[Web4lib] Study Profiles Use of New Cataloging Technologies by 9 Acadademic Libraries

[Primarydat at aol.com]

Primary Research Group has published Emerging Issues in Academic Library  
Cataloging & Technical Services (ISBN# 1-574440-086-X).  The study explores 
emerging trends in  areas such as 1) the productivity of library cataloging 
personnel, 2) the  enhancement of online catalogs, 3) the transition to metadata 
standards, 4) the  cataloging of websites and the integration of special 
collections, 5)  catalog/metadata training, 6) database maintenance and physical 
processing, 7)  staff education, 8) relations with the acquisitions departments, and 
other  issues facing academic library cataloging and technical services 
staff.  
The report was written by Elaine Sanchez, Head of Cataloging at  Texas  State 
 University, San  Marcos.  It  is based on detailed interviews with 
cataloging and/or technical services  directors at the following institutions:  Curry  
College, Brigham  Young University, Illinois State  University, Yale  
University,  University of  Washington,  University of North  Dakota, Haverford  
College, Pennsylvania State  University, and Louisiana  State  University.  
Just a few of the report’s conclusions appear below: 
    *   None of the surveyed libraries had specific  cataloging quotas, 
although some had variants of this policy, such as  specifying task times 
associated with certain types of materials and asking  individuals with productivity 
problems to set individual  benchmarks.
    *   Only two cataloging agencies out of the  nine had not yet worked with 
metadata. In the seven agencies that had metadata  experience, the Head of 
the Cataloging Department usually took the lead,  working with digital projects 
and special collections as the primary usage for  metadata. Four of the nine 
agencies have metadata librarian positions that  report directly to a 
cataloging supervisor.
    *   All nine cataloging agencies enhanced their  online catalogs in a 
variety of ways. The most common enhancements  were: 
    1.  Federated searching, using MetaLib and other  products 
    2.  Making the online catalog accessible through  the Internet by Google 
Scholar and WorldCat.org 
    3.  Content and licensing management systems for  electronic resources, 
such as SFX (Integrated library system Ex Libris  product. SFX provides for 
management of electronic resources) 
    4.  Adding digital collections, including theses,  images, and so on, 
using products such as CONTENTdm (Digital collection  management software), the 
predominant one 
    5.  Front-end online catalog programs, such as  Encore, Primo, and others

    *   Three cataloging departments in the sample  harvest MARC records from 
Web sites, manuscript collections with EAD finding  aids, theses, digital 
special collections, ICPSR (Interuniversity Consortium  for Political and Social 
Research) data sets, and large sets of e-journals  that do not offer MARC 
records.
    *   Holdings and online library catalog enhancements  are the most likely 
training topics. Authority is the least likely training  topic. All agencies 
invite and encourage online catalog error reports from  public service staff, 
to the extent that three cataloging departments have  online forms for this 
purpose.
    *   Bibliographic database maintenance is primarily  done in house. Only 
four cataloging agencies have both local staff and an  outside vendor to 
perform this activity, while five agencies perform this  solely in house and do not 
use a contracted vendor at all. Not one of the nine  agencies totally relies 
on outsourcing of bibliographic record  maintenance.
    *   Only two of the cataloging agencies perform  authority record 
maintenance with only local staff. The remaining seven use a  combination of local 
staff and outside authority services.
    *   Item creation is generally a cataloging  and circulation function. 
All nine cataloging agencies created item records,  while only six allowed this 
function in circulation. Even then, in two of  these cases, circulation was 
limited to creating items for only “on the fly”  items that needed an item 
record so that the title could circulate
    *   All nine of the cataloging agencies surveyed  reported getting ready 
for RDA (Resource Description and Access) by attending  some kind of 
conference on the topic, mounting information on department Web  pages, or having staff 
that are involved with the RDA process.
    *   Four libraries in the sample merged the  cataloging and acquisitions 
departments.
For more information visit our website at  www.primaryresearch.com. 




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