OCLC newsletter

              O C L C

N E W S L E T T E R

N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 0 I S S N : 0 1 6 3 - 8 9 8 X N O . 2 4 8

OCLC Union List:

a cooperative investment

an essential tool for resource sharing

116,, 000 ll iibrrarr iiess

8.. 6 mii ll ll iion rreccorrdss

1169 grroupss

C O N T E N T S November/ December 2000 No. 248

Editor in chief:

Nita Dean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . nita_ dean@ oclc. org

Editor:

George Promenschenkel . . . . . . . promensg@ oclc. org

Assistant Editor:

Bob Murphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . bob_ murphy@ oclc. org

Editorial Assistant:

Marifay Makssour . . . . . marifay_ makssour@ oclc. org

Cover Design: Linda Shepard

Art Production: Rick Limes/ Tammy Miller

Desktop Publishing: Lithokraft II

All photos taken by Rich Skopin or Lorna Williamson

unless otherwise noted.

OCLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer, treating its

employees and applicants equitably without regard to

race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, handicap,

sexual orientation, or marital status.

OCLC Newsletter ( ISSN: 0163- 898X) is published by

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Incorporated,

6565 Frantz Road, Dublin, Ohio 43017- 3395.

Contents of this newsletter may be reproduced in whole

or in part provided that credit is given.

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OCLC Newsletter is also available via OCLC’s home

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“ News” or directly at URL:

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All products and services named are trademarks or ser-vice

marks of their respective companies.

AsiaLink, CatCD, DDC, Dewey, Dewey Decimal

Classification, FirstSearch, Forest Press, OCLC,

PromptCat, SiteSearch, TechPro, WLN, WLN MARC

Record Service ( MARS) and WorldCat are registered

trademarks of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.

Access Suite, CORC, Dublin Core, Electronic Collections

Online, OCLC CJK, OCLC ILL Direct Request, OCLC

Selection, OCLC Union List of Periodicals, Passport,

Preservation Resources and WebExpress are trademarks

of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.

Contact Information:

OCLC, Dublin, Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . + 1- 614- 764- 6000

OCLC, Dublin, Ohio,

from the U. S. and Canada . . . . . . . . . 1- 800- 848- 5878

Asia Pacific area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + 1- 614- 764- 6189

Dublin, Ohio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . asia_ pacific@ oclc. org

Latin America and the Caribbean . . + 1- 614- 761- 5196

Dublin, Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . . america_ latina@ oclc. org

OCLC Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + 1- 888- 658- 6583

Chambly, Quebec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . canada@ oclc. org

OCLC Europe,

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Birmingham, United Kingdom . . . . . . europe@ oclc. org

OCLC User and Network Support . . . 1- 800- 848- 5800

OCLC, a nonprofit membership organi-zation,

is engaged in computer library

service and research.

Correspondents:

Brenda Block

Robert C. Bolander

Judith Carter

Kay Covert

Anne Donohue

Jeffrey Field

Qun Hao

Robert Harriman

Cathy Kellum

Kathy Kie

Guy Lamolinara

Myrtle Myers

Lorraine Normore

Sonya Oliver

David Whitehair

Membership News

OCLC will distribute ILLiad software to help libraries streamline interlibrary

loan process

TechPro ready to provide contract cataloging

OCLC Pacific and OCLC WLN service centers combined

The University of Colorado at Boulder enters the 45 millionth bibliographic

record into WorldCat

FSU enters 102 millionth OCLC ILL request

Forum explores future of public libraries

OCLC Statistics

OCLC/ Canadian Library Association award recognizes recent grad

Honey, I shrunk the system . . . again

Preservation Resources scans MIT’s student newspaper

Cataloging and resource sharing systems up longer

The Université du Québec becomes OCLC member and joins CORC

Quality control efforts benefit all WorldCat users

CORC and Web Characterization project help libraries with Web

CORC users form Health Sciences Special Interest Group

Keyword Searching: now more access to bibliographic data

Use of BIBCO records at the Library of Congress

Library of Congress, other U. S. libraries join international community on

use of Pinyin

Nominations sought for OCLC- sponsored awards

OCLC helps speed Fudan University Library operations

OCLC ALA Midwinter 2001 Meetings

Research

OCLC researchers measure the World Wide Web

Research Advisory Committee meets

Understanding Collections: Description and Access

Union List Service

OCLC Union List complements ILL

Ad hoc Task Force on Union Listing issues report

A little ‘ SOUL’ increases ILL fill rates

ILL Fulfillment Study focuses on improving fill rates

United States Newspaper Program Union List grows and grows

Customized Union List display? . . . Can dhu

OCLC Union Lists of Periodical database links users to local holdings

Product News

OCLC Interlibrary Loan tutorial provides ILL training

40 New journals added to Electronic Collections Online

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EXTENDING THE

OCLC COOPERATIVE

F R O M J A Y J O R D A N

Y ou are cordially invited to see the future of

digital library services at OCLC’s Web site:

http:// www. oclc. org/ strategy. There you will

find a document titled “ Extending the OCLC

Cooperative: A Three- Year Strategy.” It outlines plans

for libraries and OCLC to transform WorldCat from a

bibliographic database and online union catalog to a

globally networked information resource of text,

graphics, sound and motion. This enhanced version

of WorldCat will include a shared knowledge base

supported by a set of integrated, web- based tools

and services that facilitate contribution, discovery,

exchange, delivery and preservation of knowledge

objects and shared expertise of participating

institutions.

In the next three years, we will extend the

present OCLC library cooperative of 38,000

institutions in 76 countries into a truly global, digital

community. This will involve developing new web-based

services, implementing a new technological

platform, and, most important, reaffirming a

commitment to library cooperation. Here are some

of the highlights of our strategy.

Metadata. Over the past 30 years, libraries have

used OCLC shared cataloging to create WorldCat,

which today is the world’s foremost bibliographic

database. OCLC will extend this cooperative

framework to include new participants, new types

of metadata, and new automated tools to capture,

organize and deliver metadata. In addition to

libraries, OCLC will seek the input of metadata from

museums, archives, professional societies, publishers

and others, including authors. Each of these

providers will use and share metadata that includes

descriptions, holdings, reviews and previews as well

as links to content.

Archiving and Content Management.

Preservation, digitization and archiving services from

OCLC will help libraries increase access to their

unique collections as well as pass them on to future

generations. OCLC will establish a digital repository

for electronic materials from library collections,

government agencies and other sources of

electronic content. Based on cooperation, this

repository will accommodate changes in

technologies and formats and provide access to

electronic content using industry standards, both

now and in the future.

Discovery and Navigation. Through new or

enhanced services from OCLC, libraries will

become a ubiquitous presence on the Web, viewed

as a preferred and authoritative source of

information. Libraries will customize their users’

interface to WorldCat, with links to reviews, full

text, images and other files in addition to

bibliographic information. These services will help

build the library brand on the Web. End users will

move easily between the library and the Web.

OCLC will also facilitate establishing an expert

library cooperative in which libraries pool expertise

and resources to provide around- the- clock, around-the-

world reference support for people looking for

information on the Web.

Fulfillment. New or enhanced OCLC services

will help libraries integrate selection, circulation,

interlibrary loan and direct- buy options in order to

provide information to people when and where they

need it in a form they want. End users will have

access to the collections of many libraries as well as

easy order and delivery options via the Web.

In short, these new services will enable us to

extend the who, how, what, when and where of

library cooperation. We want to provide greater

value for more institutions.

“ Extending the Library Cooperative” is, however,

more than an OCLC strategic plan. It is also part of

our ongoing dialogue with libraries, U. S. regional

networks, international distributors and potential

partners. I hope that you will read the strategy,

discuss it with your colleagues and join in the

dialogue. Through global cooperation, we can

convert these ideas into value- added services.

Jay Jordan

President and Chief Executive Officer

OCLC

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

4 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

OCLC will distribute ILLiad software to help libraries

streamline interlibrary loan process

OCLC has finalized its agreement with Virginia

Tech Intellectual Properties and Atlas Systems to

license and distribute ILLiad software, a leading

interlibrary loan management tool that automates

routine interlibrary loan functions and provides

sophisticated tracking statistics to library staff.

The software will be licensed and distributed by

OCLC under the name OCLC ILLiad Resource

Sharing Management Software.

OCLC, working with its affiliated U. S. regional

networks and international distributors, will be

the sole licensor of OCLC ILLiad software. Atlas

Systems will continue to develop and support the

software.

OCLC ILLiad software is a comprehensive

interlibrary loan management system that

automates routine borrowing and lending

functions within a library’s interlibrary loan

department. OCLC ILLiad also provides a web

interface that empowers library end users to

submit ILL requests and allows them to track the

status of their requests 24 hours a day,

7 days a week, without library staff intervention.

OCLC ILLiad software includes interfaces to the

OCLC Interlibrary Loan service, the

National Library of Medicine’s DOCLINE

service and RLG’s RLIN ILL service.

“ This agreement marks a new chapter

in the development of the ILLiad

program,” said Jason Glover, president of

Atlas Systems. “ Our two organizations

will bring together an ILL management

system that will allow libraries to provide

their end users with the best ILL service

available. It is a win- win- win situation for

Atlas, OCLC and most importantly the

library community.”

“ OCLC ILL users requested a

comprehensive ILL Management utility,

and OCLC is happy to be able to provide

this powerful management tool through a

relationship with Atlas Systems,” said

Frank Hermes, vice president, OCLC Marketing

and Planning. “ OCLC ILLiad will provide ILL

departments worldwide with superior ILL

management functionality.”

Mr. Hermes said OCLC and Atlas Systems will

work together to make OCLC ILLiad software ISO

ILL compliant.

“ We’re looking forward to the installation of

ILLiad here at Princeton,” said Susanne McNatt,

Interlibrary Services librarian, Princeton University

Libraries. “ The potential for merging all streams of

borrowing and lending activity is a strong selling

point for us. We believe patrons will be pleased

with the user interface, and we are certain that the

functionality on the staff side will enable us to

streamline request processing.”

Betsy Wilson, associate director of libraries for

Research and Instructional Services, University of

Washington, said,“ We chose ILLiad because it is

an easy, cost- effective way to automate key ILL

and document delivery functions while leveraging

scarce staff resources. ILLiad will speed our ILL

turnaround times, enlarge our capacity to handle

increased volume and increase user satisfaction.”

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 5

Libraries interested in ordering OCLC ILLiad

software should contact their regional network,

service center, international division or

distributor. More information is at < http:// www.

illiad. oclc. org/>.

Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.

( VTIP) works to identify, develop, protect and

market discoveries resulting from research by

Virginia Tech faculty, staff and students. ILLiad

was created in the Interlibrary Loan Office at

Virginia Tech.

Atlas Systems, Inc. provides service and

support for the OCLC ILLiad system. Founded in

1996, Atlas Systems also provides computer

hardware and software consulting services.

The OCLC Interlibrary Loan service came

online in 1979. In the 1999/ 00 fiscal year, nearly

6,600 libraries arranged over 8.6 million loans

through the system. OCLC offers a number of

products and services that support ILL, including

the OCLC ILL Direct Request service that allows

library users to enter ILL requests with little or no

staff intervention.

• • •

OCLC Pacific and OCLC/ WLN, the OCLC service

centers that cover the western region of the

United States, have merged into a single service

provider: the OCLC Western Service Center.

Pamela Bailey, director, OCLC Pacific, has been

named director of the OCLC Western Service

Center, and Karin Ford, director of Library

Services at OCLC/ WLN, is now director of

Cooperative Library Services, OCLC Western

Service Center. Scott P. Barringer, director of

Information Services at OCLC/ WLN, has been

named director, OCLC Lacey Product Center,

which will continue to develop authorities and

collection development products and services.

“ This provides an exceptional opportunity for

us to increase our services while maintaining the

quality training and support services we both

have offered,” said Ms. Bailey. “ Having a larger,

yet already trained staff, will allow us to expand

our range of expertise and offer new services that

will benefit our combined members.”

“ After successfully completing the migration

from WLN to OCLC services, this is an exciting

next step,” said Ms. Ford. “ We’re looking forward

to the synergy created by the combined talents of

the unified service center. We anticipate offering

group purchasing and training opportunities to the

region and improving the availability of digitization

and preservation opportunities in the West.”

The OCLC Western Service Center will serve

libraries in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho,

Montana, Oregon, Washington and Guam.

Member libraries will continue to be served by

the former OCLC Pacific office in Rancho

Cucamonga, California, and the former

OCLC/ WLN office in Lacey, Washington, and by

the field offices in Santa Rosa, California, and

Portland, Oregon.

OCLC and WLN merged on Jan. 1, 1999, and

WLN became the OCLC/ WLN Pacific Northwest

Service Center.

• • •

OCLC Pacific and OCLC WLN service centers combined

TechPro ready to provide

contract cataloging

The OCLC TechPro service currently has openings for contract

cataloging in its schedule. Projects to catalog books, scores, sound

recordings or videos in English, Romance languages, Russian or

Chinese can get under way within one to two months.

According to Marcia Stout, OCLC TechPro and AsiaLink

representative, TechPro catalogs materials for libraries of any size

or type, and for OCLC member and non- member libraries.

Ms. Stout said libraries with projects in other formats or

languages are encouraged to inquire about pricing and scheduling.

“ TechPro staff members catalog materials in all formats and in

many languages and can help with those difficult- to- catalog

materials,” she said.

The TechPro web site < www. oclc. org/ oclc/ menu/ techpro. htm>

has more information about the service, including details on the

Basic Price Option with pre- set prices for cataloging projects that

meet certain parameters.

For more information, contact Ms. Stout at 800- 848- 5878, ext.

4386, or marcia_ stout@ oclc. org.

• • •

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

6 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

The University of Colorado at Boulder ( UCB)

entered the 45 millionth bibliographic record into

WorldCat ( the OCLC Online Union Catalog) on

Sept. 12. The record was for sheet music for “ God

Save the King.”

Eric Petersen, music cataloger, UCB, entered

the record. Mr. Petersen seems to have the

golden touch when it comes to millionth records.

He also entered the 40 millionth record on Oct. 4,

1998, while a music librarian at the Harid

Conservatory Music Library in Boca Raton,

Florida. And, subsequently, while he was on the

staff at the University of Miami music library, that

institution entered the 42 millionth record on

Aug. 3, 1999.

“ Well, as for hitting the milestone, again—

I was surprised. I wasn’t trying for it,” said

Mr. Petersen. “ I was a little amused because I’m

cataloging an American music collection, and the

piece is quite British in origin. It was a piece in

what is called a binder’s volume. People in the

1800s used to bind all their sheet music together

to help keep it in good condition. Often these

volumes have quite diverse styles of music.”

The record was the first millionth milestone

for UCB.

“ I was pleased and astounded that we hit it,”

said William Garrison, head of Cataloging, UCB.

“ I don’t think anyone here has ever tried to

intentionally hit one.”

Mr. Garrison said the library is also proud of its

participation in the Name Authority Cooperative

Project ( NACO), the Bibliographic Record

Cooperative Program ( BIBCO) and the Program

for Cooperative Cataloging ( PCC), as well as being

an OCLC Enhance library.

Mr. Petersen is currently cataloging the Sister

Mary Dominic Ray Collection in the American

Music Research Center. He was hired at UCB in

February to catalog the collection.

The Sister Mary Collection, the basic collection

of the American Music Research Center, includes

scores, sheet music ( including binder’s volumes),

tune books, psalters, ballad operas and California

mission music.

Coincidentally, on the same day, the Florida

State University Library in Tallahassee entered the

102 millionth OCLC Interlibrary Loan request for

a book titled Zoo Careers. It was the first time

that the millionth OCLC ILL and bibliographic

milestones have been hit on the same day. The

Tampa- Hillsborough County [ Florida] Public

Library filled the request the next day.

The University of Colorado at Boulder ( OCLC

symbol: COD) is a member of the Bibliographical

Center for Research, an OCLC- affiliated U. S.

The University of Colorado at Boulder enters

the 45 millionth bibliographic record into WorldCat

The University of Colorado at Boulder entered the

45 millionth bibliographic record into WorldCat on

Sept. 12. The Music Library is housed in the

Music Building on the UCB campus.

photo provided by the University of Colorado at Boulder

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 7

regional network. Florida State University ( FDA)

and Tampa- Hillsborough County Public Library

( TNH) are members of the Southeastern Library

Network.

The Wellcome Library for the History and

Understanding of Medicine in London, England,

entered the 44 millionth bibliographic record into

WorldCat on May 8.

Founded in 1877, the University of Colorado at

Boulder Libraries is today anchored by the central

Norlin Library and a number of specialized

libraries in business, engineering, mathematics/

physics, earth sciences and music < http:// www

libraries. colorado. edu/>. The libraries house

extensive special collections of archival materials

and irreplaceable manuscripts dating back to the

15th century. The American Music Research

Center is a joint venture of the UCB Libraries and

College of Music devoted to the discovery of new

information about American music and to the

sharing of those discoveries with the wider

community. The AMRC sponsors concerts and

scholarly activities related to American music of

all kinds, such as its annual journal and guest

speakers featured at annual symposia.

WorldCat, available to libraries online since

1971, is a merged, electronic catalog of the

bibliographic and holding information of OCLC

member libraries. The more than 45 million

records in WorldCat represent more than 750

million items held in libraries around the world.

• • •

FSU enters 102 millionth OCLC ILL request

On Sept. 12— the same day the University of

Colorado at Boulder entered the 45 millionth

bibliographic record into WorldCat— Florida State

University in Tallahassee made the 102 millionth

request over the OCLC Interlibrary Loan service.

Todd Davis, senior library technical assistant,

entered the request for a book titled Zoo

Careers, and the Tampa- Hillsborough County

Public Library filled the request the next day.

“ We did not know that there was anything

different about the request until the next day

when OCLC called us,” said Emaly “ Lew” Conerly,

head of Circulation and ILL. “ We were excited to

find out that we have met a landmark for OCLC.

ILL has changed considerably over the last

decade— from calling and mailing requests to

other libraries to ordering online now. We are

still seeing changes daily, and the changes are

exciting.”

Strozier Library is the main library for Florida

State University. The library contains a collection

of over 2 million books and periodicals, over

150,000 sheet maps, over 6 million micro-materials

and over 500,000 government

documents.

• • •

For the first time, a bibliographic millionth and an ILL millionth occurred on the same day.

On Sept. 12, Florida State University's Strozier Library entered the 102 millionth OCLC ILL

request, and the University of Colorado entered the 45 millionth record into WorldCat.

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

8 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

On Sept. 8– 10, 35 library leaders from 15 states

attended the OCLC Strategic Issues Forum for

Public Library Directors. Held on the OCLC

Dublin campus, the forum focused on the future

of information access through the public library.

“ This Strategic Issues Forum asked public

library directors and their colleagues to think

courageously to identify and address the critical

issues facing public libraries,” said Erik Jul,

executive director, OCLC Institute, which

sponsored the forum.

Tim Schiewe, founder and chairman of the

board of netLibrary, spoke on “ Technology and

its Impact on Knowledge Access in the Public

Library,” and Jay Jordan, OCLC president and

chief executive officer, provided his insights on

strategic directions for

OCLC and public libraries.

In a series of small-group

discussions and

plenary sessions, attendees

identified and refined key

issues and proposed

actions. Topics included

innovations in reference

and other library services,

potential new cooperative

models and their benefits,

and library marketing.

“ This is an exciting time

for public libraries,” said

Kay Runge, president,

Public Library Association.

“ Along with many

challenges, public libraries

also have great opportunities to enhance access

to information, and this forum helped to identify

key strategic issues and related actions.”

A second Strategic Issues Forum for Public

Library Directors is planned to broaden

involvement and coordinate activities with other

organizations and initiatives serving the public

library sector.

The OCLC Institute < http:// www. oclc.

org/ institute/> is an educational division of

OCLC dedicated to promoting the evolution of

libraries though advanced education and

knowledge exchange.

• • •

Forum explores future of public libraries

Participating

libraries

38,314

New member libraries

( Sept. 1– Oct. 31, 2000)

50

Total OCLC interlibrary loan

( ILL) service requests

103,449,884

Erik Jul, executive director, OCLC Institute, speaks at the OCLC Strategic Issues Forum for

Public Library Directors in September.

OCLC Statistics

( as of Nov. 1, 2000)

Current statistics are at

< http:// www. oclc. org/

oclc/ new/ stats. htm>.

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 9

The new Compaq/ Tandem ServerNet system,

which supports OCLC Cataloging, OCLC

Interlibrary Loan, OCLC Selection and OCLC

Union List services, consists of three cabinets that

contain all of the processors, controllers and

disks to support those services.

According to Mark Logsdon, computer

operations section manager, it wasn’t long ago

that the computer equipment for the OCLC

online system consumed nearly all of two

computer rooms. “ And that was just for

cataloging and resource sharing,” he said. “ This

new system does that faster, for more people, in

16 square feet.”

In the 1988/ 89 fiscal year, the OCLC online

system handled a little over 2.5 million

transactions each day and processed almost

4.3 million interlibrary loans a year. Today, the

new system averages nearly 4 million transactions

a day ( over a billion each year), and it conducted

8.6 million interlibrary loans last fiscal year.

• • •

Daniel Boivin ( left), director of OCLC Canada, presents the

OCLC/ CLA award to Mark Jordan, W. A. C. Bennett Library,

Simon Fraser University. The OCLC/ CLA award recognizes

and honors a recent library and information studies graduate

who invests time and talent in researching, developing and/ or

implementing new information technologies. Mr. Jordan

designed and implemented an electronic journals database

using SQL.

Honey, I shrunk the system … again

Highest OCLC

record number

45,283,935

Location listings

( holdings)

779,247,783

FirstSearch libraries

17,028

OCLC/ Canadian Library Association award

recognizes recent grad

photo provided by OCLC Canada

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

10 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s

( MIT) student newspaper, The Tech, has

awarded a contract to Preservation Resources

for the digitization of the newspaper. MIT,

located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was

founded in 1865 and is considered one of the

world’s outstanding technical universities.

“ The Tech is the oldest and most

consistent surviving record of MIT,” said

Greg Kuhnen, executive editor of The Tech.

“ Having our archives digitized makes it easier

to ensure that nothing is ever lost, reduces

the circulation of the microfilm, and

improves public access to the material.”

To meet the production schedule desired

by The Tech, Preservation Resources is also

contracted to duplicate the microfilm to be

scanned. After duplication, the 45 reels will

be scanned to produce an estimated 30,000

digital files. Images will be delivered as

bitonal TIFFs on CD- R disks. Preservation

Resources will also incorporate the right-hand

page number of the captured frame

into the file name of the image.

The Tech plans to make the images available

via its web site < http:// www- tech. mit. edu/>

and to use optical character recognition

( OCR) on the images to facilitate searching

the content. Search results will be linked to

the digitized image.

The Tech currently has all volumes from

February 1989 through the present available in

full electronic text.

• • •

Preservation Resources scans MIT’s student newspaper

Cataloging and resource sharing systems up longer

On Oct. 29, OCLC system hours were expanded. The OCLC Cataloging, OCLC Interlibrary Loan, OCLC

Selection and OCLC Union List systems are now available 24 hours a day except on Sundays, when they

are down from 2– 6 a. m. U. S. Eastern time.

These OCLC systems will no longer have a mid- week system shutdown on Thursday morning

between 2– 3 a. m., and they will be available beginning at 6 a. m. on Sundays— six hours earlier. The

Cooperative Online Resource Catalog ( CORC) is available 24 hours a day, Monday through Sunday.

CORC actions that require access to WorldCat will benefit from these expanded hours.

The new hours correspond with the availability of the OCLC FirstSearch service.

According to Chris Grabenstatter, manager, OCLC Cataloging Services, this is another move toward

system access 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which is important to all libraries, and in particular

those in time zones that differ from OCLC’s Dublin, Ohio, headquarters.

New hours:

Monday through Saturday: 24 hours a day

Sunday: 20 hours ( down 2– 6 a. m. U. S. Eastern Time)

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 11

Directors from the Université du Québec system include: ( standing, from left to right) André

Béland, Université du Québec en Abitibi- Témiscamingue; Michel Jacob, Université du Québec

à Trois- Rivières; Gilles Bergeron, Université du Québec à Hull ( for Monique Légère); Louise

Thibaudeau, École de technologie supérieure; Jean- Marc Alain, Télé- université; Gilles Caron,

Université du Québec à Chicoutimi; Alain Gagnon, École nationale d’administration publique;

( sitting) Line Cormier, Université du Québec; Gaston Dumont, Université du Québec à

Rimouski; and Diane Polnicky, Université du Québec à Montréal.

The Universit���� du Québec ( UQ), a network of 10

libraries, has become a full OCLC member and is

participating in the Cooperative Online Resource

Catalog ( CORC), an international effort to

organize and facilitate access to local library and

web- based electronic resources.

“ The 10 universities of UQ have a long

tradition of working in a networked

environment,” said Line Cormier, director of

support for libraries and technological teaching

aids, Université du Québec. “ Becoming an OCLC

member seems a normal commitment that allows

us to share resources with other academic

partners and, of course, improve our own

existing services to our patrons.”

“ The UQ network is an organization that has

been working in a cooperative fashion for many

years and on many library projects such as:

creating a union catalog, developing two

generations of local automation systems,

implementing resource sharing, and using group

purchasing,” said Daniel Boivin, director, OCLC

Canada. “ Their profile matches OCLC’s profile

perfectly. Moreover, the fact that they operate

entirely in French will benefit OCLC’s

membership. We will see more French

documentation being indexed in WorldCat over

the years. We will see more French CORC

records being added. Basically, the French-

Canadian content will be greatly improved and

increased.”

UQ has also agreed to participate in CORC, the

collaborative effort to create a high- quality,

library- selected database of electronic resource

descriptions modeled after the creation of

WorldCat.

Mrs. Cormier said that contributing to CORC

will allow the university to make the most

efficient use of the Internet.

“ Due to the ever- increasing number of

resources added to the Internet, the Université du

Québec desires to be associated with other

networks to offer its students, professors and

researchers the best tools to locate quality

resources on the Internet,” said Mrs. Cormier.

“ Becoming a CORC member is a logical way to

participate with other universities worldwide in

this challenging task that is to better the vast

array of resources available on the Internet.

“ The UQ network hopes to make a fruitful

contribution to CORC,” she said. “ Since there are

already a number of English- speaking libraries

involved, we can assume that the UQ contribution

will be to increase the number of French

resources indexed in CORC.”

CORC was launched in January 1999 as an

OCLC Office of Research project with 50 libraries

from around the world using new, automated tools

to create a database of electronic resources. CORC

was introduced as a new OCLC service July 1.

Inaugurated in 1968, the Université du Québec

welcomes more than 76,000 students every year.

It offers over 300 bachelor’s, master’s and

doctoral programs. Its 10 university libraries

include: Université du Québec à Montréal,

Université du Québec à Trois- Rivières, Université

du Québec à Chicoutimi, Université du Québec à

Rimouski, Université du Québec à Hull, Université

du Québec en Abitibi- Témiscamingue, Institut

national de la recherche scientifique, École

nationale d’administration publique, École de

technologie supérieure and Télé- université.

Headquartered in Québec City, the Université du

Québec coordinates and facilitates the network’s

activities and programs as well as ensuring that

each entity functions to its full potential.

• • •

The Université du Québec becomes

OCLC member and joins CORC

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

12 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

by Brenda Block

OCLC member libraries

have contributed over

45 million records to

WorldCat since August

1971. The quality of such

a large bibliographic

database is a shared

responsibility and requires

a cooperative effort

among OCLC, the OCLC service centers, OCLC

networks and users of the WorldCat database.

Created from statistics compiled by

OCLC Quality Control, the following chart

documents changes and corrections processed

by OCLC staff.

PC Macro- based Changes

Use of macros is an efficient way to make

repetitive corrections of database errors or

changes in subject heading practices. For

example, as time has permitted, Robert Bremer,

consulting database specialist, OCLC Product

Management and Implementation, has changed

subfield $ x to subfield $ v for some form

subdivisions, and he has used the macros to

change some obsolete subject headings to the

current subject heading forms in accord with

current LC subject heading practice.

The corrections are not the result of a formal

project, but rather represent a manual effort with

the assistance of macros in the OCLC Passport for

Windows software. For form subdivisions, OCLC

staff change only those form subdivisions or likely

combinations of form subdivisions appearing at

the end of heading strings to avoid incorrectly

changing free- floating subdivisions that can be

used both as topical and form subdivisions.

DDR Merges

The Duplicate Detection and Resolution ( DDR)

software, which uses a set of algorithms to

automatically search and merge books format

duplicate records, completed its 12th pass

through the WorldCat database in December,

merging 53,969 records for a total of 1,152,500.

DDR completed its 13th pass through WorldCat

on Sept. 23 and merged an additional 50,636

books duplicates.

Quality control efforts benefit all WorldCat users

WorldCat Database

Changes and Corrections

FY July 1999– June 2000

Type of Changes No. of Records

PC- Macro based changes 1,842,266

Manual changes 150,399

Manual Merges

Merges 12,763

Records deleted 13,430

DDR Merges

12th Pass completed Dec. 1999 53,969

Automated Changes

Database scans 2,177,877

Fiction Project Participation

Fiction project ended September 1999 130

NACO Participation

Name- Authority records added 22

Authority records corrected 829

Change Requests Received

Surface mail ( paper change requests) 13,167

Online error reporting

( using the 952 field) 22,792

Electronic error reports

( using Internet form) 10,574

Total Change Requests Received 46,312

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 13

Automated Changes

Many of the database scans processed this fiscal

year were in support of the MARC Bibliographic

Update Project, including changing personal

name indicator one for multiple surnames from 2

to 1, changing obsolete language codes, etc.

Fiction Project Participation

On Sept. 2, 1999, the OCLC/ LC Fiction Project

was discontinued.

Change Requests Received

WorldCat users send change requests to Quality

Control, providing, when needed, photocopies of

the item so QC staff can make the appropriate

changes.

Changes and corrections made to records by

the OCLC service centers, OCLC networks,

participants of cooperative programs and users of

the database are represented in the chart below.

CONSER

The number provided for CONSER replaces

includes the United States Newspaper Project

activity. Member libraries in the CONSER

Program lock and replace serial records.

Database Enrichments

With full- mode cataloging authorization or higher,

member libraries may enrich records by adding

the following fields to records that do not already

have them:

• 006 field

• 007 field

• call numbers and/ or subject headings/ genre

terms that match the class scheme and subject

heading types associated with their

authorization when the record does not

already contain the same type

• Physical description information ( field 300) to

Cataloging- in- Publication ( CIP) records

• Contents notes ( 505 fields)

• “ close- out,” link, edit, and/ or correct full- level

non- CONSER serial records with 10 or fewer

holdings. ( CONSER records have one of the

following codes in field 042: lc, lcd, nlc, nsdp,

isds/ c, nst, msc.)

• 856 fields

Enhance Statistics

Enhance statistics include WorldCat Collection

Sets, CJK Enhance, CIP Enhance, Regular

Enhance, and National Level Enhance. As of Sept.

30, 1999, there were 151 three- character OCLC

symbols assigned to Enhance institutions that

have gone through the formal Enhance evaluation

process to enhance records in at least one

bibliographic format.

OCLC’s CIP Upgrade Service staff in Portland,

Oregon, contributed 27,902 CIP upgrades to the

Enhance statistics this fiscal year. Yankee Book

Peddler and Ingram Library Service contributed

4,633 CIP upgrades to this project.

Minimal- level Upgrade

Member libraries with a full- mode or higher

authorization can lock and replace any minimal-level

record ( Encoding Level K, M, 2, 5, or 7),

except CONSER authenticated serials.— Brenda

Block is section manager, OCLC Quality Control.

Decentralized

WorldCat Database Changes and Corrections

FY July 1999– June 2000

Category No. of Records

CONSER 29,969

Database Enrichment 84,867

Enhance 132,150

Minimal- level Upgrades 73,547

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

14 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

by Kay Covert

Like libraries and

information, the OCLC

CORC service and the Web

Characterization Project go

hand in hand. Both

originated in the OCLC

Office of Research, and the

idea for CORC was

conceived in part from Web

Characterization Project findings. CORC and the

Web project also share a common goal— helping

librarians integrate web resources into their

collections.

In 1997 OCLC’s Office of Research began

examining the Web from a librarian’s perspective:

that of an information collection. The annual Web

Characterization Project seeks to answer some

basic questions about the Web: how big is it,

what is the subject matter and how is it evolving.

The emphasis has been on observing site content

rather than network infrastructure or user

behavior.

The OCLC CORC service was introduced in

July. CORC is a web- based toolset librarians are

using to identify, select, describe and maintain

electronic resources. Libraries worldwide are

cooperatively contributing to the resource

catalog. Librarians are also collaborating

internally in areas including technical services,

public services and collection development, to

use CORC to select and catalog web resources

and build pathfinders.

Some of the aspects of the Web that have been

observed during the Web Characterization study

include continued rapid growth in the number

of sites, with differences in growth levels

between private and public sites. So many

resources are available electronically, some

exclusively on the Web, that it would not be

feasible for libraries to work independently of

one another and try to manage their users’

electronic resource needs. This is where CORC

can help. Libraries are using CORC to enhance

access to important local collections and make

that information available locally as well as

globally. Through the cooperative model, libraries

using CORC have available to them the wealth of

information being contributed to the resource

catalog.

The study also determined that most public sites

use metadata on the home page in the form of

keywords that often describe only the site itself,

rather than the site’s documents. In addition, most

sites do not adhere to a well- defined set of metadata

elements. These practices do little if anything to

promote access to data, indeed they may hinder the

ability to locate information. Librarians using

CORC apply their knowledge- access skills to

enhance access to web resources. CORC helps

librarians make the best electronic resources

available. For library users, this translates into

reliable, valuable search results, and for libraries it

means shared efforts.

Like libraries and information, the Web

Characterization Project and the OCLC CORC

service share another similarity: one continues to

reaffirm the need for the other.— Kay Covert is

OCLC marketing analyst.

• • •

CORC and Web Characterization project

help libraries with Web

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 15

by Kay Covert

By nature, librarians share information. Just as

they impart knowledge to their users, librarians

share information with others in their profession.

When groups of librarians find themselves facing

similar interests and sharing common goals, the

result can be the formation of special interest

groups. These groups offer benefits for their

individual members and the constituencies they

serve. The Health Sciences Special Interest

Group, formed by librarians using the OCLC

CORC service, is one such group.

Several librarians working at medical libraries

at large universities throughout the U. S. joined

the CORC project. Working independently of one

another, they were looking for ways to manage

the huge number of health sciences sites available

on the Web, and make them accessible to their

users.

Soon the librarians noticed from notes that

were posted to the CORC- L listserv ( available by

request at < http:// www. oclc. org/ oclc/ forms/

listserv. htm>) that institutions like theirs were

facing similar issues when it came to managing

web- based resources. This prompted an exchange

of communications between a couple of

librarians, and before they knew it, they were

trading ideas and information with a few more

health sciences librarians and making plans to

meet.

The first meeting of the Health Sciences

Special Interest Group was held in Dublin, Ohio,

during the November 1999 CORC User Group

Meeting. The group discussed issues surrounding

the identification and sharing of health sciences

web sites and sought to find others who would be

interested in participating in the group. The

original group members included Betsy Friesen,

University of Minnesota Bio- Medical Library;

Jackie Shieh, University of Michigan; and Joan

Gregory, University of Utah, Spencer Eccles

Health Sciences Library. Since their first meeting

the group has doubled in number.

The group’s focus has also expanded. Its

members continue to collectively add value to

medical resources available on the Web. There are

huge amounts of medical and health sciences

information on the Internet, with more being

added every day. Queries can return large

numbers of search results, and sifting through

them can be a daunting task. Add to that the fact

that it can be difficult for users to distinguish

reputable medical sites on the Internet from the

not- so- reputable ones. Often, finding dependable

medical resources is crucial. This is where the

health sciences librarians are collaborating to add

value. Libraries are trusted sources for

information. One way to obtain reliable

information is to acquire it from a trusted source.

By selecting and making web- based medical

resources available to their end users, the health

sciences librarians are giving web sites their

stamp of approval. At the same time, librarians

are enhancing access to the resources and making

them more readily available to library users. The

result is a place for users to find trusted,

organized medical information.

Through their cooperative efforts, the health

sciences librarians are able to offer their local

users a richer, even more diverse collection of

high- quality medical resources. The librarians

are using CORC to identify, select and describe

web- based medical resources. The records are

added to CORC’s resource catalog ( and

simultaneously added to WorldCat), and exported

to the library’s local system. The resources are

then available to library users via the local

catalog, or through the OCLC FirstSearch service.

Librarians are also creating pathfinders ( subject

bibliographies) that integrate the library’s

resources for a particular subject. A sample

pathfinder showing strategies for finding

CORC users form Health Sciences Special Interest Group

The Health Sciences Special Interest Group includes ( standing,

left to right) Betsy Friesen, University of Minnesota Bio- Medical

Library; Jackie Shieh, University of Michigan; ( seated) Mary

Holt, Tulane Medical Library; and Joan Gregory, University of

Utah, Spencer Eccles Health Sciences Library.

photo provided by Betsy Friesen

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

16 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

adolescent health resources can be found at

< http:// purl. oclc. org/ corc/ system/ Pathfinder/ 19

6: xid= OCL>.

In addition to adding value for the library user,

the health sciences group offers value for its

library members, who often face similar issues.

The exchange of subject information among

members is a valuable by- product of membership

in a special interest group. Group members also

benefit from sharing tasks. Their collaboration

can save time and effort. In addition, the weight

of the group can be brought to bear when

representing members’ needs and concerns. For

example, the health sciences group has suggested

that MeSH ( Medical Subject Heading) capability

be added to CORC.

The group continues to present its members

with new opportunities. Members are currently

working on a proposal to present a paper at the

next Medical Library Association conference to

endorse the importance of health sciences

librarians cooperating to enhance access to web-based

resources. Stay tuned. There is surely more

to come from CORC’s first special interest group

and even more benefits for health sciences group

members and library users.

More information about CORC is available on

the CORC web site at < http:// www. purl. oclc. org/

corc/>.— Kay Covert is OCLC marketing analyst.

• • •

by David Whitehair

In October, OCLC

implemented changes to

keyword searching that

provide more access points

for users of the OCLC

Cataloging, Interlibrary

Loan, Selection and Union

List services. Keyword

searching complements

other searching strategies for access to data in

WorldCat, including numeric searching ( ISBN,

LCCN, OCLC Control Number, etc.), derived

searching (“ 3,2,2,1” for Title,“ 4,4” for

Author/ Title,“ 3,2,2,1” for Personal Name, etc.),

and browsable title ( scan title).

Searching has changed over the years. Back in

1971 when OCLC’s first system was brought

online, the only searching methods were Title

( which was then “ 3,1,1,1”) and Author/ Title

( which was “ 3,3”). In 1972, the OCLC Control

Number index was added. Many enhancements

to searching were implemented in 1975, when

the Title index expanded to the current form of

“ 3,2,2,1” and Author/ Title expanded to “ 4,4,” and

new indexes were added for Author, ISBN, ISSN

and CODEN.

The late 1970s and early 1980s brought the

addition of corporate names to the Author index

( which was later split into the separate Personal

Name and Corporate Name indexes that are still

maintained today), along with new indexes for

Government Document Number, Material Type

and Publication Date, just to name a few. At one

time, Corporate Name searches could be done

only during non- peak times.

The next big changes to searching came in

1990 with the introduction of a new OCLC

system architecture. Enhancements were added

to allow searchers to combine derived indexes in

one search and to browse the title index. Then, in

1993, OCLC implemented keyword searching for

access to WorldCat bibliographic data.

Keyword searching was a big step forward for

OCLC. Behind the scenes, we began using the

indexes from our newly launched reference

services and returned the results back to the

OCLC system. Users entered searches on the

OCLC system, the search was sent to the OCLC

Keyword Searching:

now more access to bibliographic data

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 17

Table 1

Keyword Indexes

Access method ( new)

Author

Citation/ References ( new)

Conference name ( new)

Corporate name ( new)

Dewey Decimal Classification class number ( new)

Extended author ( new)

Extended title ( new)

Internet resource ( new)

Language

Library of Congress class number ( new)

National Agricultural Library class number ( new)

National Library of Canada class number ( new)

National Library of Medicine class number ( new)

Notes

Personal name ( new)

Publication location

Publisher

Report number

Series

Standard number ( new)

Subject

Subject/ Title/ Contents

Title

Uniform title

Universal Decimal class number ( new)

Vendor information

Keyword Qualifiers

Type of material ( format)

Years of publication

Microform or not microform ( new)

Cataloging source ( new)

FirstSearch service to use the FirstSearch

indexing, the results were sent back to the OCLC

system, and the searcher received the results with

the records from the OCLC system. Keyword

searching indexes are updated as records are

added to the FirstSearch system, which is within

24 hours of when new records are added to

WorldCat. This first phase of keyword searching

included 13 indexes and two qualifiers.

With the implementation of new FirstSearch

and its WorldCat indexes, users performing

keyword searches on the OCLC system can take

advantage of the new FirstSearch indexes. Most

of the previously supported indexes have been

enhanced, 15 new indexes and two new qualifiers

have been added, and one index ( frequency) has

been discontinued. See table 1 for a complete

list of indexes and qualifiers; see Technical Bulletin

235 Revised for details on what is included in

each index < http:// www. oclc. org/ oclc/ tb/ tb235/

frames_ man. htm>.

Keyword searching can help locate

bibliographic data that cannot be accessed from

the other searching strategies. For example, a

contents note can be searched with either the

Notes index or the Subjects/ Title/ Contents index.

These indexes have been enhanced to include

titles from subfield t and authors, composers and

performers from subfield r. A search of the new

Access Method index can locate a URL. And call

numbers can be searched with the six new class

number indexes. Keyword searching now allows

limiting the source of records to DLC and PCC

records; previously this qualifier was only

available with Derived and Numeric searching.

With the additional fields and subfields now

included in the indexes, searchers have access to

more data. Genre terms such as “ dictionaries” and

“ periodicals” in field 655 and in subfield v of

other 6XX fields can be searched with the Subject

and Subject/ Title/ Contents indexes. Music

librarians can now include opus and thematic

index numbers, medium of performance and key

in their Uniform Title, Subject/ Title/ Contents and

Extended Title searches. The Standard Number

index now includes field 024 data, which

provides access to various numbers such as the

ISMN, UPC, EAN and ISRC.— David Whitehair is

consulting product support specialist, OCLC.

• • •

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

18 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

by Beacher J. Wiggins

Formed in 1995, the Program for Cooperative

Cataloging ( PCC) is an international cooperative

effort to expand access to library collections by

providing useful, timely and cost- effective

cataloging that meets mutually accepted

standards of libraries around the world.

The Cataloging Directorate of the Library of

Congress takes great pride in its role as secretariat

to the Program for Cooperative Cataloging. The

staff of the Cooperative Cataloging Team in the

Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division, the

Cataloging Policy and Support Office, and the

CONSER coordinator are to be commended for

helping to develop the 10 PCC core- level

standards approved to date; for developing and

coordinating training for the Name Authority

Cooperative Project ( NACO), Subject Authority

Cooperative Project ( SACO), Bibliographic Record

Cooperative Program ( BIBCO) and Cooperative

Online Serials Program ( CONSER); and for

tending to the myriad administrative details that

support the participation of some 340 PCC

member institutions.

In fiscal 1999 the PCC member libraries created

133,011 name authorities, 10,617 series

authorities, 2,027 subject authorities, 1,135 LC

Classification proposals, 16,031 CONSER records

and 58,848 bibliographic records for monographs.

( Statistics for the first 11 months of LC’s fiscal

2000— October- August— as reported on

September 27 were: 116,787 new name

authorities, 8,092 new series authorities, 2,545

new subject authorities, 814 new LC Classification

proposals, 17,736 new CONSER records and

56,926 new BIBCO records.) The benefit to the

Library of Congress of NACO and SACO authority

records is clearly tremendous, since PCC

contributions of name and series authority

records now far outnumber those created by LC

staff. ( New PCC name authorities exceeded

LC- created name authorities by about 63 percent

in fiscal 1999; PCC series authorities exceeded

LC- created series authorities by nearly 43 percent.

These contributions helped to compensate for

lowered production at LC during the initial

implementation of its new integrated library

system in calendar 1999). About one quarter of

the new additions to the Library of Congress

Subject Headings in fiscal 1999 were submitted

by SACO members.

The Cataloging Directorate is intent on gaining

comparable benefits from the growing number of

bibliographic records for monographs produced

by BIBCO members. To this end, we have

implemented the core- level standard— in a local

version called “ LC core”— as the base level of

cataloging in the directorate’s 38 cataloging

teams, and we have designed a workflow to

ensure that BIBCO records are identified and

used to catalog additions to the Library of

Congress collections whenever possible, with

minimal intervention by LC staff. We are now at

the stage of assessing the benefits the library has

gained from using BIBCO records and considering

how to fine- tune our procedures to ensure that we

take optimal advantage of this rich source of

cataloging that is produced to a national standard,

with all access points supported by authority

control.

An essential first step in positioning LC to

make optimal use of BIBCO records was for the

library to adopt core as the default level of LC

cataloging, because this ensured that BIBCO core-level

records could be added to the LC catalog

without extensive alterations or review.

The Cataloging Management Team consists of

the Cataloging Directorate’s division chiefs and

assistant chiefs, my assistants, and the chiefs of

the Automation Planning and Liaison Office,

Cataloging Distribution Service and Serial Record

Division. The Serial Record Division is part of the

Library of Congress Acquisitions Directorate and

is responsible for acquiring, accessioning and

cataloging most serials received by the library.

In May 1997, the team reached consensus to

adopt core- level cataloging as the base or default

level of cataloging throughout the directorate and

the Serial Record Division. The decision was

based on the results of a six- month experiment

with core- level cataloging that involved about 30

cataloging staff members from May through

October 1996; this experiment was designed by

the Core Cataloging Task Group, which included

members from cataloging teams, the Cataloging

Policy and Support Office and LC reference

librarians.

The Cataloging Management Team also

accepted the Core Cataloging Task Group’s

recommendation that all core- level records

created at LC include the following data elements

Use of BIBCO records at the Library of Congress

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 19

that are additional to the core standards approved

by the PCC:

• 008 For music and sound recordings, all fixed

fields are coded

• 024 0 ( International Standard Recording

Code), if present on item

• 041 ( Language code)

• 043 ( Geographic area code)

• 050 ( Library of Congress call number)

alternate number

• 082 ( Dewey Decimal call number)

• 240 ( Uniform title) in all cases as applicable

• 504 ( Bibliography note)

• 5XX Notes to support completeness

In addition, in 6XX ( subject access) fields,

multiple headings may be applied when needed

to represent a compound or multi- element topic,

when reciprocal headings are used, or when a

standard array is prescribed, as is the case, for

instance, with biographies. For JACKPHY

materials, all data occurring in other title

information and statements of responsibility are

included in full romanization. In fields 100– 130,

600– 651 and 700– 730, paired nonroman script

fields are assigned only in cases of problematic

romanization or in cases in which such fields

support ready identification of a person or entity.

The addition of these data elements rendered

“ LC core” acceptable to the library’s public

service divisions as the default level of cataloging

and also ensured that bibliographic records

created at LC would continue to be useful to the

widest possible variety of other libraries. By

January 1999, the Cataloging Policy and

Support Office had completed the

massive task of revising the relevant

cataloging documentation, and all

cataloging teams had implemented core-level

cataloging by the end of fiscal 1999.

In preparation for the implementation

of the library’s first integrated library

system in 1999, the Office documented

the separate workflows for adapting

various types of BIBCO records to

catalog LC materials, called “ PCC adapts”

and “ GPOCOOP adapts” ( records created

in OCLC by the U. S. Government Printing

Office) in LC parlance.

For most BIBCO records, LC staff

members search OCLC and RLIN via a

Z39.50 connection for a BIBCO or copy

record and import the records into the LC ILS.

Normally the searching and import are the

responsibility of searchers in the Cataloging in

Publication Division of the Cataloging Directorate

( for United States imprints) or of staff in the

Acquisitions Directorate ( for foreign imprints);

however, many cataloging teams search for

BIBCO or copy records again when items are

received in the teams, following their hunches

about titles that are likely to be represented in

OCLC or RLIN.

The Cataloging Directorate is now measuring

the extent to which BIBCO records are adapted

for LC use. In the four fiscal years from October

1995 through September 1999, PCC member

institutions created a total of 140,487 monograph

bibliographic records in the program; in the first

11 months of fiscal 2000, another 56,926 BIBCO

records have been contributed. The Library of

Congress has adapted 9,939— slightly more

than five percent— of these records to catalog

its own holdings. This rate is comparable to

the percentage of bibliographic records that LC

used in the first years of the former National

Coordinated Cataloging Program ( NCCP), but it is

far lower than the cumulative adapt rate of about

35 percent that we reported at the height of that

program. Based on our preliminary findings, we

are focusing on our various workflow streams to

ensure that our staff take the greatest advantage

possible of BIBCO records so that we more nearly

match the highest rate of use during NCCP.

Of the 9,939 “ PCC adapts” and “ GPOCOOP

adapts” in the Library of Congress Catalog at the

end of September 2000, nearly 20 percent, or

http:// lcweb. loc. gov/ catdir/ pcc/

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

20 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

1,877 records, had been added to the catalog since

Oct. 1, 1999. Even this relatively small number of

adapted BIBCO records represents a large savings

for the Library of Congress and therefore the

nation’s taxpayers: since the Cataloging

Directorate’s full cost to catalog a title at full or

core level in- house was $ 142.19 in fiscal 1999, the

cost to the library of creating 1,877 full or core

original bibliographic records, with associated

authority work, in- house would have been

$ 266,890.63 in fiscal 1999. We do not claim that

adapting 1,877 BIBCO records saved the library

this entire amount, since the library incurred some

costs for series handling and shelflisting. The

library does not calculate the cost of shelflisting as

a separate activity, but estimates that about one-quarter

of the cost of producing its core original

records is due to shelflisting and creating holdings

and item records. Thus we can conclude—

assuming that the cost of in- house core- level

cataloging did not change very much from 1999 to

2000— that the 1,877 BIBCO records adapted in

the first 11 months of fiscal 2000 saved the library

as much as $ 200,167.

Furthermore, the addition of 1,877 BIBCO

records to the LC database in the past 11 months

indicates an upward trend in our use of these

records, particularly when one considers that

production in fiscal 1999 was atypically low for

both the Acquisitions and the Cataloging

Directorates because it was the first year of

operation under the library’s new integrated

library system. We are therefore hopeful that the

library is beginning to adapt more of the BIBCO

records that we know are available on the utilities.

It seems likely that use of BIBCO records has

already freed up some LC cataloging resources to

create more full or core original cataloging, and

our cataloging teams have had less need to resort

to minimal- level cataloging to meet their

arrearage reduction targets. The BIBCO core- level

records are superior to Minimum Level Cataloging

( MLC) because they include a classification

number and, as needed, at least one subject

heading at the appropriate level of specificity;

and because all access points are supported by

authority records. The existence of authority

records enriches the entire catalog, not only the

bibliographic record for which the authority work

was originally done.— Beacher J. Wiggins is

director, Cataloging, Library of Congress.

• • •

by Guy Lamolinara

On Oct. 1, American libraries joined the

international community in using Pinyin as the

standard romanization scheme for Chinese

characters. The Wade- Giles romanization system,

followed in American libraries for the last century,

will no longer be used. In Pinyin, for example, the

former Chinese leader is called “ Mao Zedong,” as

opposed to “ Mao Tse- tung” under Wade- Giles;“ Qing

dynasty” ( Pinyin) will be used, rather than “ Ch’ing.”

Now, the Library of Congress and other U. S.

libraries are synchronized with the romanization

used by other U. S. government agencies, including

the Board of Geographic Names— the body that

governs the form of geographic names used in

Library of Congress cataloging.

Associate librarian for Library Services Winston

Tabb said,“ I am elated that the Library of

Congress and the American library community

can now embrace an international standard that

will facilitate access to Chinese materials for

scholars everywhere. This stands as a major

accomplishment and another excellent example

of the longstanding cooperation among the

library, OCLC and the Research Libraries Group

that has benefited libraries and our users

throughout the world. I am extremely pleased

that the library can at last incorporate this

important standardization into our cataloging

activities.”

In making the change to Pinyin, the library

collaborated with OCLC and the Research

Libraries Group ( RLG) to address the conversion

of the millions of Chinese language bibliographic

records in their respective databases romanized

according to Wade- Giles, including the headings

established from Chinese works that exist in non-

Chinese records ( e. g., translations of works by

Mao Zedong).

Library of Congress, other U. S. libraries join

international community on use of Pinyin

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 21

“ The adoption of a single romanization scheme

will enhance the flow of information around the

world, helping both librarians and library users

wherever they are,” said Jay Jordan, OCLC

president and chief executive officer. “ We are

particularly pleased to participate in this

collaborative effort and contribute to this

important conversion.”

“ All of us were ready to work together, and

once the Library of Congress set the changeover

date, collaboration distinguished the entire

effort,” said James

Michalko, president

of the Research

Libraries Group.

“ We’ve focused on

ensuring a successful

outcome, with

encouragement and

good advice from the

community—

particularly the

Council on East Asian

Libraries and libraries

that evaluated sample

conversions of their

own records.”

The move to Pinyin represents two years of

planning and coordination among the Library of

Congress, OCLC and RLG. The three

organizations hosted a series of open forums in

conjunction with American Library Association

conferences and meetings of other professional

organizations to solicit input and to keep

interested stakeholders informed of conversion

plans. The Library of Congress took responsibility

for mounting and maintaining the “ Pinyin Project”

web site, where changes to the romanization

rules, a coordinated timeline and other relevant

information were shared with the library

community in a timely fashion.

The successful implementation of the Pinyin

standard is a testament to the collaborative

spirit among the staff of the Library of

Congress, OCLC and RLG. Staff freely shared

the specifications drafted at LC and applied by

OCLC and RLG for the conversion of authority

records and bibliographic records, respectively.

Representatives engaged in review and revisions

until the specifications yielded acceptable test

results.

OCLC completed the conversion of the

affected authority records on time, enabling them

to be loaded at the LC and subsequently

distributed by its Cataloging Distribution Service

during the week of Oct. 1. RLG will load the

converted authority records for its users.

RLG took on the task of converting Library of

Congress bibliographic records, using the LC’s

specifications. By revising the specifications

based on comments of RLG members on test

conversions of samples of their own records, the

same specifications could be used on all RLG

libraries’ records. The full set of converted

records was sent to both LC and OCLC to be

loaded for their

constituents.

The implementors

expect a transition

period of one year,

through Oct. 1, 2001.

By that date, catalog

users will no longer

have to be familiar

with two different

romanization schemes

to access Chinese

authors, titles or

subject headings.

The Library of

Congress is the largest

library in the world, with more than 119 million

items in collections in all formats and more than

460 languages. Its primary mission is to serve the

U. S. Congress. It also serves the nation in its 22

reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its

popular web site < http:// www. loc. gov>.

The Research Libraries Group < http:// www.

rlg. org/ toc. html> is a not- for- profit membership

corporation of more than 160 universities,

national libraries, archives, historical societies

and other institutions devoted to the mission

of “ improving access to information that

supports research and learning.” In addition

to a range of collaborative activities that

address members’ shared goals, RLG develops

and operates databases and software to

serve the information needs of member and

nonmember institutions and individuals around

the world.

More information about the joint Library of

Congress/ OCLC/ RLG Pinyin Conversion Project,

including background documents, timeline and

FAQ, is available on the Pinyin home page:

< http:// www. loc. gov/ catdir/ pinyin/

pinyin. html>.— Guy Lamolinara is in the Public

Affairs Office of the Library of Congress.

• • •

. . . the Library of Congress and the American

library community can now embrace an

international standard that will facilitate access to

Chinese materials for scholars everywhere.

— Winston Tabb

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

22 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

OCLC currently supports six awards in the

American Library Association annual

opportunities and honors program to recognize

outstanding contributions to librarianship and

provide scholarships to encourage careers in

librarianship.

The John Ames Humphry/ OCLC/ Forest

Press Award for International Librarianship

honors an individual who has made significant

contributions to international librarianship.

OCLC Forest Press donates the $ 1,000 cash award

and certificate. Nominations may be sent by Jan.

1 to Jeffrey Huestis, Washington University

Libraries < jeff- huestis@ library. wustl. edu>.

The LITA/ Frederick G. Kilgour Award for

Research in Library and Information Technology

highlights research relevant to the development

of information technologies. The award consists

of $ 2,000 cash, an expense- paid trip to the ALA

Annual Conference and a citation of merit.

Nominations may be sent by Dec. 31 to Karen

Drabenstott, School of Information, 304 West Hall,

550 East University, University of Michigan, Ann

Arbor, Michigan, 48109. < http:// www. lita. org/

a& s/ awards. htm# kilgour/>

The LITA/ OCLC Minority Scholarship in

Library and Information Technology was

established to encourage minority students to

pursue careers in library automation. The

scholarship is funded by OCLC with a $ 2,500

stipend, which is granted to the student entering

or currently enrolled in a master’s degree

program accredited by the American Library

Association. More information and application

forms are available from the LITA office,

LITA/ ALA, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, Illinois,

60611- 2795. The deadline is March 1 < http://

www. lita. org/ a& s/ awards. htm# oclc/>.

The Margaret Mann Citation recognizes

outstanding professional achievement in

cataloging or classification. OCLC will donate a

$ 2,000 scholarship to the U. S. or Canadian library

school of the winner’s choice. For additional

information, contact Cynthia Whitacre

< whitacrc@ oclc. org>. The deadline is Dec. 1

< http:// www. ala. org/ alcts/ awards/ mann. html>.

The Melvil Dewey Medal recognizes an

individual or group for distinguished service to the

profession of librarianship. The award— a citation

and medal— is provided by OCLC/ Forest Press.

The nomination deadline is Dec. 1 < http:// www.

ala. org/ work/ awards/ appls/ dewyappl. html>.

Virginia Boucher OCLC Distinguished ILL

Librarian Award recognizes and honors a

librarian for outstanding professional achievement,

leadership and contributions to interlibrary loan

and document delivery. The award honors Virginia

Boucher, professor emeritus, University of

Colorado- Boulder Library, and a former ILL

librarian. OCLC funds the $ 2,000 award. The

application deadline is Dec. 15. For more

information or applications, contact the RUSA/ ALA

office.

• • •

Nominations sought for OCLC- sponsored awards

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 23

by Qun Hao

Fudan University Library, founded in 1922, is one

of the oldest and largest academic libraries in

China. By the end of 1998, our library had

collected more than 3.66 million library items,

covering such subjects as humanities, social

sciences, natural sciences, technology and

management. The collection includes some 2.89

million publications in the Chinese language. The

library also collects about 10,000 journals and

newspapers in Chinese and 9,000 journals and

newspapers in other languages.

Each year, the library processes and catalogs

about 10,000 titles or 40,000 items in the Chinese

language, 10,000 titles in western languages and

5,500 journals and newspapers. Of the 3.66

million library items, only 360,000 have been

entered into an OPAC, including only some

60,000 western languages items. This amounts to

only 10 percent of the library’s collection. The

Cataloging Division is also responsible for

cataloging materials for 23 departments’

reference rooms. These collections need to be

retrospectively converted in the near future as

well. These tasks present a challenge for the staff

of the Cataloging Division.

In the face of the almost insurmountable need

to catalog new library items and carry out

retrospective conversion, our library turned to

OCLC for help in accelerating the library

operation processes and cleaning up the years-long

backlogs. Our library joined OCLC as a

member library at the end of 1999. At the

beginning of 2000, we also subscribed to three

OCLC CatCD for Windows databases: Recent

Books Collection, Older Books Collection and

Serials Collection. The adoption of the OCLC

cataloging services and products quickly sped the

process of cataloging library items in western

languages. In cataloging newly acquired library

items and retrospective conversion, the hit rate of

the OCLC CatCD for Windows system reaches as

high as 90 percent. Together with the OCLC

Cataloging service, we achieved a hit rate in

cataloging of over 95 percent. In cataloging

materials in such languages as Russian, German

and French, the CatCD system is also of great

help. For example, when we cataloged 142

French titles our library acquired recently, we

found the hit rate to be over 80 percent. As a

consequence, newly acquired books and journals

can be cataloged and shelved promptly, backlogs

are vastly reduced, and retrospective conversion

is carried on smoothly.

OCLC’s technical support is excellent in terms

of standardization, currency and accuracy. All our

questions have been answered satisfactorily and

in time. Thanks to their help, our library

successfully contributed our first originally

cataloged bibliographic record to WorldCat on

July 12. To us, this marked the time when our

library began to be truly involved in worldwide

resource sharing.

OCLC has streamlined and enhanced our

library operations in a cost- efficient manner.

OCLC is a great facilitator to our library

information services, enabling us to better meet

our users’ information needs.— Qun Hao is

director, Cataloging, Fudan University Library,

Shanghai, China.

• • •

OCLC helps speed Fudan University Library operations

Staff of Fudan University Library includes ( front, left to right) Lin

Yu, deputy director, Cataloging; Dai Xingde, senior cataloger;

( back, left to right) Hao Qun, director, Cataloging; and Yang Li,

senior cataloger.

photo provided by Fudan University

M E M B E R S H I P N E W S

24 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

OCLC will sponsor a number of events in

January at the American Library Association’s

Midwinter 2001 Meeting in Washington, D. C.

For additional and updated information,

and to register for these events, visit the

OCLC web site < http:// www. oclc. org/ oclc/ ala/>.

Event Date Time

OCLC Symposium Jan. 12 1: 30– 5: 30 p. m.

OCLC Dewey Breakfast Jan. 13 7– 8: 30 a. m.

OCLC SiteSearch Users Group Breakfast Jan. 13 8– 9: 30 a. m.

OCLC/ WLN ACAS Products Jan. 13 9– 10: 30 a. m.

OCLC CORC

— Metadata Magic from the Wizard of the Web Jan. 13 9– 11 a. m.

OCLC WebExpress Information Session Jan. 13 2– 3 p. m.

OCLC ILLiad: Shred Your Files, Shed Your Worries Jan. 13 2– 3 p. m.

OCLC ILL Users Group Meeting Jan. 13 5– 6 p. m.

OCLC Update Breakfast Jan. 14 7– 9 a. m.

OCLC CORC Special Interest Group Meetings Jan. 14 8 a. m.– 6 p. m.

OCLC/ WLN ACAS Products Jan. 14 9– 10: 30 a. m.

OCLC CORC Panel Discussion Jan. 14 9– 11 a. m.

OCLC/ WLN MARS Users Group Meeting Jan. 14 1– 2: 30 p. m.

Extending the OCLC Cooperative:

OCLC Metadata Services Jan. 14 1– 3 p. m.

OCLC Union List Users Group Meeting Jan. 14 4– 5 p. m.

OCLC PromptCat Users Group Meeting Jan. 14 4: 30– 6 p. m.

OCLC/ WLN Conspectus Users Group Meeting Jan. 14 4: 30– 6: 30 p. m.

OCLC ILLiad Users Group Meeting Jan. 14 5– 6 p. m.

OCLC CORC Users Group Breakfast Meeting Jan. 15 7: 30– 9 a. m.

OCLC CORC and the Public Services Librarian Jan. 15 9– 11 a. m.

OCLC ALA Midwinter 2001 Meetings

R E S E A R C H

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 25

In their annual review of the World Wide Web,

researchers at OCLC have determined that the

Web now contains about 7 million unique sites;

that the public web ( sites that offer content that

is freely accessible by the general public)

constitutes about 40 percent of the total Web; and

that the Web continues to expand at a rapid pace,

but its rate of growth is diminishing over time.

According to the group’s latest estimates, there

were 7.1 million unique web sites, a 50 percent

increase over the previous year’s total of 4.7

million. Although the number of web sites has

nearly tripled in the last two years, year- to- year

growth rates are declining, falling from almost 80

percent between 1998 and 1999, to only about 50

percent between 1999 and 2000.

Public web sites constitute 41 percent of the

Web, or about 2.9 million sites. Private sites—

whose content is subject to explicit access

restrictions ( e. g., Internet Protocol filters or

password authentication), or is not intended for

public use ( e. g., web interfaces to privately

owned hardware devices such as printers or

routers)— comprise 21 percent of the Web, or 1.5

million sites. The remaining 2.7 million sites— or

about 38 percent of the Web— are provisional

sites: their content is in an unfinished or

transitory state ( e. g., server default pages or “ Site

under construction” notices).

Adult sites— those offering sexually explicit

content— now constitute about 2 percent of the

public web, or 70,000 sites. The proportion of

the public web occupied by adult sites has

remained unchanged since 1998.

“ The Web continues to grow at a substantial

rate,” said Ed O’Neill, manager of the OCLC Web

Characterization Project. “ But a comparison of

the year- to- year growth rates suggests that the

Web’s expansion is slowing. This trend is even

more pronounced in the public web, which grew

by about 80 percent between 1997 and 1998 but

only by about a third between 1999 and 2000.

Even in absolute terms, growth seems to be

slowing: the public web increased by 713,000

sites in the past year, compared to 772,000 sites

between 1998 and 1999.”

Brian Lavoie, a research scientist working on

the Web Characterization Project, notes the

increasing incidence of non- public web content.

“ For most people, the Web is the public web—

that’s where most web browsing takes place. But

there’s a lot of content out there that you would

probably never encounter in the course of casual

browsing; in other words, the private and

provisional sites. Private sites in particular have

exhibited steady growth relative to public sites in

the past few years, accounting for about 12

percent of the Web two years ago, compared to

over 20 percent today.”

The Web Characterization Project, conducted

by the OCLC Office of Research, has collected

a random sample of web sites annually since

1997. Current results are based on analysis of

the June 2000 sample. For analytical purposes,

a web site is defined as content accessible

through the HTTP protocol at a given location

on the Internet.

More information on the Web

Characterization Project is on the

project web site < http:// wcp. oclc. org/>.

• • •

OCLC researchers measure the World Wide Web

Brian Lavoie

Ed O’Neill

R E S E A R C H

26 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

Research Advisory Committee meets

by Robert C. Bolander

The Research Advisory

Committee ( RAC) convened

its second meeting of the

year at the OCLC campus in

Dublin, Ohio, on Aug.

28– 29. All four RAC

members attended:

Toni Carbo, dean of the

University of Pittsburgh

School of Information Sciences; Lorcan Dempsey,

Distributed National Electronic Resource ( U. K.)

director; Edward E. David, president, EED; and

Bruce Morton, dean of Libraries, Montana State

University.

Jay Jordan, OCLC president and CEO, opened

the two- day RAC meeting with a brief

management overview, remarking that several

large projects are currently under way at OCLC,

including the Governance Study, strategic

planning and the business process improvement

project.

George Needham, vice president, OCLC

Member Services, reported on the corporate

governance study, which examines how OCLC

is organized and how it relates to membership.

Mr. Needham said the environmental issue has

proven to be the most difficult, because

libraries— and OCLC— do not operate in a single,

universal environment. For example, different

types of libraries and different geographical

regions produce their own issues and concerns

that become part of the larger context in which

OCLC is active. A public draft of the A. D. Little

report is available on the Users’ Council portion

of the OCLC web site, at < http:// www. oclc. org/

oclc/ uc/ index. htm>.

Diane Vizine- Goetz, consulting research

scientist, OCLC Office of Research ( OR), reported

on her work with OCLC’s strategic planning

effort. The goal is to recommend a three- year

product strategy that would extend cooperation

among libraries; address services, packaging,

pricing and distribution; and provide a timeline

for rollout.

Stuart Weibel, consulting research scientist,

OR, reported on the Dublin Core ( DC)

Metadata Initiative ( DCMI). The focus of activity

throughout the year has been on qualifiers for the

DC Metadata Element Set, which were formally

announced at the end of July < http:// www. oclc.

org/ oclc/ press/ 20000721b. htm>.

Other current issues include how to work

with communities in need of additional qualifiers,

as well as with domain- specific initiatives, to

develop solutions within the larger framework of

the DC. The challenge is how to manage these

activities for many domains and many

languages— how to provide a framework that is

useful, yet allows both for modular development

for local needs and interoperability. DC also

needs to point to other communities that

have done important and substantial work

( e. g., archives, museums and the geographic

information systems community).

Edward O’Neill, consulting research scientist,

OR, reported on the Faceted Application of

Subject Terminology ( FAST) project. FAST is a

post- coordinated faceted vocabulary, derived from

the Library of Congress Subject Headings

vocabulary. It is designed to be used online with

minimal training and experience necessary. There

are four facets of FAST: topical, geographic, form

and period; and the project is organized into

three phases: faceting ( extracting the four facets

to create initial, unvalidated, FAST files), validation

( the identification of valid entries in the initial

files), and the conversion of valid entries into

authority records, including the addition of

cross- references.

Brian Lavoie, associate research scientist, OR,

reported on two projects. The first is a

collaborative effort on digital archiving that

involves OCLC, the Council on Library and

Information Resources ( CLIR) and the Digital

Library Federation ( DLF). Mr. Lavoie is working

on a draft statement on levels of archiving that

can be used as a starting point for discussion and

review among project collaborators and the wider

community.

Three levels of archiving services have been

identified. The first, vault services, involves

simple storage, with no guarantee about the future

usability of the content stored. Bit preservation

guarantees that the stored bits will be recoverable.

The third level, bit rendering, involves two

sublevels of guarantee. The first would guarantee

bit recovery plus the ability to render stored

material into some format that would convey the

intellectual content of the original, but not

necessarily its “ look and feel.” Second- level bit-rendering

services would guarantee the look, feel

and functionality of the original.

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 27

The ultimate goal of this collaborative project

is to produce a joint recommendation about what

constitutes a sensible minimal level of archiving

service.

Mr. Lavoie also discussed his work with

Dr. O’Neill on the Web Characterization Project’s

June 2000 sample of the World Wide Web. This

project, ongoing since 1997, seeks to answer basic

questions about the Web, including how big it is,

what type of sites exist on the Web, and how it is

changing over time. The focus of this work is on

web content, rather than network infrastructure

or user behavior. Ultimately, its goal is to help

libraries cope with integrating web content into

their collections. Further information about the

Web Characterization Project and its findings may

be found at < http:// wcp. oclc. org/>.

Thomas Hickey, chief scientist, OR, reported

on the Advanced Library Collection Management

Environment, a new project on managing locally

published electronic collections.

The project began with a look at what could

be done with electronic theses and dissertations

( ETDs). Libraries are publishing ETDs, visual

collections and other types of locally produced

documents. There is a clear need for tools to

manage these collections, including specialized

electronic cataloging and digital preservation.

This promises to be a fairly long project by OR

standards, perhaps lasting as long as two years.

Its general goals include working with key players

in the field, developing trial Dublin Core

descriptions and crosswalks, sketching rough

ideas of functionality, and developing open

source licensing. An emphasis will be placed on

integration with local and other systems.

For OCLC, this project represents a new model

for entry into scholarly publishing, one that

includes direct library involvement. OCLC is well

positioned to contribute a shared database,

networking tools, metadata and preservation

standards, as well as more than 30 years’

experience facilitating collaborative relationships

among librarians.

Jean Godby, senior research scientist, OR,

reported on automatic classification efforts at

OCLC. There is a need to improve processes for

the automatic or semi- automatic creation of

metadata, and OCLC is well positioned to provide

leadership in the use of library classification

schemes for gaining subject access to electronic

resources. This project considers how library

classification schemes might be adapted for use in

automated systems, as well as different uses of the

results. More generally, it recognizes the need to

revisit the question of whether class assignments

in the Library of Congress Classification system

can be automated. More information is available

through the Automatic Classification project web

site, < http:// www. oclc. org/~ godby/ auto_ class/

auto. html>.

Lorraine Normore, consulting research

scientist, OR, reported on two efforts:

Collaborative Reference and Answer- Set

Visualization. The first presentation began with a

recognition of changes brought about by the

Web, and the issues libraries must grapple with as

a result. These include the influence of the Web

on information access and the increasing

dependence on the Web for service delivery.

Libraries, in turn, are trying to develop strategies

for dealing with content integration, universal

access,“ bibliographic” instruction, highly variable

information quality and service delivery

mechanisms. Libraries are concerned with ways

to maintain a role in the “ library without walls,”

including the specific activities of selecting

quality resources ( both traditional and web-based),

maintaining access to good resources,

providing the “ human touch” and responding to a

universal 24x7 clientele. Overriding all of these

issues is a concern for achieving these goals

economically.

In this environment, libraries trying to provide

access to reference functions on the Web are

engaging in a lot of experimentation. OCLC’s

strategy is to work with partners to

collaboratively develop reference resources,

profiles, and routing and delivery strategies; to

establish shared databases of questions, answers,

sources and expertise; and to generate models for

24x7 shared reference services on a worldwide

basis. The current focus is on solidifying partner

relationships and developing strategic plans.

The Answer- Set Visualization project is

designed to investigate ways to explore an answer

set using automated visualization tools and

concepts, and to incorporate the Dewey Decimal

Classification System ( DDC) as a method to help

searchers understand and explore information

spaces. Dr. Normore demonstrated two

visualization systems. One was a commercial

package developed by Cartia that displays clusters

of retrieved documents within a landscape

metaphor to facilitate the selection of items of

interest from a huge result that includes subject

areas not of interest. The other was a system

developed in- house by Mark Bendig, which

displays result sets in a three- dimensional virtual

reality ( VR) environment organized by DDC

R E S E A R C H

R E S E A R C H

28 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

categories. Users may manipulate the

environment to obtain different perspectives on

the display or “ drill down” through the DDC

hierarchy. In addition to the VR display, textual

information about the result set and relevant DDC

categories is also presented.

Such visualization tools may help the user to

make quicker or better choices of resources out

of a large result set or gain an overview of the

set’s topical range, although research evidence on

these possibilities is scarce.

Chandra Prabha, senior research scientist, OR,

reported on her continuing examination of the

CORC database. This project, conducted with

consultation by Tschera Connell, serials

coordinator, Ohio State University Libraries, is the

first OR project to consider the types of

resources libraries are cataloging through OCLC

CORC. As an exploratory effort, its goal is to

produce clarified research questions, as much as

specific statements of findings.

Dr. Prabha’s work considers the degree of

granularity, or level of representation, of

resources cataloged in CORC, and the

implications of mixed granularity in retrieval

results. She pointed out that, historically, the

profession had dealt with this issue by separating

the activities of cataloging and indexing.

Computerized databases and large retrieval sets

bring the issues to the fore in new ways, however.

This research raises the issue of whether there

might need to be guidelines for contribution to

the database— i. e., should it be a managed

resource or a collection of whatever participants

wish to include?

Dr. Prabha also is interested in the potential

time- value of the information cataloged through

CORC, and she is preparing a second round of

research on a larger sample of CORC records.

Keith Shafer, consulting research scientist, OR,

made a second report on Open Name Services,

following up on his presentation to the March

RAC meeting.

The core issue addressed by this project is

known as the “ Harvard problem”— given the

information in a citation to a journal article, how

does a user get from the citation to an

appropriate copy of the article? Or, from more of

a technical standpoint, given such a reference,

how does a system determine which copy is an

appropriate copy for the requester?

Publishers and libraries disagree about the best

answer to this question, and libraries need to be

represented at the venues in which such systems

are developed. OCLC is uniquely positioned to

advance libraries’ perspective on this issue and

was invited by members involved to take a role in

it. Furthermore, OCLC metadata can be used in

conjunction with names to build many services.

Names do not have to be unique to be useful.

URLs, however, have problems associated with

them that go beyond those inherent in names.

Given that everyone involved already has

substantial investment in older naming systems

( e. g., ISBN, ISSN), standardizing a naming

convention would allow for return on this

investment in addition to facilitating the

development of additional services.

Rather than developing a name authority or a

large database of names, a trusted third party

could provide service registering and profiling, as

well as user customization and authentication

services. Most services built on names would be

provided by external partners, and the structure

should foster the creation and maintenance of

relationships among OCLC members and external

partners. Further information about Open Names

Services is available at < http:// names. oclc. org/>.

Eric Miller, senior research scientist, OR,

updated RAC members on the Resource

Description Framework ( RDF) Model and Syntax

and the RDF Schema working groups of the World

Wide Web Consortium ( W3C). Mr. Miller chairs

the latter group and co- chairs the former. For

more information about the W3C, visit

< http:// www. w3. org/>; for RDF and related W3C

activities, see < http:// www. w3. org/ RDF/>.

The main focus of Mr. Miller’s remarks was the

Extensible Open RDF ( EOR) Toolkit, a set of

The Research Advisory Committee consists of ( top row,

from left) Toni Carbo, Edward E. David, ( bottom row) Bruce

Morton and Lorcan Dempsey.

R E S E A R C H

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 29

programming tools that is easy to use and extend,

and designed to facilitate deployment of RDF in

the field. The goal is to allow user communities

to address the majority of envisioned RDF

applications. The approach is to provide basic

applications that are not computationally

complex but necessary for the majority of such

needs. These applications include coupled SQL

database administration; RDF base- level utilities

for creating, deleting and managing RDF

databases; the ability to infuse RDF instance data

into RDF databases and to search such databases;

and generic interface design capabilities to

support RDF applications.

Further information about the EOR toolkit is

available at < http:// eor. dublincore. org/>.

Karen Drabenstott, OCLC visiting distinguished

scholar, and associate professor at the University

of Michigan School of Information, demonstrated

a web- based multimedia program to facilitate

learning about the Dewey Decimal Classification

system. Dr. Drabenstott’s program includes an

introduction, plus seven chapters that address the

types of problems solved by the DDC, its

structure, how DDC numbers are used to

organize a collection, the history of the DDC and

the breadth of its use. The final chapters

demonstrate how to classify three web sites using

the DDC, and test what users have learned from

the multimedia program. The program has

undergone usability testing and other user

evaluation.

Dr. Drabenstott’s approach is based on her

belief that the presentation and use of

information will become increasingly experiential

and, thus, more compelling and interesting to

users than traditional forms of communication.

Such forms will persist, she believes, although

multimedia provides a greater range of expressive

capabilities. In turn, this revolution will produce

another one, in the way librarians build, classify,

index and access collections. Multimedia

productions will require extensive effort,

teamwork, ongoing revision and new economic

and distribution models. Dr. Drabenstott

envisions scholarly communication eventually

catching up with its commercial counterpart.

Dr. Drabenstott described early activities

relating to this project at a Distinguished Seminar

Series presentation on the OCLC campus on April

13, 1999, < http:// www. oclc. org/ oclc/ research/

publications/ review99/ index. htm>.

The meeting ended following a subsequent

executive session between RAC members and

officers of OCLC.— Robert C. Bolander is

manager, Communications and Programs, OCLC

Office of Research.

• • •

An abstract from the Annual Review of OCLC Research 1999:

Understanding Collections: Description and Access

by Lorraine Normore

Collections provide a challenge because they can be characterized both as a single entity and as a

grouping of other entities, which may themselves be of interest. The demands of this dual nature

are discussed in the context of CORC pathfinders and special and archival collections. A current

Office of Research project is studying how these collections come to be and how libraries and

other institutions are approaching description and access.

The full text of this paper and others is available on OCLC’s web site

< http:// www. oclc. org/ oclc/ research/ publications/ review99/>.— Lorraine Normore is

consulting research scientist, OCLC Office of Research.

• • •

O C L C U N I O N L I S T S E R V I C E

30 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

by Myrtle Myers

Union Listing is an integral

part of OCLC’s suite of

Resource Sharing products

and services. As a stand-alone

service, Union Listing

allows OCLC member and

nonmember libraries to

form resource sharing

groups and share their

holdings information among group members in

an online and offline environment. As a

complementary service to interlibrary loan, the

OCLC Union List service allows libraries access to

holdings data so that they can identify the

libraries that own the title and the particular

volume required.

In the Beginning of the OCLC

Union List

OCLC introduced the union list component to the

Serials Control Subsystem in late 1980 when the

data for the Indiana Union List of Serials was

added. By December 1981, 13 groups were

participating in OCLC union listing.

As use of the system grew, demand for offline

products also increased. In 1984 OCLC

introduced Serials Union List Offline Products in

three formats: paper, fiche and 1600- bpi tape.

How It Works

OCLC member libraries have complete access to

all union list data. Nonmembers who have no

other affiliation with OCLC and selective libraries

that do not catalog on OCLC but take advantage

of the OCLC Interlibrary Loan service ( ILL)

capabilities may participate in a union list

arrangement on OCLC but can only view the data

for libraries within their group.

Libraries that want to participate in the OCLC

Union List service must belong to an OCLC Union

List group. These groups, like other union list

groups, come together for a variety of reasons, for

example, geographic proximity or subject matter.

Many of the groups already have an established

relationship before making the decision to join

OCLC. For a group to join OCLC, at least one

member of the group must be a full OCLC

member. Once a group determines that it meets

the criteria and decides to join OCLC, it contacts

the local OCLC- affiliated regional network. The

network will work with the group to complete

the necessary profiling forms to identify the

libraries within the group.

Union list holdings information for each

institution is entered into a Local Data Record

( LDR). One LDR is entered for each copy of a

title that the library owns.

OCLC Union List complements ILL

The OCLC Union List service is definitely a very

useful feature. With this feature, we can easily get a

list of who has what in terms of specific ranges of

detailed collections. It makes our choices more

accurate and easier. Keep up the good work!

Sharon Pei

Technology Information Center

M/ A- COM Division,

Tyco Electronics

Lowell, Massachusetts

Group Symbol Group Name Start Date

ILSU Indiana Database & UL GAC Project Oct. ’ 80

IUCA Association for Higher Education

of North Texas UL Nov. ’ 80

OUSU Oklahoma UL of Serials Project Dec. ’ 80

VPUU Pace University Library ULS Feb. ’ 81

VNCU North County Reference & Research

Resources Council ULS Feb. ’ 81

VRSU Rochester 3Rs ULS Mar. ’ 81

ZUAU Central New York ULS Apr. ’ 81

KULU Kansas ULS May. ’ 81

PASU Pennsylvania ULS Aug. ’ 81

WCSU Wisconsin ULS Sep. ’ 81

NEAU NEOMARL ULS Nov. ’ 81

YSUU South Central Resource Library

Council ULS Nov. ’ 81

ASVU Arkansas ULS Nov. ’ 81

Figure 1 First Groups to Participate in OCLC Union Listing

O C L C U N I O N L I S T S E R V I C E

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 31

Once the holdings

data for members

has been entered,

libraries can view it

from the LDRs for

all of a group’s

members. The

group’s holdings

information can be

viewed from the

Union List ( UL) System or from the Interlibrary

Loan ( ILL) System.

OCLC member libraries can enter their

holdings data themselves or have an agent library

enter their data for them. The agent capability

allows a member library to work for a client

library using the client’s three- character OCLC

symbol and the agent’s authorization number.

Holdings information for nonmember libraries is

always added to the system through an agent.

A library’s union list information needs to be

added only once regardless of the number of

OCLC Union List

groups it belongs

to. Members of a

union list group can

also order offline

products of the

serials union list

data, for an

individual library,

subgroup or a

complete group.

Union Listing Today

Today there are 169 groups participating in

OCLC Union List with a total membership of

almost 16,000 libraries. Approximately 6,000 of

the libraries are OCLC member libraries, while

close to 10,000 are nonmember or selective

institutions. Nonmember libraries have no

online access to OCLC, while selective libraries

have access to the ILL system, and most

contribute their union list holdings data through

Union List Agent institutions. Some 92 of the

union list groups also take advantage of the

Group Access Capability ( GAC) on OCLC for

ILL activity.

The number of holdings records or LDRs has

nearly doubled in the last 12 years. In April 1988

there were 4,630,170 LDRs in the Union List

Database. By April 2000 there were 8,555,138.

Once a library has entered its union list data in

the OCLC Union List system it can order offline

products of its serial holdings. Each group has a

set order cycle, and the members of that group

can order products as often as they wish within

their group’s established order cycle. Libraries

can order products in a variety of different

delivery formats: paper, microfiche, 1600 & 6250

bpi tapes, IBM cartridge, EDX and product

services web.

While paper offline products continue to be

the most popular, tape and FTP are steadily

gaining converts. Microfiche orders are

declining at a slow but steady pace.

Even with the growth in full- text databases

and the use of document suppliers, it is evident

from the statistics that union list data continues

to be important to both union list and ILL

participating libraries. Emphasis in the future

will be on easy access to the holdings

information represented in the Local Data

Records for staff in technical services,

interlibrary loan and reference, as well as for end

users.— Myrtle Myers is senior product support

specialist, OCLC Resource Sharing Product

Management.

Figure 2: Local Data Record

Figure 3: UL Group Display

Union list holdings are the final and most essential pieces of the serials

puzzle. Serials bibliographic description cannot be considered complete

without attached, detailed holdings. Local data records are the glue that

holds our successive- entry universe together.

Bob Dowd

New York State Library

O C L C U N I O N L I S T S E R V I C E

32 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

by Cathy Kellum

From May through July 2000

OCLC convened

an Ad Hoc Task Force on

Union Listing with a charge

to examine the results of

the following activities that

recently took place at

OCLC:

• The Strategic OCLC Union List ( SOUL) pilot

project

• A revamped ILL fulfillment study on serial

requests

• The 1998/ 99 working group on e- serial

holdings information held via discussion list

These projects, developed and conducted by

OCLC, show that the use of accurate, up- to- date

union list information improves the fill- rate for

interlibrary loan, benefiting both borrowing and

lending libraries. Union lists also support libraries

in their collection development activities and

serve as local and regional reference tools. The

Ad Hoc Task Force on Union Listing provided

guidance to OCLC through their discussions on

the future of union listing and the role OCLC

should play in meeting present and future needs

of its member libraries on this issue.

The membership of the Ad Hoc Task Force on

Union Listing was made up of library staff from

both interlibrary loan and serials from across the

OCLC membership as well as union list agents,

representatives from OCLC- affiliated regional

networks and OCLC staff.

Meetings of the task force were held in May,

June and July 2000 via conference calls and

NetMeeting technology. An Internet discussion

list was established for the facilitation of sharing

information and conducting dialogues among task

force members.

The Task Force drafted recommendations

based on their three- month discussion. The focus

of its recommendations was to answer the

following questions:

• What is the future of Union Listing on OCLC?

• How should OCLC plan to meet the present

and future needs of its libraries in regard to

Union Listing?

The OCLC Users Council Resource Sharing

Interest Group discussed these issues at their

October meeting in Dublin, and unanimously

passed a resolution supporting the Task Force

recommendations and the importance of the role

serials holdings information will play in OCLC’s

strategic plan.

The task force’s full report containing its

final recommendations is available on OCLC’s

web site < http:// www. oclc. org/ oclc/ union/

taskforce. htm>.— Cathy Kellum is consulting

product support specialist, OCLC Resource

Sharing Product Management.

• • •

Ad hoc Task Force on Union Listing issues report

Members of the Ad Hoc Task Force

on Union Listing

Allen Ashman, Kentucky Union List of Serials

Bob Dowd, New York State Newspaper Project

Susan Hill, Cleveland Health Sciences Library/

Case Western Reserve University and liaison

to the OCLC Resource Sharing Advisory

Committee

Marcella Lesher, St. Mary’s University, San

Antonio

Nancy Paine, University of Texas– Austin

Linda Thornton, Auburn University ( Alabama)

Network Staff:

Cecelia Boone, MINITEX Library Information

Network

Ann Devenish, NELINET

Margi Mann, OCLC Western Service Center

Sam Sayre, OCLC Western Service Center

OCLC Staff:

Cathy Kellum

Collette Mak

Myrtle Myers

Anne Donohue

Tony Melvyn

O C L C U N I O N L I S T S E R V I C E

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 33

by Cathy Kellum

OCLC conducted a pilot project in late 1999 and

early 2000 to promote libraries’ use of the Union

List service as a tool for increasing ILL fill rates.

The Strategic OCLC Union List ( SOUL) pilot

project targeted libraries that had not fully

utilized OCLC Union List capability and trained

them to enter Local Data Records ( LDRs) for their

most- frequently requested serial titles. Our

primary goal was to see an increase in their ILL

fill rates for serial requests after LDRs were made

available for their top- requested titles.

But our goal was actually twofold. One, we

know union listing makes a difference in the ILL

process, so we wanted to try to prove our theory

with statistical data. Two, if we found statistical

evidence that this data does make a difference,

we wanted to analyze what we learned through

this pilot to help turn this into an ongoing

service.

We initially identified about 20 libraries as

likely candidates, and subsequently chose 11 of

those to participate in the pilot. These libraries

had strong ILL activity, but few or no LDRs in the

OCLC Union List service. Participants, chosen

based on a combination of library type and

geographic distribution, were:

• Auburn University ( Alabama)

• Boston ( Massachusetts) Public Library

• California Academy of Sciences

• Denver ( Colorado) Public Library

• Northwestern University ( Illinois)

• Occidental College ( California)

• San Francisco ( California) Public Library

• University of Colorado at Boulder

• University of Delaware

• University of Kansas

• University of Texas– Austin

We suggested that ILL staff perform the input

rather than catalogers or serials staff because we

felt that they were in a better position to see

immediate impact on their ILL workflow. Eight of

the 11 libraries chose to use ILL staff for the pilot;

the other three made the decision to use

catalogers or serials staff because of workload

and other internal issues.

A variety of staffing levels was used for data

entry: professional librarians, paraprofessional or

clerical staff, and in one case, a student worker.

During the data entry phase in December 1999

and January 2000, libraries were sent a list of

their top- requested serial titles ( ranked in order),

generated with system data from June 1998

through November 1999. They were also sent a

training workbook, and were trained to enter

LDRs via phone calls with the pilot manager. We

requested that each library enter a minimum of

100 LDRs by the end of January.

Overall, about 2,500 LDRs were entered during

the pilot period ( from 100– 1,000 each). Some

libraries have continued to enter data in the

months following the initial data entry phase

because of the impact they soon saw on their ILL

process. One method being used is to keep track

of rejected ILL requests with “ Reason for No—

Lacking” and update or create holdings records

for those titles.

We identified “ frequent borrowers” of the pilot

libraries through existing OCLC system data. We

then did a targeted mailing to those partner

libraries, as well as a posting a message on the

ILL- L discussion list, to let libraries know they

could now find union listing data for the pilot

participants.

We closely monitored system activity during

the ILL peak period of February– April 2000.

Most libraries saw an immediate impact in their

ILL fill rates— from 3– 33 percent. In most cases,

libraries actually saw a decrease in the overall

number of ILL requests received because they

were no longer receiving requests for holdings

the system clearly showed they did not have.

Strategic OCLC Union Listing pilot data verifies

that:

• the more LDRs entered, the higher the fill rate

• the greater percentage of the serial collection

entered, the higher the increase in fill rate

The SOUL pilot project was a key issue under

consideration by the Ad Hoc Task Force on Union

Listing.— Cathy Kellum is consulting product

support specialist, OCLC Resource Sharing

Product Management.

• • •

A little ‘ SOUL’ increases ILL fill rates

O C L C U N I O N L I S T S E R V I C E

34 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

by Anne Donohue

In 1995, OCLC conducted an interlibrary loan

fulfillment study and concluded that the level of

detail in the OCLC Online System for holdings

information is appropriate for ILL. In early 2000,

OCLC decided to replicate the serials portion of

this study to see if this conclusion has changed.

It has not. OCLC wanted to answer three

questions, the same three that were asked in the

original study:

• Are the online system holdings adequate to

ensure high ILL fill rates?

• If not, what additional information is needed?

• What percentage of unfilled requests can be

resolved through OPAC holdings information?

OCLC is uniquely positioned to determine the

answers to these questions due to our ability to

construct a sample based on national experience.

Serials requests can be optimized by use of the

online system’s Local Data Records ( LDRs).

A normal curve for ILL request creation was

assumed in the study. The skill of borrowing

libraries follows a normal distribution with some

borrowers being more or less skilled, and the

majority being average. If that is true, we

assumed we could look at the fill rate in relation

to the holdings information to find out how much

holdings information was necessary to ensure a

high fill rate. Using standard tools we determined

that a sample size of 306 would give a confidence

level of 90 percent with an error of margin of

plus or minus 5 percent.

We pulled the sample requests from live ILL

requests generated in the OCLC Interlibrary Loan

service. During January– March, samples were

collected, regardless of whether or not the

request was filled. Requests were taken during

different times of the day and different days of

the week.

During March and April, 316 live requests were

created on the OCLC ILL system. To reduce false

“ no” responses based on time or lending charges,

potential lenders were given 20 days to respond,

and we stated our willingness to pay up to $ 30,

either through IFM or by check. We knew from

previous experience that libraries tend to give

OCLC preferential treatment. To avoid that we

conducted the study under the test symbol OZY

and the institution name of Central Plains

University. Our mailing address was listed as a PO

Box in case the address 6565 Frantz Road was

familiar to library staff. Anne Donohue was listed

as the ILL staff in the Constant Data record. I am

new enough to OCLC that we did not think my

name would be recognized by ILL staff. The

patron name for all requests was Jennifer Hill;

while a patron name is not necessary for ILL it

was included as a checkpoint should any test

materials be routed to the OCLC Information

Center.

When requests were created we noted

whether or not the lender’s symbol was attached

to the record and whether or not an LDR was

present. If the LDR was present, we noted if it

indicated the correct volume and/ or year being

requested. All unfilled requests were followed up

by an OPAC check to determine if the request

was machine resolvable. Could we tell from the

OPAC whether or not they owned the title? In

most cases we checked the libraries’ OPAC over

the Internet. If a library’s catalog was not

available over the World Wide Web, we called and

asked the same questions we answered with the

online OPACs.

We downloaded the OCLC ILL Management

Statistics Service Report for March so we could

enter the data related to each ILL number. Each

request was put into one of 10 categories, such as

“ filled, valid LDR.” The data was imported into a

spreadsheet and sorted by category.

The OCLC ILL online system has enough

information to accurately choose a lender. The

availability of local data records makes the

chances of receiving the request even greater. Of

filled requests, 70 had accurate local data records,

while 54 had no LDRs. However, not all requests

are determined by data available on machines.

ILL Fulfillment Study focuses on improving fill rates

In 74 percent of the cases, DR information made lender choice clear.

O C L C U N I O N L I S T S E R V I C E

OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000 35

A certain percentage of requests requires human

intervention, either to check for a specific issue

on the shelf, or to make a policy decision. Of

note is the fact that OPAC- resolvable issues

jumped from 9.5 percent in 1995 to 17 percent in

2000. This reflects the growing number of

libraries putting their holdings information in

their local catalogs.

Summary- level holdings statements in the LDRs

play the most significant part in increasing ILL fill

rates. Lenders chosen based on the LDR were

significantly more effective ( 74 percent) than

lenders chosen solely on the three- letter symbol

( 40 percent).— Anne Donohue is library

services consultant, OCLC Library Services.

• • •

by Jeffrey Field and Robert Harriman

Newspapers are arguably the single most

important research source for social and cultural

history. As the first- hand and often only account

of local news, newspapers provide not simply the

record of an event, but also, through

accompanying stories and advertising, a sense

of place and time in which to better understand

the event. Their value extends well beyond the

academy, for they are a primary source of

information for ethnic and regional studies

and for family history and genealogy.

In January 1983, a group of librarians from six

institutions met at OCLC headquarters with

program staff from the National Endowment for

the Humanities ( NEH), the Library of Congress

( LC), and OCLC to establish procedures for

creating bibliographic and holdings records for a

new national union list of newspapers. The

institutions represented the first six grants made

by the NEH to launch the United States

Newspaper Program ( USNP). A revision of

Winifred Gregory’s American Newspapers

1821– 1836: A Union List of Files Available in

the U. S. and Canada ( New York: H. W. Wilson,

1937) was long overdue, and scholars and

researchers had placed that task at the top of

the wish list of priority research projects since

the late 1950s. By the beginning of the 1980s,

the availability of a national bibliographic

utility— OCLC— and the assurance of quality

standards fostered by the Cooperative Online

Serials Program ( CONSER) provided the

infrastructure for creating a national newspaper

union list.

The United States Newspaper Program is a

unique and highly successful collaboration

between LC and NEH to support a national

effort to identify, describe and preserve the

newspapers of the United States and its

territories. Since the early 1980s, NEH and LC

have worked together to establish projects in

each state and territory and to train and equip

staff in those projects to catalog and to

preserve newspapers held in libraries, archives,

publishers’ offices, local historical societies,

churches and ethnic organizations, and private

collections. The cooperative management

structure for the program was formalized with

the signing of an Interagency Agreement

between NEH and LC in 1984.

Partly because of their ephemeral nature, and

partly because of the complexities involved,

newspapers have been among the last items in

library collections to be brought under

bibliographic control. The first requirement for

Library of Congress staff was to adapt and

implement cataloging tools, develop rule

interpretations, and provide documentation for

project catalogers. Following several revisions as

separate manuals, newspaper cataloging

documentation is now incorporated into the

CONSER Editing Guide and the CONSER

Cataloging Manual. OCLC staff, during the

above- mentioned meeting in Dublin, laid out the

blueprint for what still stand as procedures for

recording holdings in the USNP union list, adapting

what was at the time a serials control subsystem

and utilizing that record structure for union listing.

It is important to point out that at the time the

program began, most OCLC connections were

still hard- wired; PC- based database management

software wasn’t available on the marketplace; and

the acronym OPAC was years away from our

United States Newspaper Program Union List

grows and grows

O C L C U N I O N L I S T S E R V I C E

36 OCLC Newsletter November/ December 2000

consciousness. Oh, and the Web?

Someone’s dream, perhaps.

While all of these more recent

technological developments— and

many more— are now incorporated

into USNP work, the task of building

a national database of bibliographic

and holdings information remains

primary. Projects have been funded

in every state, the District of

Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U. S.

Virgin Islands. We now project that

the final grant award( s) will fund

activity through 2007, and that the

USNP database at that time will

approach 150,000 bibliographic

records and well over 500,000

holdings records.

Ironically, for those who publish

newspapers, and most who read

them, they are meant to be

disposable, to be tossed aside.

Yesterday is old news already.

Newsprint is susceptible to damage

from sunlight, heat, dampness and

airborne pollutants. Newspapers by

design are simply not intended to last.

The union list supports not only research

throughout the world, but also what is perhaps

the largest single preservation microfilming effort

ever undertaken. When completed, USNP

projects will have microfilmed over 60 million

pages. Emerging digital technologies provide

tremendous new opportunities for getting

information in ways not practical ( if even

conceivable) 20 years ago; imagine, for example,

the chance to build an electronic “ clipping file”

from the entire back run of The New York Times.

Yet questions about scalability, storage and

migration of the huge amounts of data for

long- term access remain unanswered.

Preservation questions, for the most

part, have been answered with

regard to preserving newspapers on

microfilm. For libraries, archives and

historical societies that wish to allow

continued access to their newspaper

collections for research, the most

secure and economical option is to

preserve the intellectual content of

the newspapers through

reformatting onto microfilm. We are

confident that microfilm— which is

produced, processed and stored

in adherence to national and

international standards— will serve

researchers well into the next

millennium and beyond. With the

proven ability to capture quality

digital images from the microfilm,

we can proceed with the knowledge

that we are securing access to these

newspapers not only for the future,

but for uses in the future that we

may not foresee today.

Through a coordinated effort,

which provides continuing

management and consultation to state projects

throughout their grant- funded activity, the USNP

has been able to assure that all appropriate

standards and practices are employed in

accomplishing the mission of the program. In

addition, by training and equipping staff in each

state, there is assurance that cataloging and

preservation activities ca