Cataloging & Classification Quarterly
Volume 29, Number 4 2000
Table of Contents
Single or multiple copies of these
articles may be obtained by contacting the Haworth
Document Delivery Service
Classification
of Internet Resources: An AUTOCAT Discussion.
By
J. McRee (Mac) Elrod,
Director, Special Libraries Cataloguing, Inc., Victoria, British Columbia.
ABSTRACT. In October of 1999
there was a discussion on AUTOCAT (an e-list for cataloguers) of the advantages
and disadvantages of classifying Internet resources catalogued locally, which
grew to include a discussion of cataloguing electronic resources generally.
This article reviews the background of applying bibliographic description
techniques to electronic resources, and summarizes the AUTOCAT discussion.
The exchange of opinion confirms that while some librarians see
classification as primarily a method of assigning a shelf location for a
physical item, many others see classification as a valid subject approach for
all the materials either in the library’s collection or available to the
library's patrons through the library catalogue.
The
catalog as barrier to retrieval. Part 1: Hyphens and ampersands in titles.
By J.
H. Bowman,School of Library,
Archive & Information Studies, University College London, England
Abstract. An Internet survey of 38
different OPAC systems, at eighty different libraries, was undertaken to
investigate the effect on retrieval of the presence of the hyphen or the
ampersand in titles. Title and Keyword searches were performed. In Title search,
22 of the systems treat the hyphen as equivalent to a space, while in Keyword
the number is 16. The other systems treat it is various different ways (even
including the equivalent of NOT), which means that results of searching multiple
catalogs are very inconsistent. The ampersand may be ignored, treated as a
special character, or treated as “and,” again with very inconsistent
results. Various recommendations are made with a view to improving consistency
of performance.
Keywords.
online catalogs, hyphen, ampersand
Enhancing Bibliographic Records with Tables. Of
Contents Derived from OCR Technologies at the American Museum of Natural History
Library. By Evan Pappas and Ann
Herendeen. Evan
Pappas is Catalog Librarian, U.S. Court of Appeals Library, New York, NY, and
part-time Cataloger at Bobst Library, New York University.
Ann
Herendeen is Catalog Librarian, American Museum of Natural History Library, New
York, NY.
Abstract.
This paper reports on a project undertaken at the American Museum of Natural
History Library in 1997 and intended to enhance access to materials in the
library’s collection by using scanning and OCR software to digitize and add
monograph tables of contents to the OPAC bibliographic records.
Initially, conference proceedings already in the collection were used,
but, as the project developed, other types of materials were also used. The rationale for the project is explained, the procedure
developed is described, and the lessons learned from using this particular
technology are outlined.
Sample
Sizes and Composition: Their Effect on Recall and
Precision in IR experiments with OPACs. By
Charlotte Wien, Department of Journalism, Odense University, Odense,
Denmark.
Abstract. This
article discusses how samples of records for laboratory IR experiments on OPACs
can be constructed so that results obtained from different experiments can be
compared. The literature on laboratory IR experiments seems to indicate that the
retrieval effectiveness (recall and precision) is affected by the way the
samples of records for such experiments are generated. Especially the amount of
records and the subject area coverage of the records seems to affect the
retrieval effectiveness. This article contains suggestions for the construction
of samples for laboratory IR experiments on OPACs and demonstrates that the
retrieval effectiveness is affected by different sample size and composition.
The
Impact of Productivity and Quality of CJK Cataloging
--A Brief Comparison Between CJK 2nd Edition and 3rd Edition. By Jiajian Hu, Catalog Division, the Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL.
Abstract: This report
compares the features of the 2nd
and 3rd editions of OCLC’s CJK
cataloging as implemented at the Chicago Public Library. The 3rd edition is
faster for cataloging than the 2nd edition. Alternatively, the 2nd edition has
other benefits including stability. Perspectives such as the quality of CJK
cataloging between the 2nd and the 3rd edition are discussed also.
Keywords: OCLC CJK. Information delivery.Cataloging of East Asian publications—Computer program. OCLC CJK software
evaluation. Productivity of CJK cataloging.
Quality
control of CJK cataloging.
LETTER
TO THE EDITOR
CCQ INTERVIEWS
Carolynne Myall, Editor
An
Interview with Elaine Svenonius
by Dorothy McGarry
In an interview with Dorothy McGarry, Elaine Svenonius
discusses her many-faceted career. Topics
include her research interests in subject and descriptive cataloging (Svenonius
notes that it “takes some untangling of vocabulary and semantics to see that
the traditional bifurcation separating subject and descriptive cataloging is
artificial”); her teaching experience, especially her use of Andrew Osborn’s
“active learning” seminar method; and her views about the development of
information science and its relationship to librarianship.
© Haworth Press, Inc.