Scott L. Dennis
ABSTRACT. Based on his experience, the author summarizes what
reference/collection development librarians and library users want and expect
from aggregator databases, and what’s needed from database vendors and from
librarians to meet these expectations. Particularly
important are content quality, reliability, modularity, and affordability,
interface simplicity and flexibility, and reliable congruence between and
integration of print and electronic editions. From vendors, librarians should demand more and better content
guarantees, purchase options, communication of content details and changes,
full-text searching, and persistent URLs for individual titles.
Librarians should provide analyzed cataloging and holdings for all titles
in aggregator databases, keep these records current, fully integrate them with
records for print and other electronic editions, and incorporate them into web
catalogs, in addition to providing other web access tools such as browsable
title lists.
Keywords. Aggregator databases, public services, online catalogs, database vendors, user convenience.
The Essential Elements of Faceted
Thesauri, by Louise Spiteri
ABSTRACT. The goal of this study is to evaluate, compare, and contrast how
facet analysis is used to construct the systematic or faceted displays of a
selection of information retrieval thesauri.
More specifically, the study seeks to examine which principles of facet
analysis are used in the thesauri, and the extent to which different thesauri
apply these principles in the same way.
A measuring instrument was designed for the purpose of
evaluating the structure of faceted thesauri. This instrument was applied to
fourteen faceted information retrieval thesauri.
The study reveals that the thesauri do not share a common definition of
what constitutes a facet. In some
cases, the thesauri apply both enumerative-style classification and facet
analysis to arrange their indexing terms. A
number of the facets used in the thesauri are not homogeneous or mutually
exclusive. The principle of
synthesis is used in only 50% of the thesauri, and no one citation order is used
consistently by the thesauri.
Keywords. Faceted Thesauri. Thesaurus Construction. Evaluation. Facet Analysis.
Internal Quality Audit of Indexing: A
New Application of Interindexer Consistency, by Edgardo A. Stubbs, Norma E. Mangiaterra, and
Ana M. Martínez
ABSTRACT. We describe a methodology that combines
interindexer consistency with a method for an internal quality audit, based on a
control chart usually employed in technological and industrial organizations.
The methodology shows the consistency and variation of a given group of
indexers, reflecting the degree of conformity to indexing standards and
procedures. It also facilitates the identification of variation causes, and the
application to training and corrective actions, leading to a continuous
improvement of the process. It is practical and produces reliable, appropriate,
and comparable data.
Edgardo A. Stubbs is Graduate Student associated to the Chair of Classification I; Norma E. Mangiaterra is Professor of Documentation, and Ana M. Martínez is Professor of Classification I at Departamento de Bibliotecología, Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Mangiaterra is also Librarian at the Technical Information Center, SIDERAR, S.A. Planta Ensenada (Techint Group), and Martínez is Librarian at the Library of Federación Bioquímica de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.
Keywords. Control charts, Indexing, Interindexer consistency, Internal quality audit
Bringing in the Sheep: Using Insourcing to Access Departmental Resources, by Sharon A. MoynahanKeywords: Insourcing, Departmental libraries, Online catalogs, Catalogers
Outsourcing Copy Cataloging at Adelphi
University Libraries, by Bonnie Horenstein
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.
An Automated
Reclassification Project at the University of Kentucky, by
Nancy Lewis and Kate Seago
ABSTRACT. The University of
Kentucky Libraries began use of the Library of Congress Classification
System in 1978, leaving the bulk of their older material in the Dewey
Classification System. In 1992
during the planning for the new Young Library, the opportunity arose to
complete the reclassification of the collection from Dewey to Library of
Congress. This paper outlines
the process used to reclassify the collection.
Unique features of this project were the relaince on automation to
reduce the number of person hours needed for reclassifying the materials and
the minimal disruption of services to users.
Keywords: Reclassification,
Automation, Classification, DDC, LCC, NOTIS
Brian E. C. Schottlaender: Politics and Philosophy of Bibliographic Control, A Conversation, by Sara Shatford Layne.
In an interview with Sara Shatford Layne, Brian E.C. Schottlaender describes his library career, and particularly his work as current ALA representative to the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR, former chair of ALA’s Committee on Cataloging: Description & Access, and an organizer of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging. Schottlaender discusses the political nature of cataloging development and change in a number of contexts. He identifies critical issues in revision of AACR—logic, seriality, and rule 0.24—and expresses his hope for a principles-based revision and a code that “breaks the shackles of format.” Other topics of discussion include the difficulties of the phrase “more, better, cheaper, faster” and the evolving relationship between cataloging and metadata.
