[Fwd: Catalogue record resources]

[Ernest Perez]

Ursula Domin wrote:
> I was just looking for a web-based resource  from which we could get
> catalogue records for those hard to find books? We do search certain other
> library catalogues for this, however I was wondering if anyone knows of a
> particularly good source that they use.

The U.S. Library of Congress is both comprehensive and, incidentally,
completely legal to use as a cataloque record source. 

Use their ""Library of Congress WWW/Z39.50 Gateway" at
<http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/gateway.html>, and select the link for
"Advanced Search (multiple terms using Boolean operators)". Once you're
into the Form query, click on TAGGED as the Preferred Record Display
format. You'll get a MARC record display, where you can clip & paste the
record minus system prompts, and put it into a simple editor for local
storage.  You can then easily convert this data to load into a
catalog/database.  

For example, I've recently been using "Data Magician"
<http://www.folland.com>, to convert for loading into an InMagic catalog
database, running on a PC, for a local church library. 

Legal to copy LC records for use locally? Or is it copyrighted OCLC,
etc., etc.  Yes, it is legal and ethical. I called the LC CDS (Card
Distribution Service) office to ask about it. CDS head Peter Young
assured me that it was quite alright.

Cheers,
-ernest
Ernest Perez, Ph.D.
Oregon State Library
perez at opac.osl.state.or.us
503-378-4243, xt 257
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