This page has been accessed http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~ulcjh/bhmin0601.html

This compilation was prepared by Judith Hopkins, University at Buffalo


SOME OF THE FOLLOWING LIBRARIES DID *NOT* ISSUE A ROUND ROBIN REPORT.

LIST OF LIBRARIES

Columbia University
Cornell University
Duke University
Harvard University
Indiana University
Library of Congress
National Agricultural Library
National Library of Medicine
New York Public Library
New York University
Northwestern University
Ohio State University
Pennsylvania State University
Princeton University
Stanford University
University of California at Berkeley
University of California at Los Angeles
University of Chicago
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
University of Pennsylvania
University of Texas at Austin
University of Virginia
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin at Madison
Yale University


UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY

From: Lee Leighton lleighto@library.berkeley.edu

Berkeley Big Heads Round Robin Report

1. Our Interim University Librarian, Tom Leonard, was offered and has accepted the position of University Librarian. He began his new position in March 2001. Tom continues to retain his faculty position in the Graduate School of Journalism.

2. After several years of receiving shelfready science materials from the Academic Book Center, we are launching a shelfready pilot project with Yankee Book Peddler.

3. Our single Program for Cooperative Cataloging cataloger, Ivan Arguelles, retired last fall. I'm very happy to report that Carol Hixson from the University of Oregon and Ana Cristan from the Library of Congress will be training 11 catalogers in BIBCO policies and procedures and 23 in NACO in conjunction with the ALA conference in San Francisco this June. Some of the NACO trainees are from other Northern California institutions. We hope to train any newly hired catalogers to participate in the program as well.

4. Berkeley is participating, along with the other University of California libraries, in a Mellon funded project that will collect data on the acceptance of digital research journals as a substitute for print and apply these findings to framing future library strategies. During the one year project, paper runs that duplicate subscriptions to electronic journals will be removed to our storage libraries in Northern and Southern California, and use data on the electronic journals, without the benefit of the paper backups, will be gathered. Paper runs of the same titles will be left on the shelves in designated control libraries, and their use will be studied as well.

5.Technical Services move to new location.
Five years ago, the Catalog and Acquisitions Departments at Berkeley were administratively merged, and the new Department moved from two floors of the Doe Library, the primary research library, to a single floor of the adjacent Moffitt Library, the undergraduate library. An underground stack area and a tunnel connect the Doe and Moffitt libraries. The round trip is a quarter of a mile. Since we are "joined at the hip" with the Doe Library, staff and materials travel very easily between the two buildings, and we have avoided some of the problems of a truly remote location.

The advantage of the move was relocation to a renovated work area on a single floor that was planned around our workflows. Units that do similar work now sit next to each other.

I learned that a great deal of time needs to be set aside to plan such a large and complicated move. Luckily we have a library architect who handled all the facilities issues around a plan put together by the Technical Services unit heads. Also the plan needs to be very openly discussed with the staff who are affected, and there is naturally going to be fallout from some things that didn't go exactly as planned.

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UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

From: Judith Nadler judi@uchicago.edu

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO UPDATE, JUNE 2001

ORGANIZATION

With the completion of the administrative reorganization of the departments of technical services, integrated library systems, and digital library development, we continue to test the practical efficacy of the new organizational structure and its validity as one cohesive division. Established with the goal to increase our ability to address issues of electronic resources and digital library development, the ultimate measure of the division's success is in it's ability to identify and maximize the opportunities of the electronic age towards the enhancements of Library programs and services.

Physical proximity of related but diverse activities has proven to be a major organizational facilitator providing development opportunities, facilitating cross-functional synergies and encouraging and enhancing communication. Examples of recent achievements that were facilitated by the new structure are the assessment of products and services such as IDAL and NetLibrary and the implementation of SFX context-sensitive linking. The SFX implementation process originated in the Digital Library Development Center and put into production in the Electronic Materials Support section of the Acquisitions Department will provide a model for other cross-departmental projects with major technical and application components. Also facilitated by the new structure was our decision to join the CONSER program. We will use CONSER as a framework for monograph/serials cross training with an eye to more flexible use of our cataloging cadre.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC ACCESS AND RESOURCE SHARING

The reconfigured Electronic Resources and Serials Cataloging Section has strengthened our ability to catalog resources in electronic form. We continue to use CORC for both harvesting and cataloging. We are actively pursuing the purchase of records for microform sets, the most recent acquisition being the Early American Imprints, 1801-1819, approximately 39,000 records. We have acquired and mounted the IDAL records set, but have not finalized our decision regarding access to NetLibrary. Figures derived from mapping the NetLibrary records against our catalog were surprisingly high: of 32,777 titles in NetLibrary, 16,314 were represented in our local system.

As a member of CONSER, all our serials will be cataloged online (previously, we have cataloged serials on our local system). With this, our serials cataloging and enhancement activities will be reflected in OCLC in real time. We are up-to-date in loading our records to RLIN prospectively, and a retrospective record load is progress. With this, our holdings will be fully represented on both OCLC and RLIN. CJK recon is progressing well despite some original slow-down due to the Wade Giles to Pinyin conversion.

INTEGRATED LIBRARY SYSTEMS AND DIGITAL LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT

A usability study of the interface to the library catalog using epixtech's iPAC software was conducted in winter 2001. This study and several faculty focus groups have increased our understanding of user needs, expectations, and behaviors in relation to electronic information. This was the Library's first attempt at a formal study of the catalog interface and we plan to use these techniques in the future. You can view the report at http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/Annex/Horizon/iPAC/ (it is a PDF file and requires Adobe to read)

Several structures have been put in place to support increased collaboration on digital initiatives throughout the Library. A document was prepared on how to propose projects to the Digital Library Development Center and a parallel document is being prepared on project management. Within the University, we are pursuing collaboration on several levels. Interaction with Instructional Technology has lead to increased understanding of their work and how it intersects with and complements that of the Library. Contacts and collaboration with our faculty provide an opportunity for us to learn what kind of roles we might play in the larger community that should help sustain and enhance the Library's centrality within the University.

The University of Texas - Austin has undertaken a major study, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, to develop a set of tools that libraries, museums, and other information agencies can use to create better Websites. In an early phase of this study, they identified library Websites to analyze and evaluate for usability. The University of Chicago Library received the most votes for being "particularly effective in terms of usability." The list is on the following Website.

http://imls.lib.utexas.edu/redesign/effective.html

Judith Nadler
Associate Director
University of Chicago Library
773 702-8743
FAX 773 702-6623
judi@midway.uchicago.edu

http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

From: Robert A. Wolven wolven@columbia.edu

ALA Annual Meeting 2001
ALCTS Technical Services Directors of Large Research Libraries Group
Columbia University Report

Personnel:  University Librarian and Vice President for Information Services Elaine Sloan will retire on June 30th.  Candidates have been interviewed, the Search Committee has made a recommendation, and we hope to be able to announce an appointment soon.  In addition, Tony Ferguson, Associate University Librarian for Collections, left in May to become director of libraries at the University of Hong Kong.  Barbara List, Science Division Director, is filling this position on an acting basis.  Posting will be held until the new University Librarian is appointed.  

Integrated Library System.  Preliminary demonstrations have been given by four candidates to replace our current NOTIS system: Endeavor, Ex Libris, Innovative Interfaces, and SIRSI.  We hope to make a final selection by the end of 2001, and to implement the new system in the summer of 2003.

Remote Shelving.  Throughout the year we have continued to transfer materials to our interim remote storage facility in the Bronx, while construction progresses on the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium^Òs facility on the Princeton Forrestal campus.  The ReCAP facility is scheduled to open in October.  Discussions locally and among consortium members have focused on preparations for load-in and service expectations, including shared access to collections and electronic document delivery.

Retrospective Conversion.  We recently passed the milestone of having 90% of our holdings online.  We have completed contracts with OCLC for the remainder of our serials and monographic recon, to be completed over the next 21 months.  This covers all remaining non-Roman recon (CJK having been completed earlier this year.)  After that, we will still need to finish microforms, rare books, and serial analytics. 

Authority Control.   We have just completed having our entire database reprocessed by LTI, and are in the midst of reloading records and loading the new authority files.  Ongoing monthly service will begin in July. 

Pinyin Conversion.  We have reloaded ca. 115,000 Chinese records converted by RLG, and are somewhat more than halfway through updating the 22,000 records marked for manual review.  (The vast majority of these needed only cursory review and simple update.)  Headings on non-Chinese records were mostly converted through the LTI processing noted above, but we will do some follow-up reports, e.g. on uniform titles for works translated from Chinese.   

Digital Resources and Record Sets.  Like so many others, we have been cataloging thousands of e-journals, using simple copy cataloging routines and macros to convert records for print into separate records for the electronic versions.  In late March, we loaded records for all netLibrary titles.  (We are part of a consortial arrangement with Cornell, Dartmouth, and Middlebury College that allows our users to "purchase" netLibrary titles on our behalf.)  Use of netLibrary increased drastically in the months after this dataload.  We have also purchased the set of ProQuest records, and will be loading them later this month. 

Master Metadata File.  We continue to use and expand out Master Metadata File (a db2 database) to manage access to digital resources.  In the last few months, we have set up production routines to migrate e-journal records from the catalog into the MMF, and to publish web listings by author, title, publisher, subject, etc.  Over the summer, we will extend this method to cover other genres.  The MMF also houses item-level metadata for digital projects not included in the OPAC, such as digital images.

  Bob Wolven
Director of Bibliographic Control and Acting Director, Library Systems
Columbia University

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CORNELLL UNIVERSITY

From: Karen Calhoun ksc10@cornell.edu

Cornell University Library
Round Robin

STAFFING

We've managed to gain approval to hire two new librarians in Central Technical Services--an Assistant Acquisitions Librarian and an Assistant Authorities and Database Management Librarian. The searches are under way and we hope to have the new staff members on board by the end of the summer.

LIBRARY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The transition to our new LMS, Voyager, continues. Excellent progress has been made on the serials check-in project, and the ability to do predictive check-in and systematic claiming are beginning to be within our grasp. Batchloading of our current cataloging to RLIN is expected to resume shortly, with batchloading to OCLC to resume as soon as possible afterwards.

Cornell continues to work with Endeavor as a development partner on Endeavor's digital collection management system, ENCompass. At the present time our team is working with several test collections--various Library Gateway resources, a finding aid for Ezra Cornell's correspondence, bird images from the Fuertes collection--and we are beginning to build a new collection under ENCompass, called Saving America's Treasures (SAT). SAT is from the Samuel May Anti-Slavery Pamphlet Collection and will include 10,000 digitized pamphlets.

PROGRAM FOR COOPERATIVE CATALOGING

A Cornell librarian, David Banush, has nearly completed a Cornell-funded research project to study the attitudes of PCC catalogers and their managers toward the core record, with the goal of providing recommendations to the PCC Policy Committee on how to enhance and expand the BIBCO program. David will be presenting a summary of his findings to the BIBCO-At-Large meeting at the San Francisco ALA conference.

RECON

Funding for the next phase of retrospective conversion has been secured. We will be working on the conversion of records for materials in class F (United States Local History). We estimate that Cornell has approximately 530,000 records, representing 13.8% of the library's titles, remaining to be converted. These titles are housed almost entirely in Olin Library and the Rare and Manuscripts Collections. An additional 60,000 titles in the Harris classification, which is housed in the Annex, need to be reclassified and recataloged.

SPACE PLANNING

A newly appointed committee, the Working Group on Olin and Uris Libraries, is helping to plan the future Cornell Library and its presence within the space of Olin and Uris Libraries. These are large, heavily used buildings in a central campus location. The Working Group' s purpose is to inform a feasibility study to be carried out this fall by the architectural firm of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott. The charge is to develop recommendations regarding which services and activities should be provided in Olin and Uris in 2005, and where these services and activities should be located. The exercise includes considering what existing services and activities could be relocated within or outside the two buildings.

DIGITAL FUTURES PLAN

The library's ambitious Digital Futures Plan, July 2000-June 2002, (http://www.library.cornell.edu/staffweb/CULDigitalFuturesPlan2.html) has been annotated to reflect accomplishments to the end of the year. In keeping with the plan, the library is significantly increasing access to electronic materials and reallocating resources to purchase and support them. We are also steadily increasing resources for electronic publishing activity and the creation of digital collections.

--Karen Calhoun
******************************
Karen Calhoun
Director, Central Technical Services
107-D Olin Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853

Voice: 607-255-9915
Fax: 607-255-6110
E-mail: ksc10@cornell.edu
******************************
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HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

HARVARD Round Robin Report

From: Jeffrey Horrell horrell@fas.harvard.edu

Big Heads Round Robin Report

  1. Harvard signed a contract last November with Ex Libris for implementation of the Aleph system in the summer of 2002. Eleven functional groups have been formed to oversee various parts of the system. A training program is being developed to train upwards of a thousand library employees.

  2. In the Harvard College Library, eighty staff members in cataloging, acquisitions (not bibliographers), and end-processing relocated from Widener Library to a new location a mile from Harvard Yard. The move occurred this past December and went as smoothly as could be expected considering the dramatic change. The merging of the acquisition and cataloging process is underway, including the introduction of several approval plans, which are new in this operation. Jane Ouderkirk is the Head of the Harvard College Library Technical Services unit, and Lynda Kresge is the Associate Head. Roger Brisson of Penn State will be joining HCL Technical Services as the German Division Leader beginning August 1st.

  3. Harvard is one of a number of institutions with a one-year planning grant from the Mellon Foundation to prepare a larger proposal to study the technical and economic models for archiving electronic information - that which is "born digital." Our planning includes three publishers - the University of Chicago Press, Blackwell Publishing, and John Wiley & Sons. We see the archiving of this information as a core goal of our mission, one we must address before canceling print. Areas to be studied during this planning year are: the establishment of an agreement between the partners regarding archival rights, the development of a technical implementation plan, the definition of the methodologies the archive would need to adopt in order to validate its archival processes, assuring the scholarly community that the journals would be available over time, and the creation of both organizational and business models.

  4. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences Library Committee has prepared a report to the Dean on the status and future of the libraries within the College Library. The report focuses on collections, the sciences, intellectual access, preservation, and faculty-library interaction. The themes of the report are being further analyzed with priorities and costs connected to them. This effort will have an overall affect on our direction, particularly in terms of intellectual access to our collections.

  5. A report entitled "The Future Directions of Technical Services in the Harvard College Library from eighteen months ago is receiving further consideration and discussion in the units of the College Library. We plan to develop recommendations based on the discussions over the next six to twelve months.

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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

From: Barbara Henigman henigman@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu

Bigheads Round Robin, June 12, 2001
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

There is not much new information here at UIUC since I reported to Bigheads in January. Slowly but surely our new positions are being filled and the Library has maintained a very active interviewing schedule in these past Spring months. The Library welcomed Bob Burger as AUL for Services in February. Our searches for catalogers and Head of Serials continue.

Within Technical Services, we continue to move rapidly and on schedule toward implementation of our new Acqusitions/Serials Check-it system. We're expanding our III project this year coming up on Millennium Serials for central serials checkin March 1, Acquisitions July 1, and then phasing it in for the departmental libraries that check in serials directly in their units.. As you can imagine the past few months have been filled with lots of staff training, committee meetings, and profiling sessions. As of today we are ready to close out the old system on June 30 and will start with orders in the new system on July 15. As part of our new workflow we will become an OCLC Promptcat Library to help with processing our Approval Plan materials. We have been using a homegrown accounting system since the early 1980's so this is a very exciting change for us and is allowing us to examine and revamp workflows between Acquisitions and Cataloging and Acquisitions and the Business Office to lead to better efficiencies and service.

The other major activity has been our continued Consortial process for choosing a new LIS. This system will serve our library as well as the 44 other libraries that are members of the Illinois Library Computer Systems Organization (ILSCO). We are at the stage of preparing final recommendations to the ILCSO Board of Directors with a final decision expected in early July.

Barb Henigman
UIUC Technical Services Division Coordinator

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INDIANA UNIVERSITY

Indiana University Round Robin Update, May 2001

Submitted by Harriette Hemmasi hhemmasi@indiana.edu

IMPLEMENTING SIRSI UNICORN

Our primary focus since January 2001 has been adjusting workflow and procedures to make the most efficient use of the newly implemented SIRSI Unicorn system. Arrearages in ordering, receiving, and cataloging developed during the moratorium that extended from mid-October through early January. We are still in the process of catching up and re-establishing a solid groundwork in each of these areas. As anticipated, closing out the fiscal year is made more difficult due to receipts and expenditures spread between two systems. Staff continue their excellent progress and positive attitudes in the face of these many challenges.

AUTHORITY AND SERIALS CONTROL

To accommodate lost functionality experienced in the move from NOTIS to SIRSI, we are reviewing the pros and cons of vended authority control processing and have implemented Keyboard Express, a program that allows for macros and more efficient use of Unicorn. Most staff catalog via the MicroEnhancer rather than importing records through a Z39.50 connection and batchloading to OCLC. This work process will be reviewed over the next several months. IU loaded Stanford's serial control patterns in Unicorn for matching titles and while this exchange has not been hassle-free, we anticipate considerable savings of time and effort.

RETROSPECTIVE CONVERSION

Our goal of completing retrospective conversion by the end of June 2001 is soon to become a reality. Staff have joined efforts with student employees to finish this more than seven-year commitment. There is a real sense of accomplishment and pride as the last old cards are being converted. Recon is being completed just in time for the ground breaking of the offsite Auxiliary Library Facility (ALF), scheduled later this summer. This facility will house a new preservation lab and over 2 million volumes of IU's less-used library resources.

FUTURE PLANS

On the horizon for technical services at IU are: pinyin conversion, revised procedures and staffing for electronic resources, increased involvement with metadata for digital projects, staging large bib loads such as EEBO and netLibrary, preparing for the ALF move, and continued review of staffing and local procedures.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

From: Beacher J E Wiggins bwig@loc.gov

Library of Congress Report

LC EXHIBIT BOOTH

For more information on exhibit booth activities visit the Library¢s Web site for ALA: http://www.loc.gov/ala/ The Library's exhibit booth is no. 705 in the Moscone Convention Center.

In-booth presentations The schedule of in-booth presentations will be publicized in Cognotes (the conference daily newspaper) and on the Library's Conference Web page at http://www.loc.gov/ala/ .

9:00 am, June 16-17: Sharing our Images with the World: Obtaining Images from the Collections: Bob Fruge
9:30 am, June 16 and noon, June 17: National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped: Meeting the Need: video
10:00 am, June 16-17: Collection Care at the Library of Congress: Werner Haun
10:30 am, June 16 & 18: Join Us to Make the Library's Digital Future a Reality: Jennifer Somosky
10:45 am, June 16 & 18: LEO: Library Employment Online: Pam Walker
11:00 am, June 16-17: Telling America's Stories and America's Library Web Site: Maurvene Williams, Guy Lamolinara
11:30 am, June 16, 10:30 & 11:30 am, June 17, 11:30 am, June 18: Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Cataloging in Publication Program: John Celli, Oxana Horodecka, Cassandra Latney
12:00 pm, June 16, 1:30 pm, June 17: Library of Congress Subject Headings Proposals: Lynn El-Hoshy
12:30 pm, June 16: Online Cartographic Materials at the Library of Congress: Colleen Cahill
1:00 pm, June 16, 1:30 pm, June 18: The Learning Page: American Memory Resources for Teachers and Media Specialists: Betty Brown
1:30 pm, June 16, 1:00 pm, June 17: Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS): Betsy Miller
2:00 pm, June 16-18: Classification Web: Online Access to LC Classification: Cataloging Distribution Service: Cheryl Cook
2:30 pm, June 16-18: Cataloging Distribution Service: Cataloger's Desktop and Classification Plus: Jan Herd and Bruce Johnson
3:00 pm, June 16-17: FEDLINK Update: Lynn McDonald
3:30 pm, June 16-17: Octavo: Digital Images of LC Rare Books: Jan Grycz
4:00 pm, June 16 & 18: MARC Distribution Service (MDS) Subscriber Meeting: Cataloging Distribution Service Meeting: Peter Young, Kathryn Mendenhall
9:30 am, June 17: Exhibiting World Treasures Onsite and Online: In the Beginnings: Betsy Nahum-Miller
12:30 pm, June 17, 9:00 am, June 18: Serving the Public With Volunteers and Information Kiosks at the Front Lines: Teri Sierra
4:00 pm, June 17: Artists, Authors, and Copyright: video
4:30 pm, June 17, 12:00 pm, June 18: Online Americana: the American Memory Historical Collections: Linda White
11:00 am, June 18: Portal to the World: Presentation of Area Studies Collections: Everette Larson
12:30 pm, June 18: BeCites+: Enhancing and Expanding Online Subject Bibliographies: Carolyn Larson
1:00 pm, June 18: Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC): a Demonstration: Abby Yochelson
3:00 pm, June 18: Processing Electronic Resources at LC: Identifying, Selecting, Cataloging, and Archiving Internet Resources: Allene Hayes

DIGITAL FUTURE/NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY

National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
The first meeting of the national advisory committee for this effort took place at the Library of Congress on May 1. In December 2000, the 106th Congress appropriated $100 million for this effort, which instructs the Library to spend an initial $25 million to develop and execute a congressionally approved strategic plan for a National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. Congress specified that, of this amount, $5 million may be spent during the initial phase for planning as well as the acquisition and preservation of digital information that may otherwise vanish. The legislation authorizes as much as $75 million of federal funding to be made available as this amount is matched by nonfederal donations, including in-kind contributions, through March 31, 2003. The effect of a government-wide recission of .22 percent in late December was to reduce this special appropriation to $99.8 million.

The legislation calls for the Library to work jointly with the Secretary of Commerce, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Archives and Records Administration. The legislation also directs the Library to seek the participation of "other federal, research and private libraries and institutions with expertise in the collection and maintenance of archives of digital materials," including the National Library of Medicine, the National Agricultural Librar y, the Research Libraries Group, the Online Computer Library Center and the Council on Library and Information Resources.

MINERVA (Mapping the Internet: Electronic Resources Virtual Archive) AAAAA
In its pilot phase, the MINERVA Project's objective is for LC staff to obtain experience in evaluating, selecting, collecting and cataloging online resources for archiving and developing partnerships with other institutions for future advancements. MINERVA is currently working with the Internet Archive to explore bulk collecting of Web resources for archival purposes. CFM staff is responsible for selecting and cataloging Internet resources and for the development and design of the MINERVA Web site.

Sunday, June 17:
"Forum on Digital Reference and Bibliographic Control: Options for Collaboration," 4:30-6:30 pm, Grand Hyatt San Francisco, Dolores Room, cosponsored by the Library of Congress and RUSA. Hosted by Beacher Wiggins, Director for Cataloging and Diane Kresh, Director, Public Service Collections.

Intended as an opportunity for both public and technical services librarians, as well as other interested parties, to share their views on issues of mutual interest relating to the bibliographic control of World Wide Web resources in library collections, the forum is an outgrowth of a recommendation made at the Library of Congress Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium, held November 13-15, 2000, sponsored by the Cataloging Directorate. The forum will build on the momentum generated by the planning for the Collaborative Digital Reference Service.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS INTEGRATED LIBRARY SYSTEM (LC ILS)

Since October 1, 1999, Library staff have conducted acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, serials check-in, and reference service tasks on the Voyager integrated library system developed by Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. On August 21, 2000, the Library officially accepted the LC ILS system after extensive testing and 40 consecutive days of acceptable response times. The LC ILS primary database resides on a Sun E10000 server and includes nearly 12.5 million bibliographic records; approximately 12.5 million holdings records; over 12.9 million item records; approximately 5.4 million authority records; over 28,400 patron records; data for circulation and acquisitions transactions; and over 32,200 vendor records, ledgers, funds, tables, and keyword and other searchable indexes.

Based on Endeavor's expected release of a stable version of Voyager 2000 in late spring 2001 and training for other major Library activities this fall, the Library has deferred implementation until February 2002. The Library requires several months to thoroughly test new software, prepare and deliver training to staff, and install the client software throughout the Library. Although these tasks could be completed by September, it was decided to postpone implementing a new release during September and October - a period of intensive activity for staff preparing for the end of the fiscal year (September 30) and start-up of the next fiscal year. The Library concluded that February is probably the best month of the year in which to implement the most recent Voyager release proven to support the Library's needs. We regret the delay this causes our users in access to LC's name and subject authority records in MARC 21 Format via our Web OPAC and Z39.50.

The next Voyager release includes new features and capabilities especially for acquisitions, serials check-in, and OPAC functions, and also includes the capability to display Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew vernacular characters in the Web OPAC (from data stored in the 880 fields of MARC bibliographic records).

Staff continue to prepare for the migration of Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS/BPH) files to the LC ILS later this year.

After several years of preparation, on Jan. 2, 2001 the Library successfully implemented a re-structuring of the Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN), a key identifier in use at the Library since 1898 (when it began as the Library of Congress Card Number), and a critical element included in every record exported from the LC ILS. Changes in preprocessing routines created by ITS for converting records loaded into the LC ILS from other sources (e.g., the bibliographic utilities) worked flawlessly, and exports of new records containing the restructured LCCNs went smoothly.

The Library continues with its conversion of the 900,000-title serials check-in file that will contribute to the Library's inventory control and materials security initiatives. After completing the letter "F" in the serials file in March, the serials conversion effort shifted from working alphabetically through the Serial Record Visible File to concentrating on special needs such as converting serials handled by the Western European Acquisitions Section and serial entries for state and U.S. federal documents to support the project that is testing serials check-in by Library acquisitions sections.

Staff continued pilot projects to determine the most cost efficient and least time consuming approach to conducting a physical inventory and entering data to the LC ILS in order to achieve the Library's inventory goals of knowing what is in the collections and where these items are located. The pilot process steps included: finding the bibliographic description in the LC ILS, finding or creating the appropriate holdings record/ item record combination, affixing a barcode to the volume, scanning the barcode into the item record, and updating control information in the LC ILS to state that a physical inventory of the volume had been performed. The shelflist card file was used as a supplemental resource during the process. Results from the pilots will be used to request funding to conduct the physical inventory and add data from the 12 million card shelflist to the LC ILS.

Libraries with recent experience in inventory techniques, especially those libraries with extensive collections, are encouraged to contact Joyce Owens ( jowe@loc.gov) in the ILS Program Office.

Additional information can be found on the public ILS home page at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/ils/

ACQUISITIONS DIRECTORATE

Serials Check-in Pilot Project
Following the completion of LC ILS implementation, the Acquisitions Directorate has launched a major business process improvement project intended to assess the costs and benefits of having serials checked in at the front-end of the processing pipeline by staff in the *acquiring* divisions of the Library. For several decades, most serials entering the Library have been checked in to manual files in the Serial Record Division. The ILS now has made it possible to decentralize the serials check-in function. The European/Latin American Acquisitions Division, the Anglo-American Acquisitions Division, and the Serial Record Division have begun a pilot project in which some incoming serials will be checked in before they leave Acquisitions. Serials from Western Europe, mostly in French and Italian, and U.S. Federal, state, and local government documents are the subject of the initial pilot project. We anticipate being able, as a result of this decentralization and the elimination of several procedural steps, to process serials more efficiently, providing better service to our readers. The pilot project begun in March 2001 continues and the next phase will include the decentralized check-in of serials received through copyright deposit.

CATALOGING DIRECTORATE

Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT) see also Electronic Resources Cataloging
The Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT) was formed in December 1992 as a Cataloging Directorate program to develop tools to aid catalogers, reference specialists, and searchers in creating and locating information. The Team seeks to enrich the content of Library of Congress bibliographic records as well as improve access to the data the records contain, and conducts research and development in areas that can contribute to furthering these efforts. Additional information regarding BEAT and its work may be found at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/beat/

Electronic-CIP Support (ECIP). As an increasing number of publishers enroll in the ECIP program, BEAT seeks to support the incorporation of increasing numbers of TOC in ECIP records. More than 4,500 ECIP records have now been created and it is expected that the number of TOC records associated with these CIP records will increase due to the steady expansion of the ECIP program during the next few years. During fiscal 2000, TOC data were included in the MARC records for approximately 21%.

Tables of Contents/Digital Tables of Contents. The Digital Tables of Contents project creates machine readable TOC data from TOC surrogates, and materials are subsequently HTML-encoded and placed on a server at the Library. The process cross-links the TOC to underlying MARC catalog records, and makes links from the catalog to the enriched data provided by the TOC. Both the MARC records themselves and the linked TOC data may be viewed through a Web browser by accessing the Library's online catalog. At present more than 2,600 TOC have been created and linked, and because of interest in these files and perhaps because of Internet indexing, more that 230,000 hits on the TOC files section of the Cataloging Directorate Web pages have been recorded. New and Expanded Projects Planned for 2001-2002
BECites+/Area Portals/Subject Pathfinders. Begun in 1999, the BECites+ initiative pursues the goal of enhancing traditional printed library bibliographies not only by placing them on the Web in electronic form, but also by including annotated citations, tables of contents, indexes, and back-of-book bibliographies cited therein. Reciprocal links are made between all of these data elements and the online catalog record for each title in the bibliography selected for a BECites+ project as well as to the electronic *webliography* in which it is cited. Links to pertinent online journal indexes, other related Web resources, and to applicable subject headings in the Library's OPAC are also included. The project will complete projects currently in progress and expand into new areas within the Library's Public Service Collections and Area Studies Collections Directorates. Among the subjects being developed in coordination with the Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Division are materials on Thomas Jefferson, two sets of materials dealing with immigrant arrivals, and information regarding small business and entrepreneurship. With Area Studies representatives, BEAT will support the Area Studies Portals initiative. This project is designed to provide access to online resources for all international regions of the world. CORC Pathfinders will be one product of this initiative. More information about BECites+ may be found at http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/guide/

ONIX. ONIX is a means of representing book industry product information that is being used by some publishers today to communicate that data electronically. BEAT has two ONIX-related initiatives awaiting development this year: Implementing a project to utilize data from existing files within the scope of BEAT interests, notably TOC; and exploring the possibility of using ONIX for "outgoing" records with NewBooks distribution.

Support development and roll out of the NewBooks Program. NewBooks is an initiative under which participating publishers will provide information about forthcoming books to the Library of Congress, which in turn will make information available on its Web page as well as through data distributed by the LC Cataloging Distribution Service. The data may include access to the catalog record as well as substantially enhanced information about the item, links to publishers and to local libraries. CIP Division chief John Celli is the principal for this project. The New Books Web site is at http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/ecip/celli/welc01.html

Cataloging in Publication (CIP)
The 30th anniversary of the CIP program will be celebrated at ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. Quality Books will host a reception in celebration of the CIP program¢s 30th anniversary on Friday, June 15, 5:00-7:00 pm at the San Francisco Marriott , Salon 4-6, 55 Fourth Street. This will be an opportunity to thank publishers for their role in the Cataloging in Publication Program.

CIP will sponsor a 2-hour ALA ALCTS program, *CIP: a Vision for the Future* on Monday, June 18 at 2:00 pm, Moscone Center, room 306. John Celli, chief, Cataloging Distribution Service, Craig Van Dyck, vice-president of Manufacturing, Scientific, Technica l, Medical Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, and Pat Thomas, 44-year librarian and Margaret Mann Award recipient, will trace milestones of the CIP program and demo the New Books Program.

The ECIP program continues to expand rapidly. In May, 660 ECIP galleys were cataloged; the total year-to-date (through May) is 4,629. Since the inception of the ECIP program in fiscal year 1997, a total of 20,132 ECIP galleys has been cataloged. The number of participating publishers now stands at 918.

Cataloging Policy

New MARC 21 Data Elements in LC Bibliographic and Authority Records. Lists identifying data elements from recent updates to the MARC 21 Bibliographic and Authority Formats that will become valid in LC's system are available at the CPSO Web page, http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso. The lists are provided to assist in evaluating the impact on automated systems as these elements could be present in records distributed by the Library of Congress; they do not necessarily reflect values that will be actively supplied by LC cataloging staff. In addition to these elements that will be implemented in August 2001 (no earlier than August 15), there is also a list of elements that will NOT become valid in LC's system until LC implements an upgrade to its existing system (February 2002 at the earliest). LC Classification. The 2001 editions of D-DR (History (General) and History of Europe) and G (Geography, Maps, etc.), and KL-KWX (Law of Asia and Eurasia, Africa, Pacific Area and Antarctica) were sent for publication.

Fiction Cataloging. Instructions on fiction cataloging were updated in the most recent distribution of the Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings, 2001 Update Number 1, H 1790. LC is applying these special provisions for increased subject access to fiction as internal resources permit. As of January 2001 these provisions are being applied to cataloging for current acquisitions of American novels and novels of other English-language literature.

Art Cataloging. On February 1, 2001, the location of geographic subdivisions in art subject headings was changed to conform to the standard order used for most other topics with geographic subdivisions preceding chronological subdivisions. Headings such as Drawing--20th century--France were reformulated as Drawing, French--20th century. Painting, Modern--20th century--France has been changed to Painting, French--20th century. CPSO has changed 248 subject authority records affected by this standardization in the formulation of art subject heading strings. Work has begun within CPSO to update subject headings assigned to existing bibliographic records in the LC database. Subject Cataloging Manual instruction sheet H 1250, "Art and Fine Art," was revised and a new list of free-floating subdivisions, including chronological subdivisons, was created for application to art headings (Cf. H 1148). Both instruction sheet and free-floating subdivision list were included in the 2001 Update Number 1 of the SCM: Subject Headings.

Decimal Classification (Dewey)
Decimal Classification Division classifiers at the Library of Congress assigned Dewey Decimal Classification numbers to 68,556 bibliographic records during the first eight months of Fiscal Year 2001. New developments for Sign languages, North Germanic (Nordic) languages and literatures, and new History numbers reflecting the change of administrations in the United States, South Africa, Mexico, and Peru were implemented during this period.

The editors will be present at the Dewey breakfast/update sponsored by OCLC Forest Press on Saturday, June 16, 7:00-8:30 a.m., at the Argent Hotel, City Room. In addition to an update on the DDC, WebDewey from the user's perspective will be discussed, as will the newest Forest Press publication "People, Places & Things."

The WebDewey in CORC focus group will meet on Sunday, June 17, 2:00-3:30 p.m., San Francisco Hilton & Towers, OCLC Blue Suite for an in-depth discussion of WebDewey in CORC with the editors and OCLC staff.

Electronic Resources Cataloging
We announce the availability of the draft *Bibliographic Control of Web Resources: A Library of Congress Action Plan.* This Plan stems directly from recommendations made during the Library's Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium, November 15-17, 2000. The plan can be viewed on the Conference Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/bibcontrol/conference.html. Comments on the plan should be directed to Judy Mansfield, chief of the Arts and Sciences Division, in writing via email at juma@loc.gov or via fax at 202-707-0973.

Proceedings of the entire Conference have been published and will be available for sale at the LC exhibit booth. The publication is: Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium (2001), 574 pages, ISBN 0-8444-1046-2; $45 North America/$50 outside North America. To order please contact: Library of Congress, Cataloging Distribution Service, Customer Services Section, Washington, DC 20541-4912 U.S.A.; e-mail: cdsinfo@loc.gov .

BeOnline+. The BeOnline+ Team, chaired by Sue Vita, Chief of SMCD, is leading the initiative to mainstream the processing of electronic resources throughout the Cataloging Directorate. Begun as a pilot project in 1996, BEOnline (Business and Economics Online), this project has become the first of the BEAT activities to move from demonstration to mainstream ongoing cataloging work. Fifteen subject catalogers volunteered from all cataloging divisions to work with the Team's first phase of expansion. They have begun working with an online workflow, testing a paperless system for processing and distributing Internet resources. Testing and experimenting with this paperless workflow showed the need for an automated traffic manager, and a request has been submitted to the Automation Planning and Liaison Office. All monograph cataloging divisions have been asked to volunteer two senior catalogers for three-to-four month, full time details to the CFM Team to learn descriptive cataloging of electronic resources.

The Technical Processing and Automated Instruction Office and BeOnline+ are collaborating on training for catalogers to catalog electronic resources in all of the divisions. OCLC's Web-Based course, *Cataloging Internet Resources Using MARC 21 and AACR 2,* has been purchased and will be used as part of the training offered to catalogers. Please visit http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/business/beonline for current status and future developments.

Two senior music catalogers have begun training for cataloging of direct and remote electronic music resources. Cataloging of these materials will become a standard work assignment for the Music and Sound Recordings Teams.

CD Workflow. Since its inception in April 2000, this new workflow has achieved currency in creation of initial bibliographic control records (IBCs) for all published popular and classical CD receipts. Staff have created approximately 23,000 records. Beginning in May 2001, we will make approximately half of all newly created IBCs available for distribution. Designed for automated matching with OCLC records, these records contain enough information to accurately identify the items as well as information that provides useful, if not complete, keyword access to musical groups, performers, composers, and titles. The automated matching and authority processing components of this workflow are still in the testing phase.

Machine-Derived Authority Records (MDARs). The final load of 7,000 MDAR records was accomplished in early August 2000. These records were combed for errors via machine-processing and we received reports of obvious problems. We finished correction of all identified authority and bibliographic record errors in early February 2001. No more MDARs will be created; with the implementation of the LC ILS, LC catalogers create headings for all names and name-title headings used in music records.

NACO Music. The NACO Music workflow is changing to provide speedier response to requests and more straightforward submission guidelines. An email account ( nacomus@loc.gov) has been established to accept all requests for maintenance to music bibliographic records or music name/series authorities. The responsibility for handling these requests will be shared by all senior music catalogers. UPC/EAN codes. As part of the CD Workflow (see above), the MSR teams began to include UPC/EAN codes in bibliographic records for sound recordings. The scannability of these codes insures accurate and efficient searches in the LC Database for these materials. These have proven so useful, in fact, that the LC Music Cataloging Advisory Group is considering the possible use of these codes for current score cataloging as well.

NUCMC


The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) is pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached with OCLC for a trial gateway. Since April 23 the NUCMC Web page ( http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll.nucmc ) has contained a link to a search form that provides access to OCLC archival and manuscript cataloging through LC's Z39.50 client. No account number or password is required to use the gateway.

This gateway, in conjunction with the existing NUCMC/RLIN gateway that has been running since the summer of 1996, goes a long way to fulfilling the decades-old NUCMC mission of providing access to information relating to archival and manuscript collections in U.S. repositories. The cataloging in OCLC and RLIN is a critically important source of such information. In the thirty-four years during which NUCMC distributed cataloging in printed volumes, it produced descriptions of some 72,000 collections; the new *virtual* NUCMC provides access to over three-quarters of a million catalog records in the two bibliographic utilities.

There is one caution in using the OCLC gateway. This gateway will retrieve between 90 to 95% of the archival and manuscript cataloging in OCLC. (The gateway will retrieve those records with Leader 06 values of *b* and *p*; it will not retrieve those records with the Leader 06 value of *t.*) Informal polling has indicated that such a gateway will be useful even if it does not retrieve 100% of the relevant records and therefore this gateway is being made available as a pilot.

Under our agreement with OCLC, the trial is to run for a period not to exceed six months or for a specific number of searches, whichever is reached first. Prior to the expiration of the pilot, LC and OCLC will evaluate the results of the period of free access to determine the costs and feasibility of possibly continuing the gateway. NUCMC welcomes comments regarding the usefulness of the gateway and suggestions of ways to improve it. Please respond directly to NUCMC nucmc@loc.gov

Pinyin Romanization
All 172,487 LC Chinese bibliographic records have been converted by RLG, and all 8870 Chinese CONSER records have been converted by OCLC. Converted bib records were then loaded into the LC database, and distributed by the Library's Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS). OCLC will also convert Wade-Giles access points on non-Chinese CONSER records. The Library will continue to work with OCLC to plan their conversion of non-Chinese bib records in the WorldCat database. The Library plans to identify and convert access points on its own non-Chinese bib records later this year.

Cleanup of authority records is nearing completion. NACO volunteers have reviewed and modified well over half of the 8362 Chinese non-unique personal name authority records. This task should be completed within the next several months.

Since January, LC catalogers have been working diligently to reduce the backlog of Chinese material that accumulated during the moratorium last year. For that reason, strategies are being developed to utilize other resources to correct converted bib records. Unconverted text that affects access will be corrected first.

The Library continues to share information about the conversion project on its pinyin home page, http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin. There are explanations of how authority and bib records converted, along with new, detailed explanations of conversion errors and inconsistencies; periodic updates to the project timeline; and tips for classifying and Cuttering Chinese material after pinyin conversion, particularly Chinese literary authors. In addition, a draft clarification of LC's implementation of pinyin romanization guidelines was circulated for comment; after the many helpful comments have been analyzed, a revised, final version will be posted.

Detailed information about the conversion of subject headings is also being prepared for the pinyin home page. There will be lists of headings that converted correctly, those that need to be updated, and those that were not converted by the machine program (and therefore need to be converted manually).

Please send questions concerning conversion specifications, romanization practices, and converted authority and LC bibliographic records to Philip Melzer at pmel@loc.gov

Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Activities

Future directions and long-range planning for the component programs occupied much of the time since ALA Midwinter. The following reports are now available on the PCC Web page, <"A HREF="http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/"> http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/:

  • Summary of the PCC Participants' Meeting held at ALA Midwinter 2001;
  • Summary of BIBCO-At-Large Meeting ALA Midwinter 2001;
  • Final report of the PCC SCT Task Group on PCC Participant and Training Documentation;
  • Interim report of the PCC Task Force on Multiple Manifestations of Electronic Resources;
  • Final report of the PCC Task Force on 042 Task Group;
  • FAQ on the 670;
  • FAQ on BFM;
  • Report of the Task Group on Automated Classification;
  • Notes of the SCA Meeting;
  • the lists of members and charges of 2 new Standing Committee on Standards task groups:
    1. SCS Task Group on the Function of the Authority File; and
    2. PCC-SCS Task Group on Conference Publications.

At the request of LC's PCC Secretariat, the Cataloging Distribution Service has agreed to allow posting the PCC documentation to the PCC Web site, in addition to making the documentation available in print via CDS, to facilitate retrieval. The newly published SACO Participants' Manual is now available on the SACO home page and will soon be made available by CDS in print and on Cataloger's Desktop.

The PCC Brochure has been revised and copies are to be available for distribution in San Francisco. The revised edition includes new Program participant quotes and a foreword from Larry Alford, Chair of the PCC.

CONSER (Serial Bibliographic Records component of the PCC)
CONSER welcomed two new members, the University of Chicago and New York University. This brings membership at all levels in the program to 41 members.

Participants in the CONSER Publication Pattern Initiative have completed the first year of a two year pilot to add publication pattern data to CONSER and other OCLC records. The goal set in January 2001 of inputting 1,000 patterns to CONSER records by ALA Annual Conference in June has been reached. In late February, OCLC successfully loaded publication pattern data to almost 40,000 CONSER records. Several ILS vendors have expressed interest in using subsets of the CONSER records to develop enhanced abilities to use the data. A number of MARBI discussion papers have also been generated as a result of task force efforts to improve the MARC 21 Format for Holdings Data.

The Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program (SCCTP) released its second course, Serial Holdings Workshop, in late February and a number of sessions have been held or are in the planning stages. Two new courses are currently under development, Advanced Serials and Electronic Journals. Both will be available in 2002 after the revisions to chapters 9 and 12 of AACR2 have been published.

South Africa. The National Library of South Africa requested an exception to NACO procedures for the addition of cross references. In consultation with OCLC, RLG, and the Network Development and MARC Standards Office, the Cataloging Directorate assessed the ramifications and status of adding 7XX fields to MARC 21 authority records in order to accommodate this request. The official response was sent to the National Library of South Africa, which agreed to the proposal offered for the implementation of the 7XX linking references between authority files, thereby eliminating the alternative practice of incorporating those headings as non-AACR2 cross references in the Name Authority File. This decision sets the stage for broadening participation internationally. NDMSO is incorporating into MARC 21 Authority Format the pre-existing institutional codes to be used in the second indicator as the value in subfield 2 of the MARC 7XX fields at the request of several countries, including South Africa.

SACO (Subject Authorities component of the PCC)
The publication of the SACO Participants Manual has been announced and the manual will be available at the LC booth at the ALA Annual Conference.

Two SACO workshops will be held during ALA Annual in San Francisco, a basic subject workshop and instruction on ethnic groups and ethnic qualifiers used in subject headings. Increasing interest in classes about applying LCSH have led to plans for a week-long SACO workshop at LC in the Fall of 2001 for invited members from Latin American institutions. Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina received two weeks of subject cataloging and classification training in late February/early March.

Cataloging (Books and Serials) Production

			                             	FY01 through April			FY00			
		             	                 			
		LC Full/Core-Level Cataloging    		97,575					159,091	           		
		Copy  Cataloging                               	14,750					  22,477		
		Minimal-Level  Cataloging	 	  9,632 					  16,080 		  	
Collection-Level Cataloging   		   2,133 					    3,009  		    
TOTAL records created                     	124,090					200,657			   
TOTAL volumes cataloged          	   	N/A					224,544    		
		Authority Records			
		Names  		          	       		49,085					86,992			   
		Series					4,548 					 6,772
		Subjects					3,775	 				 7,494    			
TOTAL              		       		57,408					101,258			   
For more information contact: Beacher J. Wiggins, Director for Cataloging, Library of Congress, LM 642, Washington, DC 20540-4300 (telephone: 202-707-5333 or Internet: bwig@loc.gov).

NATIONAL SERVICES DIRECTORATE

Cataloging Distribution Service
Classification Web. The Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) will be demonstrating Classification Web, a new subscription service that will provide libraries worldwide with Web access to Library of Congress Classification and Library of Congress Subject Headings. Demonstrations will take place in the Library's exhibit booth theater at 2:00 PM on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and throughout the day at the CDS workstations in the booth. Following a highly successful pilot test conducted from January-May 2001, CDS is moving forward with plans to have Classification Web on the market later in 2001.

OPERATIONS DIRECTORATE

Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO)
Standards
Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS). The Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard is an XML schema designed for the purpose of describing digital objects in library collections. The schema provides a standard form for the recording and transmission of structural, administrative, and technical metadata. The schema is currently at the alpha draft stage, draws on the experience gained in the Making of America projects. The development of METS is an initiative of the Digital Library Federation. The NDMSO is participating in the development effort and will also serve as the maintenance agency for the proposed standard.

Descriptive metadata. Concentrating on metadata initiatives, NDMSO staff continued to participate in the Dublin Core effort by providing the chair of the DC-Libraries Interest Group and as a member of the newly formed DC-Usage Board. In addition NDMSO has been active through membership on committees charged with development of aspects of Open Ebook Identifiers and Metadata and the publisher initiatied ONIX formats. NDMSO helped complete and XML DTD for the Handbook of Latin American Studies implementation project. The first volume printed using the DTD will be tested in mid-July.

MARC Organization codes. In February the MARC Organization Codes became available online, being served from LC's implementation of SiteSearch. LC has also made recent changes to the procedures for assignment and maintenance for MARC organization codes to better serve the global use of the format. For example, LC will be phasing out its assignment responsibility for South Africa, transferring it to the National Library of South Africa (NLSA). This is an arrangement already in place for many years with the National Library of Canada. In the future, MARC users will be referred to NLC and NLSA organization code Web sites for codes for Canadian and South African organizations.

URNs for National Bibliography Numbers. LC continued to work with Finland and other national Libraries on a URN NID registration request for national bibliography numbers (NBNs). The proposal is an Internet Draft that expires July 30. There had been no comments from the URN community, so the current draft is likely stable. Some national libraries are already actively assigning URNs based on NBNs to their electronic resources. This work was sponsored by the Conference of Directors of National Libraries.

Implementation Activities
NACO expansion. Work has begun at LC to make AG-Canada a NACO node. AG-Canada will maintain a copy of the NACO file and their member institutions that are NACO participants will be able to contribute new and update records directly to LC each day via FTP.

Z39.50 Gateway. LC's WWW/Z39.50 Gateway now contains more than 450 databases on 375 servers; 115 of the databases listed are non-US, from over 15 other countries. Servers of eighteen different library vendors are represented.

Vendor records. In April LC added three vendors to the list of those sending MARC bibliographic records for titles they supply to LC. A.I. Weinberg records for Israeli imprints are now being loaded into RLIN for use as IBC records. Records from Publicaciones Azteca and Ediciones Iturriaga, which provide initial bibliographic control for titles from Mexico and Peru, respectively, are now being loaded directly to the LC Database (Voyager) for use in the acquisitions and cataloging workstream.

LC is moving forward with projects for other vendors. Generally once LC has worked with a vendor and the records are available to LC, they are offered by the vendor to others customers, helping all to have records for initial bibliographic control. LC has made a manual available to vendors, on the Internet, that provides guidance on creating MARC records suitable for initial library bibliographic control.

Web Coordination and Development
Web Redesign Activities. NDSMO is heavily involved in activities to redesign the Library's public Web site with a User-Centered approach. The Library has contracted with an external vendor to assist them in this process. The Library is in the first phase of the project, focused on internal data collection and *usability testing* of the current interface. A newly designed home page is expected by January of 2002, which will include a new *high-level* navigation architecture as well as a new design.

Section 508 Compliance. The Library of Congress, although not legally bound to, has made a commitment to Section 508, which was added in 1986 to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and further strengthened by the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 to require that electronic and information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by Federal departments or agencies be accessible to people with disabilities. The Library will be making every attempt to continue to make its Web site fully accessible to all users, by following the guidelines as set forth in Section 508, which take effect on June 21 government-wide. NDMSO is currently assisting the Library in locating software to automate the process of validating pages on its Web site for 508 compliance.

PRESERVATION DIRECTORATE

National Preservation Policy Planning Conference
The Library of Congress has announced its intention to convene a National Preservation Policy Planning Conference later this year, probably September. This conference will draw on ideas developed during the Library of Congress bicentennial symposium, *To Preserve and Protect,* last October, as well as on recommendations anticipated in the report of the Council on Library and Information Resources' Task Force on the Artifact in Library Collections. The focus of the conference will be on preservation of printed materials in original format. Most newspaper and serials publishers continue to print on acidic papers, creating problems that will plague libraries for years to come. The Library will work with appropriate partners, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Council on Library and Information Resources, the Association of Research Libraries and others to develop a national plan for ensuring that American creativity will remain available to all future generations.

Getty Grant to Support Conservation Training
The Preservation Directorate has received a three-year grant from the Getty Grant Program to support the training of conservation professionals. The award of $141,000 will be matched by the Library to support postgraduate training in preventive conservation, an area of increasing importance in the Library's preservation programs. Senior conservators in the Preservation Directorate at the Library of Congress will train one conservator a year in the theory and practice of preventive conservation. The internships, which offer a stipend, will focus primarily on laboratory training, with one month devoted to visiting select museums and libraries to record the state of preventive conservation in practice. The findings will be published in a report.

Additionally, the Directorate has awarded three advanced fellowships to conservation post graduates.

Mass Deacidification
The Library has deacidified 340,000 books to date using the Bookkeeper process and negotiated for the installation of a Bookkeeper treatment chamber in the Library to process non-book materials. It is projected that this facility will treat 1 million items per year. These efforts are part of the Library's strategic plan to deacidify 1 million books and 5 million manuscripts over five years.

PUBLIC SERVICE COLLECTIONS DIRECTORATE

Digital Delivery. More than 60 small books and rare pamphlets have been *delivered* over the Internet to ILL requesters since last October through a pilot project involving Loan Division and the Library's Information Technology Services. Known colloquially as scan-on-demand, its motto is *Scan Once, Access Always* and it's goal is to explore the practicality of digitizing rare and brittle items that cannot be photocopied safely in response to an ILL request. Once scanned, the item is available as a PDF file through the ILL Web site and also through a permanent link from the item's catalog record. The pilot has caused us to consider a number of related issues, including policies for selecting material to be scanned, workflow design where time constraints must be part of the scanning timetable, file structures for service and archival files, and patron reactions to digitization as a delivery medium. It has also brought new relevance to questions about the archival nature of digital files and their use as surrogates for the original, especially when an item may be too rare or fragile for future use.

Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS)

New Online Catalog Describes Sound Recordings.
The new database, called SONIC (Sound ONline Inventory and Catalog), includes some 350,000 entries representing more than 25 percent of the Library's sound recording holdings. SONIC is available through the Library's Web site at http://www.loc.gov/rr/record SONIC contains information on nearly all the 45 rpm discs, 78 rpm discs acquired since 1982, commercial audio cassettes, unpublished copyright deposits on cassette and CD and many special collections in various formats. Recordings of both music and spoken word are represented include such diverse materials as the 68,000 NBC Radio broadcasts, 82,000 78 rpm discs, 100,000 45 rpm discs, and 50,000 cassettes and CD-ROMs.

The catalog is the product of more than a decade of special efforts to inventory fully the audio collections of the Library of Congress. the largest publicly available audio collection in the world. SONIC, which employs Cuadra STAR software and is fully searchable, describes recordings in considerably more detail than a normal inventory, but is not full cataloging. Return to List of Libraries


UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

From: Leighann Ayers layers@umich.edu

University of Michigan Round Robin

Staffing

A search is underway for a new Associate Director for TAS (Technical and Access Services)

E-Book Conference

On May 10 and 11th The University of MIchigan Library and Blackwell Book Services co-sponsored a well attended e-book conference in Ann Arbor entitled: The Changing Landscape of Scholarly Publishing: Print Collections, E-books, and Beyond. The keynote speaker was Richard Lanham, President of Rhetorica, Inc.

Library Management System

The RFP for a new LMS is almost completed and will be sent to vendors in the next several weeks.

Preservation

We have moved from project to program mode in our offering conversion to digital format as part of our brittle books replacement effort. New binding options have been added to the contract for commercial library binding services, which has resulted in increased capacity without adding staff. A two and one half year effort to deacidify mathematics monographs has been completed.

ILL

A national conference on ILL is planned for November 2001 in Ann Arbor. It is jointly sponsored with ARL. Details are available on the website: http://www.lib.umich.edu/shapingill/

ILL continues to use the British Library as a source for article borrowing requests which has reduced overall turnaround time for copies. We are exploring whether this funding model can be sustained.

Cataloging

A project to catalog the Shakespeare Collection in the Special Collections Library is well under way. This effort was undertaken in support of the month long visit of the Royal Shakespeare Company during March 2001.

___________________________

Leighann Ayers
Head, Acquisitions/Serials Division
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1205

Return to List of Libraries


UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

From: Barbara A. Stelmasik b-stel@maroon.tc.umn.edu

University of Minnesota Round Robin Report--June 2001

SEARCHES

The search is underway for a new Director of Libraries. In January Tom Shaughnessy announced his intention to retire effective September 30, 2001. Tom has been asked (and has agreed) to delay his departure to Dec. 31 to allow more time to complete the search before he leaves. A full description for job number EVPP 372 is at http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/employ.html A search is also underway for a new AUL for information technology. http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/ul138.phtml

UNIVERSITY FUNDING

We are very pre-occupied with our larger environment. There were clear indications in all the budget discussions at the legislature that there is little support to fund the University at levels sufficient to cover even mandated pay increases or increased health care costs. Thus, the president of the University, Mark Yudof, proposes we move to a high tuition model and reduce our dependence on state support. The regents are supportive of this new direction.

EX LIBRIS

We have signed a contract with Ex Libris and together with our colleagues in the MnLINK project have begun preparations to implement the Aleph system. Goal dates are still approximate, but we hope to have full implementation at the Twin Cities Campus libraries by summer 2002, with implementation at the coordinate campuses (Crookston, Duluth, Morris) to follow. We have begun planning how to clean up records and eliminate duplicate records prior to migration.

SPECIAL CATALOGING PROJECTS

In technical services we continue to fit in as many special cataloging projects as funds and time allow. Currently we are making good headway contracting cataloging a Sherlock Holmes collection and Arabic and Hebrew materials. We acquired and loaded records for state legislative documents from our PALS colleagues. Other in house documents and special collection projects are just starting. We also have a variety of classification projects underway including classifying the science periodicals, reclassing some Dewey to LC and transferring materials to the MLAC storage facility.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES PROCEDURES

We are working with a new library E-resources committee to review procedures and statistics. We are doing better at keeping up with record creation, url maintenance and contract and licensing for E-resources.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Barbara A. Stelmasik, Team Leader
Materials Acquisition and Control
University of Minnesota Libraries
160 Wilson Library
309-19th Ave. So.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Mailto:b-stel@tc.umn.edu
Phone: 612-625-8074
Fax: 612-625-3428
http://staff.lib.umn.edu/
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NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY

National Agricultural Library Update

June 2001

Pamela Q.J. Andre Retires as National Agricultural Library Director

Pamela Q. J. André retired on June 1, 2001 as Director of the National Library, a position she had held for 7 years. A national recruitment for a new director is underway; the deadline for applications is July 16, 2001.

Acquisition of New Electronic Library Management System

NAL will be replacing its automated library system installed over 13 years ago with a new electronic library management system. The Library has secured funding to begin the purchase of major components of the system this fiscal year. The entire process of purchasing and converting to a new system is expected to take at least 18 months until we are operational under a new system. This is a high priority project for NAL and will involve all units of the library as we implement new automated support f or acquisitions, serials management, including holdings data, cataloging/indexing, interlibrary loan, circulation, document delivery and a Web-based online public catalog.

Blue Ribbon Panel

An Interagency Panel ("Blue Ribbon Panel") was convened last year to review NAL's management, staff, organization, and programs. The distinguished panel is chaired by Dr. Larry Vanderhoef, Chancellor, University of California at Davis. The Panel conducted a series of surveys during December and January to obtain input from customers, Library Directors, Librarians, and the NAL staff. On March 12, the Blue Ribbon Panel met in Washington, D.C. to review the preliminary findings from the various surveys, as well as other task group reports. The meeting was held at the office of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. The final report will be completed by the end of the year, and the panel's recommendations reported to the Secretary of Agriculture.

Shortfall in Funding for Library Subscriptions

The NAL materials budget has received no increases for paper journal subscriptions since 1995 and was reduced in 2001 by over 13%. Serial subscriptions have been canceled each year since 1997 to stay within the budget. The titles canceled thus far have been either duplicates or in subjects outside of NAL's core collecting responsibility, such as youth development, family studies, library science, or general interest. The Library's holdings in chemistry and non-veterinary medicine were reviewed, and some titles in those subjects were canceled if available elsewhere or published in non-English languages. If there are no increases in the materials budget for the upcoming year, NAL will be canceling more titles in subjects collected at the research level, such as chemistry, general economics, biology and microbiology. Usage data and information on other library's holdings will be used in making the decisions.

NAL Hosts Invasive Species

Invasivespecies.gov ( http://www.invasivespecies.gov) is an online information system to facilitate access to and exchange of data and information on invasive species. The National Agricultural Library developed the Web site in collaboration with the U.S. Department of the Interior, to follow through on Executive Order 13112 on Invasive Species. The site was launched in July 2000, and today includes links to more than 3,500 unique information resources.

Addition of Retrospective Indexing Records to AGRICOLA

On May 15, 2001, the National Agricultural Library completed a project to add 1,091,702 retrospective indexing records created in the years 1970 - 1978 to its AGRICOLA database. The addition of these records establishes a complete master AGRICOLA database at NAL. Detailed information about the format and contents of these records can be found at NAL's AGRICOLA Web site. URL: http://www.nal.usda.gov/ag98/technot3.htm

Older Serials Records Added to ISIS Catalog

Over 9,000 records describing older serial titles published between 1862 - 1950 and held in the collection at NAL have been added to NAL's ISIS online public access catalog. Most of these records are older USDA bulletins and series that have not previously been announced in any online database. The converted records contain all of the descriptive information from the original manual cards, but the cataloging was not upgraded to current standards and has not been distributed to OCLC or other bibliographic utilities.

Agronomy Journal CD-ROM

In cooperation with the American Society of Agronomy the National Agricultural Library's National Text Digitizing Program (NATDP) has produced the AGRONOMY JOURNAL (Vol. 36-41) CD-ROM. The CD-ROM contains Volumes 36 through 40 of the JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF AGRONOMY, and Volumes 40 through 41 of the AGRONOMY JOURNAL, covering the years 1944 to 1949. The database is composed of page images (one for each page) linked to searchable, bibliographic data for all articles, notes, obituaries, and some meeting reports. Most of the bibliographic records were downloaded from NAL's AGRICOLA database. Additional records were added by NATDP to provide access to sections which are not journal articles or were not listed in the table of contents. A "HOST RECORD" was added for each journal issue. It provides access to the title page, the table of contents, and some additional pages. The database contains 1071 records and about 6000 page images.

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NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE

NLM Update for ALA Annual (June 2001)

From: Duane Arenales ARENALED@mail.nlm.nih.gov

Derived Files Project:

Over 143,000 monographic and chapter records from five special NLM databases (HSTAR, HISTLINE, SPACELINE, BIOETHICSLINE and POPLINE) have been successfully loaded into NLM's OPAC, Locatorplus. In addition, in early June Cataloging successfully converted and loaded the chapter records from BACK75 of MEDLINE bringing to an end a two year effort to consolidate data into the Voyager bibliographic file.

New Database Product:

In March we announced the availability of CATFILEplus, a new product added to NLM's suite of bibliographic records for books, serials, audiovisuals, and other resources available in the MARC 21 format at no cost to licensees. The new data distribution includes NLM cataloging records, as well as monographs and monograph chapter records created by contributing special producers in the fields of bioethics, health technology assessment, history of medicine, population studies, and space.

A major difference from the standard weekly CATFILE distribution is that subject headings in CATFILEplus are not recombined into the traditional subject heading string generally found in library catalogs (main heading – topical heading - form subheading - language subheading). Subject headings are distributed in separate fields as they are stored in LOCATORplus, NLM's online public access catalog, specifically in MARC 21 fields 650, 651, 655 and the NLM locally-defined field 659.

CATFILEplus is made available to licensees for pick-up via ftp on a monthly basis and the monthly distribution is estimated to range from 4,000-6,000 records.

NLM Classification on the Web:

NLM unveiled a beta web version of the NLM Classification at the Medical Library Association meeting in late May. While catalogers in the field try out the beta version, NLM is continuing developmental work an d is updating the index and schedules with additions and changes through MeSH 2002. The full production version should be available by the MLA annual meeting in 2002.

Pinyin Conversion

NLM’s conversion of Chinese language records and related authorities from Wade-Giles to pinyin is scheduled for the end of 2001. We have already completed conversion of the bibliographic description for Chinese language serials indexed in MEDLINE, but name access points for these records have not yet been pinyinized, and they not included in the record distribution to OCLC, RLIN, etc. Since last October, catalogers have used pinyin for creating bibliographic and related authority records for Chinese language monographs and serials.

ILS:

NLM installed the Voyager Release 2000.1.2 in mid-February. We are postponing the upgrade to Voyager Release 2000.1.3 Gold until Endeavor fixes additional WebVoyage bugs which affect performance and date limit searching. Testing of the Gold release was conducted using NLM's test server.

We have begun discussions with Endeavor on NLM's contracted binding module. No date has been determined for delivery.

SERHOLD:

Several major initiatives are underway to develop a wider variety of mechanisms for contributing data to SERHOLD, NLM's serials holdings database used to route DOCLINE interlibrary loan requests. Currently NLM is programming the batch update of SERHOLD from OCLC data. It is also working with OCLC on a pilot project to update OCLC holdings data with data from SERHOLD. If the pilot project is successful, libraries with holdings in both OCLC and SERHOLD will have three update choices - (1) update their holdings in SERHOLD and then send the data to OCLC, (2) update their holdings in OCLC and then send them to SERHOLD, or (3) enter data directly in both systems.

Specifications are still to be written for a MARC 21 to SERHOLD batch update program. In the fall, we also will begin investigating the feasibility of providing holdings data from SERHOLD to PubMed for libraries that use PubMed's LinkOut feature.

Preservation and Collection Management:

A random sample of NLM's post-1800 collection was conducted to determine how much of the collection would benefit from deacidification. Results indicated that: an estimated 66,000 additional volumes have become brittle since the collection was surveyed in 1985; 529,680 volumes on acidic and not yet brittle paper could be deacidified; and an additional 262,920 volumes are on acidic and slightly glossy paper that may benefit from deacidification processes that are under development. Only 12% of the volumes added to the collection since 1996 are on acidic paper. We are in the process of identifying the publishers of these materials and will contact them regarding the desirability of using alkaline paper for future publications.

NLM has begun examining the general collection to identify computer files and older videos that are deteriorating or in formats that are becoming obsolete.

Permanence Ratings:

A working group has developed a rating system for communicating levels of permanence for NLM’s electronic publications. The ratings indicate whether the identifier, content, or availability of a resource could change over time. A rating of "Permanent" indicates NLM's commitment to archive a given resource. A list of requirements for implementing permanence ratings and other metadata has been developed and various software packages are being investigated.

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NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

From: Cynthia Clark cclark@nypl.org

New York Public Library
– The Research Libraries

Round Robin Report

ALA Annual Conference, San Francisco

Cataloging

We're looking forward to reorganizing the Cataloging Division by early next fiscal year. The most significant changes will result in the creation of a Maintenance and Authorities Section and a Fast Track Cataloging Section. Staff for the new sectio ns will mostly be reassigned from other sections, particularly the Monograph Cataloging Section. In addition, responsibility for cataloging of electronic resources has been assigned to the Serials Cataloging Section. New job descriptions have been written for all Section Heads positions and we expect to recruit for at least one of the new Section Head positions.

The Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library is the recipient of a $10 million grant to process a backlog of manuscript, nonbook and traditional print resources over the next 5 years. Hiring for this project will begin this summer.

Authority Control

OCLC/WLN completed processing of records in our catalog and the authority records are being loaded via the III authority control module.

Acquisitions

On July 2nd, we will implement the serials checkin module for our Innovative Interfaces system, CATNYP. This is the first of the Millennium web interface modules for processing functions we'll implement.

Circulation

Circulation Coordinator, Schlomit Schwarzer was hired in April and is taking the lead in planning for implementation of our circulation system. Implementation will be phased over next fiscal year in the 4 Research Libraries. As part of the implementation we will begin registering our patrons for the first time ever in the Research Libraries.

Remote Storage

Working is continuing to plan for the facility being built jointly with Princeton and Columbia. We are nearing the end of the collection cleaning project for items targeted to go to remote storage and are beginning a rehousing project for items requiring protection. Contract staff continue to barcode and create item records. A significant number of cataloging and maintenance problems resulting from the barcoding project are being diverted to the Cataloging Division.

Preservation

The Research Libraries are the recipient of NEH funding to continue microfilming of Latin American collections. We continue to search for a Division Chief.

Digital Library Program

Barbara Taranto was named Acting Head of the Digital Library Program following Michael Alexander's departure. The Research Libraries are the recipient of a Mellon grant to study digital archiving and have chosen to target electronic resources in the area of the performing arts.

Cynthia Clark

Director of Technical Services, The Research Libraries

New York Public Library

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NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

New York University Round Robin Report--June 2001

Arno Kastner arno.kastner@nyu.edu

CONSER membership.

NYU’s application for CONSER membership was accepted in April. Our serials cataloger has received his CONSER training and we will begin to contribute records shortly. Joining CONSER is a part of our overall plan to direct more resources to serials processing. We have assigned one part-time cataloger to special collections serials cataloging and a second part-timer to the clean-up of older serials holdings in preparation for moving selected titles to a planned offsite shelving facility. Our serial check-in records have been tortured by migrations through two releases of our Geac system since 1985, so they need extensive rehabilitation. After abandoning hope of finding a silver bullet to blast our e-journal backlog, we turned our serials copy cataloger loose on some of our big e-journal sets, and she has made her way through most of the big ones. We are taking the practical approach of editing an existing local record for the print version, and creating a record for the electronic version if we do not already have a record for the print version. Faced with all of these projects relating to serials, we briefly considered carving out a separate serials unit within Tech Services, but we have decided that the current acquisitions/cataloging structure saves us the management overhead of a third technical services unit and gives us the flexibility to assign staff where needed.

Shelf ready services.

Since YBP is our primary North American vendor, we have been talking to them about their shelf-ready services. We have identified a large number of university presses whose publications we have begun to receive on a non-return basis. We are not contracting for shelf-ready processing for these titles, however, because our Geac ADVANCE ILMS does not offer EDI functionality and because our student labeling operation is more cost-effective than YBP’s pricing. We have taken into consideration the faster throughput offered by shelf-ready services, and will continue to consider the service, but for the time being we are not committing to any of their processing services. Last year, we received over 23,000 YBP books through profile or slips. Since this represents a category of materials crying out for rapid processing, we expect to follow many of our Big Heads colleagues and begin to catalog them in Acquisitions.

New workstations.

Six years ago, as part of the renovation of the Technical Services work area, new workstations were installed for all full-time staff. We are a bit overdue for upgrade/replacements, so we are looking forward to new PCs being installed in June and July. This is part of a library-wide hardware upgrade. The Geac clients will be installed on all workstations. Tech services managers are beginning to experiment with the clients and determine how the new functionality can help us design processing more effectively. Tradition and the constraints of overnight loading of utility records have kept us very much in a batch processing mode: search a lot and then catalog a lot. While we weigh the efficiencies of combining processes with the clients, we will have to look very carefully at the costs of Z39.50 searching of the utilities.

Loading of purchased records.

We recently purchased and loaded cataloging records for 8 microform sets. We were disappointed to find the number of tagging and content errors in these records. Our Systems Office wrote a number of programs to identify and batch-fix most of the problems, and our catalogers spent quite a bit of time trouble-shooting problems. On a monthly basis we are loading free cataloging records for the Books 24x7 collection of online computer manuals. We are about to sign a contract for Marcive retrospective records for US government document records, and are not happy about the restrictions on uploading these records to RLIN.

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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

From: Carol Diedrichs diedrichs.1@osu.edu

The Ohio State University Libraries
HIGHLIGHTS FOR BIGHEADS
June, 2001

  1.    RENOVATION OF MAIN LIBRARY

    Full scale renovation of the Main Library is currently in the academic and architectural feasibility stages.  Shepley, Bullfinch, Richardson and Abbott have been hired to do the feasibility study which is currently engaging much time and attention. Funding for the renovation has also moved to the next stage in our capital, state budgeting process with the Main Library Renovation being the University's first priority for the next cycle of funding.  Private fund-raising is also underway.

  2.   DEPOSITORY STORAGE AND COLLECTION MANAGEMENT TEAM

    The first module of our depository is nearly capacity.  The second module of the depository will break ground this month.  Unfortunately, we will have a gap of 6 months or more where we will not have room in the existing depository for new materials and the second module will not be ready.  The Collection Management Team is working on procedures to continue the intellectual work of identifying materials for transfer to storage and completing any bibliographic and preservation work that needs to be done.  These materials will then be left on the shelves but coded for transfer.  Once the new depository module is available, they can be quickly gathered and moved.  This approach is essential if we are to be ready for the start of renovation.

  3.    LOCATION ON TECHNICAL SERVICES

    A corollary issue of our renovation plans is the short-term and long-term location of Technical Services.  In order to renovate a building filled already to capacity, we assume that room will have to be made for continuance of essential services during the renovation.  It is likely that Technical Services will move out of the building during the renovation.  We must also assess the issue of where Technical Services should reside for the long-term.

  4.   III MILLENNIUM MODULES

    The Libraries have purchased the new web-based modules of the III ILS for Acquisitions, Serials, and Cataloging.  We are now in the review and evaluation stages to determine when each module will be implemented.  We have been fortunate that the OSU Law and Health Sciences Libraries have taken the lead in testing and implementing the Serials Module and are now testing Acquisitions.  This is a first for us and we have welcomed their help in testing these new versions in a smaller setting than the University Libraries.

*****************************************
Carol Pitts Diedrichs
Assistant Director for Technical Services and Acting Assistant Director for Collection Management
Editor, Library Collections, Acquisitions and Technical Services
The Ohio State University Libraries
1858 Neil Avenue Mall
Columbus, OH, 43210-1286
tel: 614-292-4738
fax: 614-292-7859
Internet: diedrichs.1@osu.edu
*****************************************
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PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY

From: Rosann Bazirjian (rvb9@psulias.psu.edu)

Round Robin Update, June 2001

 

1. Personnel Matters

We filled two key positions in the Technical and Access Services Division: Head of Cataloging Services (Rebecca Mugridge) and Head of the Serials Department (Robert Alan). We also filled two very important positions: Special Collections Cataloger (Annie Copeland) and Asian Studies Librarian (Jade Atwill).

2. Reorganization

Following a task force recommendation, we created a new department: The Serials Department. This new department incorporates both cataloging and acquisitions functions and is comprised of members from both of these departments.

3. Renovation

The University Libraries dedicated the new Pattee/Paterno library in September 2000. This followed approximately three years of renovation and expansion. The library is now organized into subject libraries (Social Sciences, Business, Arts & Humanities, Education, Life Sciences) with reference points at each service location. Many cataloging projects were undertaken during these years to assure that collections that were moving were represented in the OPAC.

Technical Services returned to Pattee/Paterno in August 2000 following three years of temporary quarters in one of the classroom buildings on campus.

4. Authority Control

The libraries acquired the services of OCLC/WLN to provide authority control processing for their catalog for the very first time. Authority control processing for name, subject and series headings was performed for the entire bibliographic database. We have also contracted for ongoing monthly processing of our records with OCLC/WLN.

5. SIRSI Migration

Preparation for SIRSI migration has gone on intensively this past year. Cataloging and serials control were brought up in April 2001, and our enhanced public catalog and access services will be live on May 23, 2001. Acquisitions will be brought up at the start of the new fiscal year.

6. Teams Assessment

We spent this past year completing an extensive survey on the assessment of our team structure in Technical Services. We used surveys and training/facilitation sessions to define the quality and nature of the teams. This will continue to be refined over the coming year.

7. Mellon Grant

The library received a grant for a Visual Image User Study (VIUS). This is a plan for the assessment of needs for digital image delivery at Penn State, to be followed by the development of a prototype image delivery system. A needs assessment of Penn State's image users and of the institutional context will inform the selection of content and functional features of the prototype that we develop.

8. Document Delivery

We are participating in a pilot project with some of our CIC colleagues using Prospero to provide desktop delivery of non-returnables to each other's patrons. We also began using Uncover's SUMO service this year for unmediated document delivery.

 

 

Remote Location - Technical Services

125 employees of the Technical Services Division were moved to a remote site for a period of three years during which time the expansion and renovation project of the Pattee/Paterno Library was undertaken. A phased plan allowed the libraries to remain functional during the construction/renovation of the facility. The libraries chose Technical Services because they were looking for a large, static group with little direct patron interaction. Three alternatives for temporary relocation were considered:
  1. Construct a new facility
  2. Renovate the basement of an existing classroom building
  3. Lease off-campus space
Option number 2 was selected as being most expedient and cost efficient. Facilities Resources produced a drawing of the existing workflow of the department and the employees to be relocated. Preliminary drawings and budget estimates were completed for the exterior walls, rest rooms, and other facilities changes necessary to the basement of the classroom building to make the space habitable. Departmental workflow drawings were fit into the available space of the classroom basement.

Considerations not to be overlooked:

  • Make sure you have a good delivery system in place. You will be moving lots of books between locations on a daily basis.
  • Make sure you have excellent networking capabilities - good wiring
  • Make sure you consider handicapped parking needs
  • It is very important that good communication mechanisms be developed between staff and the functions they provide.
Rosann Bazirjian
Assistant Dean for Technical & Access Services
University Libraries
The Pennsylvania State University
507 Paterno Library
University Park, PA 16802-1812
E-mail: rvb9@psulias.psu.edu
Phone: (814) 865-0404
Fax: (814) 865-3665
 

 

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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

From: Richard J. Schulz rjschulz@princeton.edu

Princeton Update

VOYAGER SYSTEM AND GENERAL COMMENTS

The work of Technical Services for the past six months has been the movement from the implementation phase of the Voyager system to the consolidation phase. Plans, projections and pilot projects noted in Princeton’s January report were by and large accomplished. Organization and staff re-structuring to integrate receiving and cataloging for the major English and European language approval plans has been successfully achieved resulting in significant reductions in turn around time from the point when materials are delivered from shipping to the point at which they are under bibliographic control with invoice paid. In the coming year, we will be looking to build on this experience and apply it to non European and non roman language plans, though we also made significant gains in these areas over the last six months improving processes as far as we could without the aforementioned re-structuring. In the first part of the upcoming fiscal year we look forward to our first ventures into shelf ready acquisitions. We implemented EDI receipt and loading of serials invoices from our five largest vendors and continued to expand the EDI ordering process. In the upcoming fiscal year we will be expanding this capability in partnership with monograph approval vendors who can accommodate it.

BOOK BUDGET

A continuing system transition effort has been the work to sort out and reorganize the libraries complex book budget and adapt it to reap the benefits of Voyager's robust fiscal management capabilities; while still a work a progress, we have achieved notable advances in providing real time information on the state of the budget down to the individual fund level and beyond. We are about to embark on our first fiscal roll over experience with the new system which should prove to be an adventure. We are scheduled to implement Voyager release 2000, a major system upgrade, during the first week of July.

REMOTE STORAGE

As noted in Columbia's report, the Columbia-NYPL-Princeton remote storage facility is due to go online pretty much on schedule in October 2001. For Princeton this has meant a very intensive effort over the past six months in firming up selection decisions on materials targeted for transfer and working out plans, procedures and workflow to accommodate the processing and shipment of 800 items per day from diverse campus collections to the new facility, plus designing and developing related systems data interchange and interface aspects of the transfer/retrieval process.

STAFF VACANCIES

Finally, through a combination of retirement and moving on to positions elsewhere, we will have a number of vacancies in the department's professional ranks for the first time in nearly a decade. As of this writing, the combined professional and support staff vacancy total comprises 11% of the department's staff. Few of these positions will be filled as they are currently defined which will mean a significant "make over" of the staffing and organization of the department in the year ahead.

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STANFORD UNIVERSITY

From: Catherine M. Tierney ctierney@stanford.edu

Stanford University Libraries, June 6, 2001

  1. ACCESS SERVICES. As of December 2001, the scope of Technical Services has been expanded to include the Access Services Department, which covers Green Library and the Stanford Auxiliary Library. The affinities with the existing TS departments (Preservation, Cataloging, Acquisitions, and Serials) are very obvious and we expect to reap many benefits of this closer relationship. Access Services is responsible for: Stacks, Loan, Reserves, Privileges, and Auxiliary library.

  2. HOOVER INSTITUTION LIBRARY; EAST ASIA LIBRARY. This September, Stanford University Libraries and Stanford's Hoover Institution will realign their respective collecting and operating responsibilities in order to eliminate redundancy, clarify missions, and strengthen the collecting programs. The plan transfers responsibility and staff for acquiring general library materials (books, periodicals, and major newspapers) from the Hoover Library to SUL. About 12 Hoover staff will join TS in September; work (10K monographs, 1.5K serials, 400 newspapers) will be spread across current workflows. Collections and Public Service staff will follow over the next 2 years. In addition, the Hoover East Asia library (collections, staff, and service unit) will move en masse to separate SUL space this fall and be run as a new SUL branch library.

  3. HIGH DENSITY STORAGE FACILITY. The current expectation is that this long-planned facility will be closer to campus (within 10 miles?) than first projected. Site selection has delayed the start of construction beyond the May 2001 date. Though in theory we are targeted to start occupying the facility next September (2002), it likely will be later. We are in fairly early stages of planning the collection selection and processing requirements. We will be at capacity before the Sept. 2002 opening date, so we will expand our off campus space rental beyond current use.

  4. DIGITAL ASSETS MANAGEMENT. SUL's web listing of electronic journals (by title and by topics) now is powered by Artesia's TEAMS middleware. Database of record continues to be Unicorn for bibliographic, coverage, and payment data, some of which is fed into TEAMS for web interface and management beyond what the ILS can do. Our metadata librarian a major participant with Academic Computing as it defines metadata standards for the Courseware support package SUL is developing along with MIT, Penn, NCState, and others.

  5. OPAC. By fall quarter, mainframe Socrates (b. 1983) will be retired from service. The Stanford-built web interface to Unicorn database (b. 1996) will continue to support on-campus users with the wide range of services and features available from Unicorn. The SIRSI out-of- the-box WebCat, which was turned on in 2000 as the off-campus alternative to mainframe Socrates, will be presented as an on-campus option to the Stanford-built interface. The strategy is in a year or so the Unicorn WebCat (customized only within the parameters of the software package) will be our one and only OPAC.

Catherine M. Tierney
Associate University Librarian for Technical Services
=+=+=+=+=+=+
Assoc. University Librarian for Technical Services
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford, CA 94305-6004
650.723-2015 (voice)
650.723.9325 (fax)
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY

From: CYNTHIA SHELTON cshelton@library.ucla.edu
Subject: UCLA Report

UCLA Technical Services Round Robin Report

  1. Merger of Technical Services Departments. In April we began implementation of the merger of the Serials and Acquisitions departments of the Young Research Library (YRL). The Periodicals Service, formerly a public service unit within Serials will become part of Access Services. Andy Stancliffe, who has headed the Acquisitions Department, will become the head of the expanded unit. This organizational change will allow us to move all technical services to one floor and turn the entry floor of the library over to public service points. We will be working on the remodel of the Research Library over the next couple of years.
  2. Personnel. Mike Randall, former head of Serials, will take up new responsibilities as Electronic Serials Librarian, devoting half of his time as such to the Bio-Medical Library. Having created the position of Digital Acquisitions Coordinator, we will now have 2 fte turned over to the acquisition, licensing, and management of e-resources within the last year.
  3. Digital Acquisitions Database. We are having staff test a locally designed database to manage and track electronic resources and serve as the basis for dynamically updating our webpages. The front end or client that staff will work with is an Access database; the data is stored on a SQL database. We expect to begin migrating and inputting data to DAD this summer. In the meantime we are working through the multiple policy issues accompanying the implementation of this management database.
  4. Cataloging Department update: The Research Library’s cataloging department has made great progress in using one-time money to reduce backlogs of non-roman materials. They have dissestablished the monographic catalaloging subject teams and regor ganized into Copycataloging and Monographic cataloging sections. A new position has been posted—Head of Monographic Cataloging and Authority section, which will report to John Riemer, Head of the YRL Cataloging Department.

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UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

From: Beth Picknally Camden bp2f@virginia.edu

University of Virginia Big Heads Round Robin Report
June 2001

  1. CENTRAL SERVICES OVERVIEW
    Reporting to Deputy University Library, Kendon Stubbs, Central Services extends beyond the traditional technical services.  Departments include:
         
    •     Acquisitions  (Paul Rittelmeyer, Acting Director)    
    •     Cataloging Services (Beth Picknally Camden, Director)    
    •     Interlibrary Services (Douglas Hurd, Director)    
    •     Management Information Services (James Self, Director)    
    •     Communications & Publications (Melissa Norris, Coordinator)

           As proposed by the Library of Tomorrow planning team (see paragraph 3 below), a central digital collections production section will be added to Central Services this summer.  The digital production unit will coordinate the creation of additions to our digital library. See organization chart at:  http://staff.lib.virginia.edu/HR/orgcharts/uvalibr.pdf

  2. REORGANIZATION/STAFFING
           In February, Lynda Fuller Clendenning (former head of Acquisitions & Preservation) was named as Interim Director, Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library.  Paul Rittelmeyer was named as Acting Director of Acquisitions.  As part of this change, the Preservation unit became part of Cataloging Services, and Central Digitizing Services (i.e. electronic reserves) became part of Interlibrary Services.

           In May, Ken Jensen, Director of Communications and Publications, retired after more than 30 years of service to the library.  Melissa Norris is the new Coordinator for Communications and Publications.

           Cataloging Services continues a search for a Database Quality Coordinator.

  3. LIBRARY OF TOMORROW PLANNING
    In October, the Library embarked on a planning initiative for the Library of Tomorrow (LofT), seeking an approach that would integrate digital with traditional library services, as well as bringing together various digital initiatives.  Five planning teams were appointed:  Digital Content Selection, Digital Content Production and Standards, Digital Resource Management, Information Communities, and Library Portal.  Reports and background information are available at:  http://staff.lib.virginia.edu/LofT/

  4.  BALANCED SCORECARD INITIATIVE
    The Balanced Scorecard is a way for the Library to choose a small number of important indicators or measurements, which reflect the health and success of the organization.  Four teams (user, finance, internal process, future) will determine the strategic objectives and appropriate measurements for each area.   The new measurements are expected to be in place by July 1.

  5. SUBSCRIPTION RFP
            The University has issued an RFP for Periodical and Serial Library Subscriptions, with a closing date of June 8, with a contract to be awarded by August 27.  This is a joint RFP between the University Libraries, Law Library, Health Sciences Library, Darden Graduate Business Library and the University's College at Wise.

     

  6.  VIRGO INTEGRATION
            In January, the Health Sciences Library holdings were integrated into VIRGO (the Librarys online catalog, which uses SIRSI Unicorn software).  This follows on the successful integration of the Law Library holdings in January 2000.  VIRGO now contains the holdings of the 11 University libraries, as well as the 3 professional school libraries: Darden, Law, and Health Sciences. See: http://virgo.lib.virginia.edu

  7. ORACLE INTEGRATED SYSTEM
            The University is in the first phase of implementing an Oracle Integrated System to replace obsolete core technology and business systems in the areas of financial, human resources and student services with a state-of-the-art group of integrated software applications.  Acquisitions and other library staff are training in the new financial software, and Library Technology staff have updated the interface between the acquisitions module of VIRGO and the University's financial system. 

*****************************************************************************
Beth Picknally Camden
             Director, Cataloging Services
Alderman Library
P.O. Box 400108
                      Charlottesville, VA 22904-4108

Voice:  (434) 924-779
                           Fax:  (434) 982-4579
Internet: bpcamden@virginia.edu http://www.people.virginia.edu/~bp2f
"The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been."     --  Madeleine L'Engle
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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

From: Richard Reeb rreeb@library.wisc.edu

University of Wisconsin-Madison, ALA Conference 2001, Round Robin Report

REORGANIZATION OF TECHNICAL SERVICES

As I reported in my last ALA update, Central Technical Services (CTS) began reorganizing last fall from four subject-based departments, which had existed since 1989, into two large departments determined by our two primary functions: the Acquisitions and Serials Dept., and the Cataloging Dept. New reporting lines and assignments became effective on December 1. We believe this phase of the reorganization has proceeded successfully. In the new organization we’are better able to manage and streamline the procedures, and our new structure enables staff to be more successful in mastering the details of our ILS, Voyager.

In order to deal with the most important issues of work assignments and workflows during the early months of the new structure, we had decided to delay the physical realignment of staff until this spring. To assist in this phase of the reorganization, we retained a consultant, Anders Dahlgren, of Library Planning Associates, Inc. to lead the analysis for configuring the area assigned to CTS. His report was completed at the end of March with a suggested floor plan for staff workspaces and supervisors' offices. Taking into consideration suggestions made by staff in response to the consultant's recommendations and incorporating their suggestions, we are now finalizing the physical layout, and expect to schedule the move of desks, computers, tables, etc., the installation of additional shelving in the work area, and make arrangements for wiring and other structural changes during the summer.

Recently two units which were part of Collection Development have rejoined CTS. The East Asian technical services staff (3 FTE) were merged into CTS’ two departments in April. Effective July 1st the Bindery staff (5 FTE) will merge with the Checkin Unit in the Acquisitions and Serials Dept. and be renamed the Checkin/Binding Unit. For the past fifteen years Binding had been administratively part of the Collection Development and Preservation Division.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

For the past several months we have added or edited several thousand cataloging records representing electronic journals from selected aggregators and publishers. This project has involved adding the 856 field to the bib record, local subject headings for broadly-defined disciplines/subject areas, and a summary (usually open-ended) holdings statement. Our goal is to add to our OPAC about 10,000 e-journals by the end of the summer and develop the capability to extract selected fields from the bib and holdings records to create a separate web-based e-journal list which will be periodically refreshed.

 

PERSONNEL VACANCIES

Although technical services has not experienced any turnover among its professional staff during the past year, there are now several vacancies in the Collection Development division. A key administrative position which will be announced soon is the Associate Director for Collection Development, Maintenance, and Preservation. Our current collection development officer, Lou Pitschmann, has been appointed the Dean of the University of Alabama Library and will assume his new position in July. Search committees have or will soon be appointed to fill three subject/language-based positions also in collection development: East Asian, Slavic, and South/Southeast Asian.

 

SIX MILLIONTH VOLUME

This spring the UW-Madison Libraries celebrated the acquisition of our six millionth volume. Chosen as the milestone addition to the collection was a handmade book by Dard Hunter published in 1950 entitled Papermaking by Hand in America. It was selected to celebrate Wisconsin’s printing and papermaking traditions and in the words of Library Director Ken Frazier "to honor the enduring use of print on paper."

Richard Reeb

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UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

From: Joyce Ogburn jlogburn@u.washington.edu

Report from University of Washington

INFORMATION RESOURCES

The Washington State Legislature has not yet passed a budget for the coming biennium. There is great uncertainty about our budgets so we are doing contingency planning on a massive serials cancellation project. One result of this is that we have decided to place our Faxon account with other vendors. Where the business will go is undetermined at this point, but will be completed by the fall. We still intend to go forward with our intention to move more quickly to delivering digital content to our users. Therefore the Libraries is actively working to reach agreement with Elsevier on a contract for Science Direct because of the perceived benefits for our user base.

SYSTEMS

The Libraries is implementing III Millennium modules for acquisitions and serials. Tim Jewell completed a major report for DLF on Selection and Presentation of Commercially Available Electronic Resources: Issues and Practices. One of the components is the identification of data elements used by libraries to manage their licenses for materials. We hope to start development, possibly with partners, on a system to manage our licenses better and to provide information to people on campus who need access to usage terms.

PRESERVATION

What a busy year for disasters! First there was an earthquake in February, which closed several libraries due to shaky and collapsed shelving. There was little damage to buildings and most of the collection damage was minimal. We are still working on getting FEMA money to replace shelving. This past year we added records to our catalog for the monographs of the Miller Library, which serves the Center for Urban Horticulture and is not administratively part of the UW Libraries system. However, last month the Miller Library was damaged by arson and our staff immediately sprang into action to help save the collections. We also will provide housing and support for staff and collections this summer until it is determined how and when services can resume.

AUTHORITY CONTROL

The UW Libraries has awarded a contract to OCLC to perform authority work on its backfile. The ongoing work is not yet settled until we determine whether we will include TOCs as part of the work.

STAFF MOVES TO SAND POINT

In April approximately 60 staff from Monographic Services and Serials Services moved to a location off campus to support renovation by decreasing the time frame and providing more flexibility in moves around the building. They will return when renovation is completed next summer. We have an ongoing battle with the contractor over the HVAC system and staff alternate between freezing and roasting. On the other hand, they are away from the noise of construction and are close to a park at Lake Washington.

Here are just a few of the questions to think about when considering a similar move, whether permanent or not.

  • Is it programmatically important to have staff on campus and together?
  • Do they routinely work with collections and other resources on campus?
  • Do they help staff public services?
  • Do they serve on many teams and committees?
  • Do you have flexibility in staffing patterns, moving of positions, and determining where they do work?
  • How centralized are the technical services operations?
  • What will be the ease of transportation to and from places of work?
  • How much will it cost to move staff, deliver materials, support transportation needs for the staff located remotely and for others needing to go to at the remote location for various reasons? How costly are the potential delays in delivering materials?
  • Will there be parking available? How about food services?
  • How will you entice students who do much of your work to the location if it is too remote and/or hard to get to? Will you pay them extra?

A few things to plan for:

Identify a project manager and get ready before anything even starts. This will be very, very time consuming for many, many people. You and your project manager must learn a lot about construction and project management (timelines, gant charts, punch lists, reading construction plans, ordering equipment, etc.). You will need to work with very different kinds of people and manage a number of sets of expectations. You and your project manager will need to know the staff and workflow needs of those moving; be sensitive to them but firm about sticking to schedules etc.

Here are some of the duties listed in the job description for the project manager:

"Provides facilities planning and program development assistance. Assists in analyzing facilities needs. Gathers, tracks and organizes information for the planners and the architects, including, but not limited to, workflow changes, operational needs, furniture, and equipment. Makes recommendations on space allocations.

Gathers, tracks and organizes information on the services for the staff associated with the relocation to Sand Point, such as transportation, parking, and work schedules. Coordinates facility needs such as custodial services and serve as liaison with Seattle Conservation Corp

Prepares a variety of reports and informational materials. Develops a communication plan that will address the needs of the planners and the Libraries staff.

Plans and coordinates the move of material and people to and from the facility. Oversees the work of staff assigned to assist with planning and moving."

Joyce L. Ogburn
Associate Director of the Libraries
Resources and Collection Management Services
University of Washington
Box 352900
Seattle WA 98195-2900
phone: 206-685-2889; fax: 206-685-8727
jlogburn@u.washington.edu

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YALE UNIVERSITY

ALA Annual Meeting 2001

ALCTS Technical Services Directors of Large Research Libraries Group

Report of Recent Activities at Yale University

Personnel: University Librarian Scott Bennett will retire on July 31, 2001. Alice Prochaska, Director of Special Collections at the British Library, has been appointed as the new University Librarian beginning August 1, 2001. In addition, Paul Conway, Head of the Preservation Department will assume a new position as Director, Information Technology Services, at the Duke University Libraries in August. Martha Conway, Catalog Management Librarian, with responsibility for our retrospective conversion project, will also be departing.

Library Management System. After an intensive review process the Library has chosen Endeavor for its next Library Management System. Implementation is scheduled for the summer of 2002. The LMS web site is located at: http://www.library.yale.edu/orbis2/public/orbis2.htm

Technical Services Process Improvement. The technical services departments have been engaged in significant review of processes that can be improved prior to the adoption of a new LMS. Areas of focus were identified by library-wide focus groups last spring and these include:

  • selection through acquisitions;
  • monograph receiving and cataloging;
  • serials processing with relation to the Periodical Reading Room;
  • technical services for the Cross Campus (intensive use) library; and
  • binding.
Work Group reports have been completed and plans are moving forward to implement recommendations from the Work Groups. One of issues we are discussing is the recommendation to abandon locally assigned cutter numbers (in favor of LC assigned author numbers) for literature and literary criticism.

Library Shelving Facility (off-site). Processing is being expanded to include serials and multi-volume works, maps, and microforms. The 2.5 volume capacity first module, opened in November of 1999, is expected to be mostly full next fiscal year. The Library has received approval and will move forward with the construction of the next module.

Cataloging.The Library continues to address its growing original cataloging backlog and additional funding has been approved to two backlog/frontlog reduction projects:—a two year Hebrew Language project, and a pilot general frontlog project. The general frontlog project includes a program that will automate the re-searching of the frontlog against the Library of Congress Resource File. During the pilot project we hope to answer a number of questions about backlog recycling, and develop procedures and workflows for ongoing batch processing of the backlog/frontlog. Recruitment of catalog librarians continues to be an issue, and it is not unusual for us to have professional positions open for as long as a year.

Acquisitions. We are beginning to experiment with loading files of vendor records that correspond to vendor shipments. Workflows are being reviewed and revised in an effort to achieve efficient throughput. The Library is reviewing its purchasing procedures. We have also launched a pilot project for the automatic replacement of missing books.

Retrospective Conversion. This key activity continues, largely on target and on time (with slight delays in the non-Roman records). The projects to convert the Official Catalog and the Serials Catalog should be completed early in 2002. Yale's 150,000 CJK records should be completed by summer of 2003. We have signed a contract for the conversion of the Hebrew and Yiddish language materials and that project will be completed in 2002. Arabic conversion is underway in-house and should be completed in 2002 also.

Authority Control. Yale is still the midst of converting from the now defunct OCLC Authority Control Service to the OCLC/WLN MARS service. Records from the old system are currently being converted and ongoing processing is just beginning. We hope to have the system fully implemented by late summer.

Digital Resources. These Catalog Department continues to develop and experiment with new models for cataloging digital resources of all kinds. The Yale Library generally creates separate records for electronic versions of most types of materials and has developed some sophisticated macros for modifying copy for print titles to use for the digital versions.

Joan Swanekamp
Chief Catalog Librarian and Head of the Catalog Department
Yale University
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