O C L C
N E W S L E T T E R
M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 1 I S S N : 0 1 6 3 - 8 9 8 X N O . 2 5 1
C O N T E N T S May/ June 2001 No. 251
Editor in chief:
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Correspondents:
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Membership News
Research library leaders from around the world meet
at OCLC to discuss ‘ Weaving Libraries into the Web’
Cooperation, technology key to Princeton presentation
OCLC committee to study aspects of membership
Library leaders in Asia Pacific conduct annual information exchange
Boston Public Library enters 46 millionth record into WorldCat
RLG and OCLC publish paper on future of digital preservation metadata
University of Wisconsin– Madison creates 106 millionth OCLC ILL request
for article in nursing journal
University of Tennessee makes 107 millionth request on OCLC ILL service
OCLC Statistics
Borrowing specialist adds comic twist to ILL
PromptCat improves workflow at the University of North Texas
Turkish consortium to use FirstSearch
Preservation Resources to digitize National Library of New Zealand 19th
century newspaper collection
Preservation Resources provides digitization pathfinders and preservation
database on web site
A vision for the future: CONSER extends cooperation to prediction patterns
Mount Aloysius College Library adds Ecumenical Studies Collection
to WorldCat
OCLC Reference Services Advisory Committee meets
OCLC Institute hosts four international fellows
Two appointed to Dewey Editorial Policy Committee
OCLC Western Service Center opens new office
Research
Sarah Thomas discusses the role of the library catalog as gateway to the
Internet
OCLC and Ohio State University to study CORC database
Nobuko Kishi is visiting scholar in the OCLC Office of Research
Research Advisory Committee meets
30 Years of WorldCat
30 years of WorldCat: Looking back for a perspective on the future
WorldCat is a remarkable achievement in librarianship
2001: A Bibliographical Odyssey
OCLC WorldCat Principles of Cooperation
Product News
New Journals added to Electronic Collections Online
News Briefs and Links
Back Cover
48 Lorcan Dempsey to head OCLC Office of Research
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WORLDCAT:
ON TO YEAR 31
F R O M J A Y J O R D A N
T his issue of the OCLC Newsletter
celebrates the 30th year of libraries
working together on the bibliographic
database, WorldCat.
On Aug. 26, 1971, the OCLC Online Union
Catalog and Shared Cataloging
System came up, with one institution,
Ohio University in Athens, ready to go. Ohio
University staff cataloged 144 books online
that first day. The first night, the OCLC
computer room was struck by lightning.
Within six weeks, all 54 Ohio member
academic libraries were online, as well as a
few libraries in Pennsylvania.
In the 1971/ 72 OCLC Annual Report,
Frederick G. Kilgour, OCLC’s founder and first
president, referred to the implementation of
what we now call WorldCat as the “ outstand-ing
accomplishment of the year.” He also
mentioned another important development—
the decision to extend membership to non-academic
libraries in Ohio. “ Those who
brought OCLC into being in the mid 1960s,”
he wrote,“ had often expressed inclusion
of non- academic libraries as a hope for
the future.”
Thirty years later, it is fair to say that
these hopes are being realized. The OCLC
community now includes more than 39,000
libraries in 76 countries, two- thirds of them
non- academic libraries. And, on May 21, the
OCLC Users Council expressed, once again,
hope for the future.
By a vote of 60– 0, Users Council delegates
ratified changes to OCLC’s governance
structure proposed by the Board of Trustees
that: 1) change the name of Users Council to
Members Council; and 2) add six delegates
from outside the United States to Members
Council for three years, to give OCLC time to
develop its global offerings. In addition, the
Board of Trustees has established a committee
composed of representatives from the board,
Members Council and networks and service
centers to recommend changes in the way to
value different types of contribution to the
OCLC cooperative in addition to cataloging.
A new Members Council, elected by a new
algorithm based on new definitions of
membership, will hold its first meeting in
October 2004.
These changes in OCLC’s governance
structure, combined with the new services
and programs outlined in our global strategy
< http:// www. oclc. org/ strategy/> provide us
with the opportunity to make WorldCat an
even more valuable resource.
As we enter Year 31 of our cooperative
endeavor, we at OCLC remain committed to
our public purposes of furthering access to
the world’s information and reducing library
costs. It is still a great time for libraries and
librarians. Happy Birthday, WorldCat!
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 May/ June 2001
Library leaders from 28 countries met March 5– 6
at OCLC in Dublin, Ohio, to discuss strategies to
make libraries more prominent information
sources on the World Wide Web.
Featured speakers at the 19th Annual OCLC
International Conference of Research Library
Directors included Sam Hill, president and chief
executive officer, Helios Consulting; Howard
Strauss, manager, Academic Applications, Prince-ton
University; and Jay Jordan, president and chief
executive officer, OCLC.
“ Weaving Libraries into the Web and the Web
into Libraries” was the theme for this year’s event.
David F. Kohl, chair, OCLC Research Libraries
Advisory Committee, and dean of libraries, Uni-versity
of Cincinnati, led the program. In the
opening session, Dr. Kohl noted that 50 percent
of the attendees were from outside the United
States. “ I welcome you,” he said,“ as part of
OCLC’s world family.”
The 107 conference participants also heard
reports from William J. Crowe, chair, OCLC Board
of Trustees, and Spencer Librarian, Kenneth
Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas,
Lawrence, and from OCLC staff.
In his presentation,“ Branding the Library and
the University in an Online World,” Mr. Hill pointed
out that “ branding” is nothing new to the market-place.
He briefly traced the history of branding,
suggesting that it began in 200 B. C. as a maker’s
mark put on the bottom of a sandal in Syria. From
its beginning as a means to show who had created
a product, the brand has become something that
triggers recognition in people’s minds. It is a par-ticularly
hot topic in the business world today.
“ Branding is about relationships, and relation-ships
work when there is a mutual need,” said
Mr. Hill. He said branding has nothing to do with
a commodity; it runs much deeper than that.
Those interested in developing a brand should
agree on what they are trying to do, and should
systematically analyze their brand by knowing
their customers, setting themselves apart from
others, and communicating effectively.
“ Libraries need branding,” said Mr. Hill. “ The
Internet has pumped a lot of information and infor-mation
providers out there, but anytime there’s a
new technology the number of companies expands
exponentially. Out of all this cacophony on the
Internet, some brands will emerge. I think libraries
are starting from a better place than anyone else.”
“ You have to be careful about generic relation-ships,”
said Mr. Hill, in response to a question
about whether to brand a specific library or
libraries in general. “ Most people make choices at
a very specific level. So people tend to generalize
from the specific. If you can make people like
your library, they’ll like libraries in general.”
“ Web portals are going to change everything
about the web,” said Mr. Strauss, in his presenta-tion,“
A Home Page Does Not a Portal Make.”
“ The way web pages are built is going to
change completely, and the way web pages are
used is going to change completely,” said Mr.
Strauss. “ Today, when you use the web, what you
see is somebody’s home page. Everyone sees the
same institution- centric home page. Web portals
are going to change this institution- centric view
to a user- centric view.”
Instead of everyone seeing the same home
page on the web, there will be a web page, or
portal, personalized for each individual, he said.
So at an academic institution with 50,000 stu-dents,
faculty and staff, there will be 50,000
different web portals. “ Everybody who interacts
with the web is going to see something tailored
to their own particular needs and interests. So a
web portal is a web page that is tailored to you—
it is user- centric.”
It takes a completely different process to build
a web portal than it does to build a conventional
web page, according to Mr. Strauss. Today, an
organization has a group of people who build
and design web pages. But to build a user- centric
page, one must have access to all sorts of informa-tion
about a person, and the people who have
this information are distributed across the entire
university.
“ That means we have to do something that is
more complicated than any technical challenge
you can imagine— we have to get different groups
of people to work together,” said Mr. Strauss.
“ Web development folks can design the look and
feel of these portals; we’ll get others to work on
some of the personalization issues; and we’ll get
someone else to go out and get access to the data.
That’s why I believe this is not going to be suc-cessful
unless we do lots and lots of planning.”
A videotape ( OCLC # 46807888) of the presen-tations
by Mr. Hill and Mr. Strauss is available in
VHS, PAL and SECAM formats from the OCLC
Information Center via interlibrary loan.
Research library leaders from around the world meet
at OCLC to discuss ‘ Weaving Libraries into the Web’
“ If you can
make people
like your library,
they’ll like
libraries
in general.��
Sam Hill
photo provided by Sam Hill
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 5
Mr. Jordan presented an update of OCLC activi-ties.
He touched on progress in OCLC’s interna-tional
operations, including moving the OCLC
Arabic Cataloging Pilot Project into a production
system. He mentioned OCLC’s work on preserva-tion
and archiving services, including exploring
the creation of a cooperative digital object repos-itory.
He discussed OCLC research, extending the
OCLC cooperative, and other developments.
Mr. Jordan announced that OCLC has signed
an agreement with BioOne in which OCLC will
become the exclusive distributor of BioOne
journals outside the United States and Canada.
BioOne is the new web- based aggregation of
research in the biological, ecological and environ-mental
sciences. Amigos Library Services, a
regional service provider, is the distributor for
BioOne in the United States and Canada.
Dr. Crowe updated the library directors on
the ongoing OCLC Strategic Directions and
Governance Study. By June, the OCLC Board of
Trustees and Users Council are expected to act
on proposed changes to the governance structure
that could extend OCLC membership.
“ This has been a tremendous opportunity to
discuss how OCLC can best move forward,” said
Dr. Crowe. “ It is a chance to consider thought-fully
what directions OCLC should take and what
choices OCLC should make about spending
scarce resources. Ours is a large and varied com-munity.
It’s very important for all of us to listen
to each other.”
Phyllis Spies, vice president, Worldwide Library
Services, touched on OCLC’s international growth
in her presentation,“ What Will a Global OCLC
Cooperative Look Like?”
“ OCLC’s global strategy is multi- faceted,” said
Ms. Spies. “ We are working toward multiple levels
of cooperation— cooperation within regions as
well as global cooperation. We want to deepen
our relationship with local partners so that they
will help develop and tailor systems and services
to better meet the needs of libraries in their
regions, and most importantly, will also allow
those regions of the world to cooperate globally.”
Gary Houk, vice president, OCLC Metadata and
Content Management Services, and Pat Stevens,
director, Product Planning and Strategy, discussed
and demonstrated the plan for extending the
OCLC cooperative— and for extending WorldCat
( the OCLC Online Union Catlaog) specifically.
The enhanced version of WorldCat will include
a shared knowledge base supported by a set of
integrated, web- based tools and services that facil-itate
contribution, discovery, exchange, delivery
and preservation of knowledge objects and
shared expertise of participating libraries.
“ Within three years, services provided under
OCLC’s Metadata program will transform OCLC’s
traditional cataloging service to a comprehensive
metadata creation and management service for
librarians, library users and information partners,”
said Mr. Houk.
Conference participants also attended OCLC
briefings on: The OCLC Cooperative Online
Resource Catalog ( CORC); Dewey Decimal Classi-fication:
Knowledge Organization Tool; and OCLC
Digital Collection Management and Preservation.
• • •
Howard Strauss photo provided by Howard Strauss
“ Everybody who
interacts with the
web is going to
see something
tailored to their
own particular
needs and interests.
So a web portal is
a web page that is
tailored to you.”
A snowstorm in the northeastern United States
kept 14 participants from attending this year’s
International Conference of Research Library
Directors.
One of those stranded was Howard Strauss,
manager, Academic Applications, Princeton
University, a speaker scheduled for the Tuesday
morning session.
Linda Arnold, OCLC Library Member
Relations Program manager and coordinator
of the event, held out hope until the very
end that Mr. Strauss would be able to get to
Dublin. However, when it became apparent
that he was not going to make it, Ms. Arnold
resorted to OCLC’s guiding principle—
cooperation— and the best technology to fit
the need to get information to conference
attendees.
Mr. Strauss, stuck in Princeton, New Jersey,
delivered his presentation over the phone,
which was broadcast to the conference partici-pants
through the public address system in the
meeting room. George Needham, vice presi-dent,
OCLC Member Services, was behind the
mouse, clicking along with Mr. Strauss’
PowerPoint presentation so that participants
could follow along.
“ It worked very well,” said Ms. Arnold. “ We
were sorry that Howard couldn’t make it to the
meeting physically, but we were glad he could
make his interesting and informative presentation
virtually.”
• • •
Cooperation, technology key to Princeton presentation
Linda Arnold
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
6 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
The OCLC Board of Trustees has named nine peo-ple
to an ad hoc committee to review, in conjunc-tion
with the OCLC Users Council, the definitions
of membership and contribution and to develop a
new formula for allocating representation on the
Users Council. The committee will present rec-ommendations
to the Board of Trustees and Users
Council by May 2002.
Mary- Alice Lynch, executive director, Nylink,
will chair the Ad Hoc Membership Committee.
Committee members are: Maurice Glicksman,
member, OCLC Board of Trustees, and professor
of engineering ( Research) and provost emeritus,
Brown University; Victoria Hanawalt, member,
OCLC Board of Trustees, and college librarian,
Eric V. Hauser Library, Reed College; Ian Mowat,
member, OCLC Users Council, and librarian,
Edinburgh University Library; Kristin Senecal,
OCLC Users Council, and acting director, Waidner-
Spahr Library, Dickinson College; Jerry Stephens,
OCLC Users Council vice president/ president-elect,
and librarian and director, Mervyn H. Sterne
Library, University of Alabama– Birmingham.
Ex- officio members are: Larry Alford, OCLC
Users Council president, and deputy university
librarian, University of North Carolina– Chapel
Hill; William J. Crowe, chair, OCLC Board of
Trustees, and Spencer Librarian, Kenneth Spencer
Research Library, University of Kansas; and
George Needham, OCLC vice president for
Member Services.
OCLC’s present governance structure was
adopted in 1977. That structure consists of
general members, Users Council and Board of
Trustees. The nearly 9,000 general OCLC mem-bers
contribute all their current roman- alphabet
cataloging to WorldCat ( the OCLC Online Union
Catalog). An additional 30,000 libraries use vari-ous
OCLC services but do not contribute all their
current roman- alphabet cataloging to WorldCat
and are classified as participants rather than
members.
General members elect 60 delegates to the
OCLC Users Council. Currently, the apportion-ment
of delegates among networks and service
centers is based on cataloging and interlibrary
loan activity. The Users Council meets three
times a year to provide advice and counsel to
OCLC; its principal governance responsibilities
are to elect six members of the OCLC Board of
Trustees and to ratify changes in the OCLC arti-cles
of incorporation and code of regulations.
“ This committee will build on the excellent
work of the Strategic Directions and OCLC
Governance Advisory Council to ensure that the
values that have brought libraries together in
shared purpose through OCLC and its many part-ners
can be sustained into the digital era,” said
Mr. Crowe. “ With a membership of distinguished
librarians from across the library community and
a board member from academe, this committee
will recommend ways the collaborative can
appropriately value the contribution of intellec-tual
content and sharing of resources from both
current and prospective members. The commit-tee’s
recommendations will help ensure that, in
an increasingly global information society, OCLC
will continue to function as a nonprofit, member-ship
cooperative, whose governance structure
will be better able to advance its public purposes
of furthering access to the world’s information
and reducing the rate of rise in library costs.”
“ For more than 20 years, the OCLC collabora-tive
has operated under the principle that partici-pation
in its governance is determined by contri-bution,”
said Mr. Alford. “ The OCLC Users
Council, in discussions over the last year, reaf-firmed
that basic principle but also strongly sup-ported
an expansion of the definition of contribu-tion
and resource sharing. Users Council believes
such an expansion will recognize and value
through participation in OCLC governance the
diverse activities libraries now engage in coopera-tively
to better serve the world’s library users.”
“ The values and fundamental principles that
were so key in the early development of OCLC as
well as in its evolution into the largest library col-laborative
in the world have been reaffirmed by
the recent governance study,” said Ms. Lynch.
“ The challenge now is to build on those values
and principles, but to take a fresh look at the defi-nition
of contribution/ membership in the rapidly
changing library environment, with consideration
of the range and global reach of OCLC services. I
look forward to working with the other commit-tee
members, with input from OCLC’s key con-stituent
groups, to develop a contribution defini-tion
and process that will continue to recognize
and reinforce the collaborative.”
• • •
OCLC committee to study aspects of membership
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 7
by Eliza Sproat
After the 19th Annual
International Conference of
Research Library Directors
concluded, visiting library
directors from Australia,
China, Hong Kong, Japan,
New Zealand, Singapore,
Taiwan and Thailand
extended their stay to share
information about their libraries with interna-tional
colleagues.
China
Peking University’s goal to become one of the
top ranking universities in the world mirrors its
library’s aim to be one of the world’s top libraries.
Qinfang Xie, deputy director, Peking University
Library, said that to best serve her library’s end
users, her library staff planned to increase open-shelf
areas and strengthen their collection’s digiti-zation
efforts.
Many of the library’s materials are currently
described offline: their OPAC has only 350,000
bibliographic records corresponding to an associ-ated
900,000 items, although their collection con-tains
a substantial 4.9 million items. A number of
ancient materials, including 50,000 rubbings of
Chinese inscriptions, are now available online.
The library is currently using Dublin Core to
develop metadata more suitable for these rub-bings,
and library staff are working on a rare
books digitization project.
Peking University was founded in 1898; its
newest library building was built 100 years later
in 1998. Peking University Library’s < http://
www. lib. pku. edu. cn/> ancient rubbings collection
can be viewed online at < http:// 162.105.138.23/
tapian/ tp. htm>.
Hong Kong
The Chinese University of Hong Kong is second
only to the Library of Congress in contributing
Chinese records to WorldCat ( the OCLC Online
Union Catalog). The Chinese University of Hong
Kong has its entire collection in WorldCat. Approx-imately
60 percent of the 1.5 million items in the
university’s collection are in English and 40 per-cent
are in Chinese.
The eight university libraries in Hong Kong
compete among themselves, but cooperation is
not uncommon. Colin Storey, university librarian,
the Chinese University of Hong Kong, described
the Hong Kong Chinese Authority Name database
collaborative project. It is a significant undertak-ing
to provide efficient access to the many
Chinese language materials available in Hong
Kong university libraries. To enhance quality, effi-ciency
and comprehensiveness, the Chinese
University of Hong Kong joined with Hong
Kong’s seven other universities to tackle authority
problems encountered with Chinese names,
including multiple pseudonyms for single persons
and transliteration consistency. Established in
1999, the group’s union database of Chinese
name authority records now numbers 25,000.
The library will experience a 4 percent budget
cut over the next three years. However, the univer-sity’s
annual budget is relatively ample at $ 17 mil-lion
( U. S.). Also in the forefront of digitization pro-jects,
the library is working on a digitized archive
of its database on the Chu Bamboo Manuscript of
Guodian, which contains bamboo strip fascicles
excavated in Hubei province in 1993.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong < http://
www. lib. cuhk. edu. hk/> was formed when New
Asia College, Chung Chi College and United
College merged in 1963. The library’s Chu
Bamboo Manuscript of Guodian materials is
available online at < http:/ www. lib. cuhk. edu. hk/
collections/ preser4. htm>.
Australia
Colin Steele, director, Scholarly Information
Services and university librarian, the Australian
National University ( ANU), talked about Australian
libraries in general and his university’s project to
Library leaders in Asia Pacific
conduct annual information exchange
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
8 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
increase access to computer terminals. At his uni-versity,
the current ratio of 11 students per termi-nal
is more than twice the international standard
of five students per terminal. Emphasis on com-puter
access at ANU grew in importance as
universities in Australia opted for electronic- only
formats due to budget constraints for print mate-rials.
Given the increasing amount of information
available online, Mr. Steele emphasized the neces-sity
for digital archives.
Mr. Steele also pointed out the importance of
educating university decision- makers not affiliated
with the library about important functions
libraries serve. Increasingly, as users at his univer-sity
become more removed from the physical
library they mistakenly assume that libraries are
Asia Pacific library leaders gather at OCLC
Library leaders from Australia, China ( Mainland), Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand participated in the
19th annual International Conference of Research Library Directors March 5– 6, at OCLC in Dublin, Ohio. Following the two- day
meeting, the group met separately to discuss trends and events occurring in their region.
Seated, left to right: Sumiyo Yamaguchi, graduate student, School of Library & Information Science, Aichishukutoku University
Library, Japan; Peggy Shu- Te Liu, vice president, Flysheet Information Services, Taiwan; Shu- En Tsai, Asia Pacific senior library services
executive, OCLC; BEH Chew Leng, chief information officer, National Library Board of Singapore; Mari Itoh, graduate student, School of
Library & Information Science, Aichishukutoku University, Japan; Hai- Yen Chang, head of acquisitions division, National Taiwan Normal
University; Qinfang XIE, deputy director, Peking University Library, China; Gail Pattie, university librarian, University of Canterbury
Library, New Zealand; Hiroshi Itsumura, assistant professor and associate university librarian, Aichishukutoku University Library; Porntip
Anaprayot, chief librarian, Library and Information Center, Mahidol University, Thailand; Kannigar Chollampe, director, Library and
Information Center, Mahidol University, Thailand; Soeythip Sukul, director, Best Books Co., Thailand.
Standing, left to right: George Ouyang, Asia Pacific library services executive, OCLC; Wei Fu Bender, Asia Pacific user services
specialist, OCLC; Chikako Hirota, graduate student, School of Library & Information Science, Aichishukutoku University, Japan; Hwa-
Wei Lee, OCLC visiting distinguished scholar and dean emeritus, Ohio University Libraries, United States; Akihiko Koyanagi, assistant
manager, Chubu Sales Dept., Kinokuniya Company, Japan; Heng- Cheng Liang, director of university library, National Taiwan Normal
University; Andrew H. Wang, executive director, OCLC Asia Pacific; John L. Dwight, executive chairman, DA Information Services,
Australia; Colin Steele, director, Scholarly Information Services and university librarian, the Australian National University; Eliza Sproat,
Asia Pacific marketing communications specialist, OCLC; Mizuki Kashima, librarian ( coordinator, Internet Resources), Aichishukutoku
University, Japan; Janie McGlone, Asia Pacific user support coordinator, OCLC; Colin Storey, university librarian, the Chinese University
of Hong Kong; Jo Oppenheimer, administrative coordinator, OCLC Asia Pacific; Kuniko Tsuchida, assistant manager, OCLC Center,
Kinokuniya Company, Japan.
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 9
redundant because all the information they need
is “ at their desktop.” Too often, the library’s role
in providing an authoritative structure and organi-zation
to their collection is ignored.
Founded in 1947, Australian National
University is located on a 150- hectare ( 370- acre)
site in the nation’s capital, Canberra. At present,
the Australian National University library < http://
anulib. anu. edu. au/> provides access to reserve
items 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And,
unlike recent controversies in the United States
over the issue of universities ‘ selling’ their stu-dents’
intellectual property, academics down
under keep copyright to their work.
Japan
Hiroshi Itsumura, assistant professor and asso-ciate
university librarian, Aichi- Shukutoku
University Library, discussed his library’s use
of OCLC CORC ( Cooperative Online Resource
Catalog), cataloging standards and challenges
unique to Japanese librarians.
Librarians in Japan are generally unfamiliar
with USMARC and AACR2. Because of these
barriers, the Aichi- Shukutoku team created a
USMARC/ NACSIS- CAT ‘ crosswalk,’ which maps
these two formats. In Japan, there is no national
consensus on the future of metadata, he said.
Other challenges to efficient librarianship include
personnel cuts and international language barri-ers.
Mr. Itsumura also noted that Unicode is
expected to solve problems associated with
the Japanese character set.
Founded in 1905 as Aichi- Shukutoku School
for Girls, in 1989, four years after the Department
of Library and Information Science was estab-lished,
the university’s name changed for the
fourth time in its history to Aichi- Shukutoku
University. Aichi- Shukutoku University Library
< http:// www. aasa. ac. jp/ org/ lib/> is the sole
library in Japan that participated in the CORC
Founder’s Phase. A paper on Aichi- Shukutoku’s
use of CORC will be published in August.
New Zealand
Gail Pattie, university librarian, University of
Canterbury Library, discussed the effect of govern-ment
redistribution and funding cuts. She said stu-dents
who used to receive full funding for school
now pay for their education, and universities that
do not attract enough students cannot survive.
The government is in the process of rolling
back this model, however the process will not
happen quickly enough for university librarians.
Although Ms. Pattie said that university libraries
have had their “ legs cut off” financially, she noted
that OCLC helps libraries in her region become
more cooperative. For example, she said OCLC
works with the National Library of New Zealand
to sustain its National Union Catalog. Ms. Pattie
also said the upcoming international availability
of BioOne ( a growing collection of 40 e- journals,
until recently unavailable in e- format) would
help New Zealand libraries to supplement
and/ or sustain their collections in the bioscience
disciplines.
The second oldest of New Zealand’s eight
universities, the University of Canterbury was
established in 1873. The library < http://
library. canterbury. ac. nz/>, with a collection
of almost 1.5 million items, includes the
Macmillan Brown branch, which contains
Pacific and New Zealand archives.
Taiwan
Heng- Cheng Liang, director of university library,
National Taiwan Normal University ( NTNU), dis-cussed
the dissemination of electronic resources
in Taiwan. The rising cost of publications, cou-pled
with shrinking budgets, shortage of shelving
space and the availability of e- materials, hastened
development of three models now widely used in
Taiwan.
CONsortium on Core Electronic Resources in
Taiwan ( CONCERT), initiated by the National
Science Council in the 1990s, helps leverage nego-tiating
power for libraries and offers national and
consortial licenses. Remote Electronic Access
Delivery Library ( READ- ncl) is a cooperative
model established through the National Central
Library in 1970. It offers access to a number of
publications from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
Third, and of particular relevance to the National
Taiwan Normal University, EdD ( Educational
Documents) was developed in 1962 by NTNU
librarians who published an annual index of edu-cation-
related materials. In 1978, EdD began to
add abstracts. In 1991, they converted to an elec-tronic
database and retrieval system, and in 1998,
they began to provide full image. In 2001, the
name was changed to EdD Online, and the team is
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
10 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
proud to have their freely available resource
described as “ a Chinese counterpart of ERIC.”
National Taiwan Normal University was
founded in 1946 under the name Provincial
Taiwan Teachers College. The library < http://
www. lib. ntnu. edu. tw/> has a collection exceed-ing
1 million volumes.
Singapore
Chew Leng Beh, chief information officer,
National Library Board of Singapore, illustrated
how insightful leadership, effective planning and
a large grant can lead to innovations in library
management. With no natural resources except
its population, ( Singapore even imports water
from Malaysia) the government of Singapore
invested in its human resources. After consulta-tion
with the National Library Board, the govern-ment
granted millions in funding to the board’s
eight- year master plan in which it proposed to
expand the learning capacity of the nation, pro-mote
a “ gracious” society and build a library sys-tem
that is convenient, accessible, affordable and
useful. Funding for the project was generous,
however, the government informed the National
Library Board that its libraries would need to be
self- sufficient by 2003.
The National Library Board solved several
problems in Singapore’s libraries. In 1995, when
returning a book to the library, it was not unusual
to find a long queue and wait, sometimes up to
45 minutes. After the master plan was initiated,
a book drop was created, which increased effi-ciency.
Also, because book drops were equipped
with radio receivers, books could be checked in
instantaneously as they were dropped off, allow-ing
other library users instant access to the
recently returned items.
Libraries were also equipped with borrower
inquiry systems that library users use to query
the status of their checked- out items by swiping
library cards through a card reader. Library cards
additionally offer a cash deposit feature that lets
patrons pay fines, if they so choose. Other ideas
generated to promote readership among its citi-zenry
were to create “ theme” libraries ( such as
one targeted to meet the reading needs of 10– 20
year olds) and to give libraries appropriate expo-sure
by locating them in prime retail areas such as
shopping centers. The challenge of addressing a
digital divide among its community members who
were familiar with online technology systems and
those who were not was met by the National
Library Board by installing multimedia stations
throughout libraries and establishing a 120- seat
training center with broadband Internet access,
sponsored by a local telephone company.
Current statistics show the National Library
Board’s < http:// www. lib. gov. sg> eight- year plan
may be responsible for a favorable trend for
libraries: the number of cinema tickets sold
( 14.8 million) to Singaporeans in a recent year
was far outpaced by the number of items bor-rowed
from the library ( 24.7 million items
loaned) in the same year. These numbers were
nearly reversed when the project started in 1995.
Thailand
Kannigar Chollampe, director, Library and Infor-mation
Center, Mahidol University, described
national and international network hubs in use in
Thai academic libraries. She also spoke about her
library’s responsibility for collecting bibliographic
records in the medical science field.
After the National Education Act of 1999,
Thailand’s public universities formed a consor-tium
and connected these institutions throughout
the country with high- speed links. During the
past decade, like many libraries around the world,
libraries in Thailand have benefited from more
robust, faster, and less- expensive hardware and
software. Nevertheless, because Internet connec-tions
from the United States. to Thailand continue
to be slow, many libraries prefer to access online
information via local hosting. The local hosting
model benefits these public university libraries,
such as Mahidol University, that subscribe
through consortia licenses.
Academic libraries in Thailand access the
ThaiLis national network, which provides a num-ber
of electronic databases and is accessible by
all universities under one interface. They also
access THAINATIS, an important national hub
that comprises information centers in agriculture,
medicine, humanities, science and technology,
economics and the social sciences. Rajabhat
Consortium, the third national network, currently
uses the OCLC Cooperative Online Resource
Catalog ( CORC). International networks include
HELLIS and SEAMIC. HELLIS ( Health Literature,
Library and Information Services Network) is a
focal point for health libraries in seven countries
including Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia,
Myanmar ( Burma), Nepal and Sri Lanka. SEAMIC
focuses on public health administration and cov-ers
six countries in Southeast Asia: Thailand,
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 11
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and
Singapore.
Mahidol University was established in
2,438 B. E. ( Buddhist Era) or 1890 by King
Chulalongkorn as a medical school attached
to Siriraj Hospital. The university was established
in 2,491 B. E. ( 1943) as the University of Medical
Sciences and was renamed Mahidol University
in 2,517 B. E. ( 1969). More information about
the library, a new OCLC Interlibrary Loan
service participant ( non- supplier), is available
at < http:// www. li. mahidol. ac. th/>.
The sharing session is an annual information
exchange hosted by Andrew H. Wang, executive
director, OCLC Asia Pacific.— Eliza Sproat is
OCLC Asia Pacific marketing communications
specialist.
• • •
Boston Public Library entered the 46 millionth
record into WorldCat ( the OCLC Online Union
Catalog) on Feb. 21. The record was for El duque,
a Spanish language edition of the Catherine
Coulter novel.
Richard Kort, cataloger at Boston Public Library
since 1979, entered the milestone record. It was
his second gold record. On July 13, 1990, Mr. Kort
entered the 22 millionth record into WorldCat.
“ I tried to hit the 22 millionth record, I
tried to hit the 46 millionth and I’ll try to hit
the 47 millionth,” said Mr. Kort.
“ When I started cataloging, I was typing out
catalog cards,” he said. “ I started using OCLC in
the Chicago Public Library in 1976, when there
were 3 million records in the system. We’ve
come a long way since then. OCLC makes life
a lot easier for us. We don’t have to keep rein-venting
the wheel.”
Catalogers at the Boston Public Library are
busy preparing collections for a new branch
library in Boston’s Allston neighborhood. Mr.
Kort specializes in cataloging Slavic materials,
but he has been working on Russian, Portuguese
and Spanish language materials for the Allston
project. “ The variety helps to keep my job inter-esting,”
he said.
“ We’re adding a lot of records in anticipation
of the new branch opening,” said Nancy R.
Browne, chief of cataloging. “ There has been a
lot of activity purchasing items, cataloging them
and getting them shelf- ready. We are excited
about opening a branch in this richly cross-cultural
area of Boston.”
The University of Colorado at Boulder
entered the 45 millionth bibliographic record
into WorldCat on Sept. 12, 2000.
WorldCat, available to libraries online since
1971, is a merged, electronic catalog of the biblio-graphic
and holding information of OCLC mem-ber
libraries. The records in WorldCat represent
nearly 800 million items held in libraries around
the world.
Founded in 1848, the Boston Public Library
( BPL) was the first large free municipal library
in the United States. In addition to its 6.1 million
books, the library holds over 1.2 million rare
books and manuscripts, a wealth of maps, mus-ical
scores and prints. Among its large collec-tions,
the BPL holds several first edition folios
by William Shakespeare, original music scores
from Mozart to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf
and, in its rare book collection, the personal
library of John Adams.
• • •
Boston Public Library enters 46 millionth
record into WorldCat
Richard Kort, cataloger at Boston Public Library, entered the 46
millionth record into OCLC WorldCat. On July 13, 1990, Mr. Kort
entered the 22 millionth record.
photo provided by Boston Public Library
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
12 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
Collaborative efforts between the Research
Libraries Group and OCLC have produced a
report identifying common goals and approaches
to digital preservation metadata.
Preservation Metadata for Digital Objects:
A Review of the State of the Art is a 50- page
white paper published by the OCLC/ RLG
Working Group on Preservation Metadata.
The white paper can be found at < http://
www. oclc. org/ digitalpreservation>.
The objective of this international working
group is to develop a comprehensive metadata
framework applicable to a broad range of digital
preservation activity. The paper shares the
group’s early thinking and exploration with a
view to developing the necessary consensus
among stakeholders.
“ The effectiveness of digital preservation will
ultimately depend in large part on the ability of
information managers to achieve consensus on
standards and best practices relating to the long-term
retention of digital objects,” the group
points out. “ In a sense, metadata ‘ bootstraps’ the
preservation process, in that it specifies the infor-mation
necessary to carry a digital object forward
over the long term.… The development of a con-sensus
on preservation metadata, even at a high
level, would represent an important contribution
toward the establishment of reliable, interopera-ble
digital archival repositories.”
The scope of the white paper includes:
• Definition and illustration of preservation
metadata for digital objects
• High- level requirements for a broadly
applicable, comprehensive preservation
metadata framework
• The Open Archival Information System ( OAIS)
reference model, a potential starting point for
developing the preservation metadata
framework
• Review and synthesis of existing preservation
metadata approaches, including the work of
NEDLIB ( the Networked European Deposit
Library), the CEDARS project ( CURL Exemplars
in Digital Archives), the National Library of
Australia, and others
• Identification of points of
convergence/ divergence among existing
approaches
“ We have reached a milestone with this
review,” said Meg Bellinger, head of OCLC’s
new Digital Collection Management and
Preservation business unit and president of
Preservation Resources. “ By the end of the
year we will have built consensus about this
type of metadata and will be addressing meta-data
elements and implementation strategies.”
RLG program officer Robin Dale agreed:
“ The group will continue to work to complete
its assigned tasks, but this is a big step forward.
Having the paper available on the web for public
comment is a real boost to consensus building.”
In March 2000, a planning group composed
of representatives from the OCLC Office of
Research, RLG and Preservation Resources began
discussing ways to collaboratively create infra-structures
for digital archiving as well as establish
best practices and approaches for descriptive and
management metadata needed in long- term reten-tion
of digital documents.
For more information, contact Meg Bellinger,
president, Preservation Resources, OCLC, or
Robin Dale, RLG program officer.
Headquartered in Mountain View, California,
RLG is a not- for- profit membership corporation of
over 160 universities, national libraries, archives,
historical societies and other institutions with
remarkable collections for research and learning.
In addition to a range of collaborative activities
that address members’ shared goals for these col-lections,
RLG develops and operates databases
and software to serve the information needs of
member and nonmember institutions and individ-uals
around the world.
• • •
RLG and OCLC publish paper on future
of digital preservation metadata
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 13
The Kurt F. Wendt Library, the engineering library
on the University of Wisconsin– Madison campus,
created the 106 millionth request on the OCLC
Interlibrary Loan ( ILL) service for an article,“ Oral
Care in the ICU: An Important Nursing Role,” in
the journal Nursing Standard.
The original request for the item, made Feb. 20,
went unfilled because, while there are many hold-ers
of the journal, the article requested was from
an older issue. So the request was reinitiated, and
was filled by Florida State University Library
( OCLC symbol: FDA).
The millionth request was entered by a
student working in the library, according to
Carolyn Tweten, assistant director of Wisconsin
TechSearch, the Wendt Library’s fee- based infor-mation
outreach program for business, industry
and non- university- affiliated organizations.
“ There were two students entering requests
at the time, and it just happened that one was
the millionth request,” said Ms. Tweten.
Three library professionals, one office manager
and four students work in the ILL and Document
Delivery departments at Wisconsin TechSearch.
“ I’m very proud of our staff,” said Ms. Tweten.
“ We work in a great environment, and we enjoy
the support of our administration.”
With the Wisconsin TechSearch service, users
can ask, at any time, any reference question that
they would normally ask at the Reference Desk.
Typical questions are: verifying a citation, a name
and address, definition of a term, or a short sub-ject
search.
The Kurt F. Wendt Library ( WUE) serves as the
primary library for the College of Engineering and
the departments of Computer Sciences, Statistics,
and Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences. Its collec-tion
includes nearly 300,000 book and serial vol-umes,
1.5 million reports and government docu-ments,
and all U. S. patents. It currently receives
about 3,000 journals and serials.
Wendt Library has a number of resources and
services for undergraduates, including staff ready
to assist with the use of the library, access to the
campus electronic library databases, computer-based
as well as paper reserve materials for
courses, and computers for use by students.
Kurt Frank Wendt served as dean of the
College of Engineering from 1953 until he retired
in 1971. During Mr. Wendt’s administration,
Engineering Hall was expanded, the Engineering
Research Building was built and an undergradu-ate
curriculum was established in mechanical
engineering, nuclear engineering and industrial
engineering. The College of Engineering also
added graduate programs in nuclear engineering
and industrial engineering, developed bio-engineering
activities, and established educa-tional
and research programs with institutions
in developing nations.
The 105 millionth request on the OCLC
Interlibrary Loan service was made Jan. 17 by
Tacoma Public Library in Tacoma, Washington.
• • •
University of Wisconsin– Madison creates 106 millionth
OCLC ILL request for article in nursing journal
The University of Wisconsin– Madison entered the 106 millionth request on the
OCLC Interlibrary Loan service. Members of the university’s Interlibrary Loan
staff include, left to right: Karen Wagner, Lenny Black, Jennifer Nowak, Rebekah Turner
and Carolyn Tweten.
photo provided by the University of Wisconsin– Madison
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
14 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, made the
107 millionth request on the OCLC Interlibrary
Loan ( ILL) service March 23 for a book published
in 1907, A Sect that Moved the World: Three
Generations of Clapham Saints and
Philanthropists, by John Telford.
The University of Georgia ( OCLC symbol:
GUA) filled the request March 27.
Tina Bentrup, a borrowing specialist at the
University of Tennessee’s Hodges Library ( TKN),
created the request, but didn’t realize it was a
milestone.
“ We are an ILLiad site, so since the OCLC num-bers
are automatically recorded, the numbers are
not as apparent to our staff as they once were,”
said David Atkins, Interlibrary Loan Services coor-dinator
at the library.
OCLC ILLiad Resource Sharing Management
software provides a comprehensive interlibrary
loan management system that automates the rou-tine
borrowing and lending functions within the
interlibrary loan department for libraries within a
single interface. It seamlessly integrates borrowing
automation, lending automation, and electronic
document delivery in one web- based interface.
“ We love ILLiad,” said Mr. Atkins. “ It has really
helped to streamline our operation. We’ve been
able to eliminate all of the paper files we used to
use for tracking ILL requests, which was pretty
haphazard. Now, all staff members have access to
all transactions through the system. And patrons
can even track the transactions themselves at one
of our computers. It’s been win- win with ILLiad;
everything’s been in the plus column.”
The OCLC ILLiad service is a complement to
an “ outstanding staff,” according to Mr. Atkins,
who has been with the University of Tennessee
Interlibrary Loan Services since November 1999.
The Interlibrary Loan Department at the Hodges
Library comprises four in borrowing, one in lend-ing
and “ an army of students.”
The Interlibrary Loan coordinator said he was
recently complimented for advances in the library’s
ILL services by an administrator. “ I said I felt like I
had been traded to the Yankees,” said Mr. Atkins. “ It
was a winning team before I arrived, and they do a
great job for the library and for the university.”
The Hodges Library is the main library on the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, campus. The
library is named for John C. Hodges, who joined
the University of Tennessee faculty as professor of
English in 1921 and was head of the English
department from 1941 through 1962. Mr. Hodges
is remembered as the author of the Harbrace
College Handbook.
• • •
University of Tennessee makes 107 millionth
request on OCLC ILL service
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, entered the 107 millionth OCLC ILL
request. Members of the Interlibrary Loan Services staff include, front row,
left to right: Kathleen Bailey, borrowing supervisor; Tina Bentrup, borrowing
specialist; Tracy Luna, lending supervisor; back row, Todd White, borrowing
specialist; David Atkins, Interlibrary Loan Services coordinator; and Eric
Arnold, borrowing specialist.
photo provided by University of Tennessee, Knoxville
OCLC Statistics
( as of May 1, 2001)
Current statistics are at
< http:// www. oclc. org/ news/
product/ statistics. shtm>.
Participating
libraries
39,645
New member libraries
( March 1– April 30, 2001)
34
Total OCLC Interlibrary Loan
( ILL) service requests
108,001,446
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 15
Tina Bentrup
courtesy of Tina Bentrup
Tina Bentrup, borrowing specialist at the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who
entered the 107 millionth OCLC ILL request,
has a real talent for finding fun in her work.
After reading comic strips in the student
newspaper, she decided to try her hand at
cartooning. “ I was interested to see if I could
do a daily comic strip, so I gave it a try,��� said
Ms. Bentrup.
“ Delete- O- Brain,” named for the proofreader’s
delete mark that doubles as the main character’s
curly hair, ran for one semester in the student
newspaper.
Ms. Bentrup drew inspiration from cam-pus—
and from the library.
“ A lot of the situations from the library are
100 percent true,” she said. “ But the names
were changed to protect the guilty.”
After spending too many late nights at the
drawing board, Ms. Bentrup decided that one
full- time job was enough.
“ We’re very proud of what we do here,” said
Ms. Bentrup, of her work at the library. “ We
feel like we’re on the cutting edge of library
science. We work very hard. But we have a lot
of fun, too.”
• • •
Borrowing specialist adds comic twist to ILL
Highest OCLC
record number
46,836,264
Location listings
( holdings)
796,297,346
FirstSearch libraries
18,491
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
16 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
by Kathryn Loafman
The University of North Texas ( UNT) Libraries
started using the OCLC PromptCat service in
May 1997 because the library had an increased
materials budget with no increase in personnel.
One of the keys in selecting a cataloging ser-vice
provider was to find one that made it possi-ble
to import full records into the local system,
and at the same time update the order records
and create the invoices. Another consideration
was having the holdings automatically set in
OCLC. This was the only way our staff could
cope with the workload the increased materials
budget created, and it has worked well.
PromptCat automatically provides OCLC- MARC
records and sets holdings for titles identified by a
library’s participating material vendors.
With PromptCat, the UNT staff could import
full MARC records for virtually any title and have
UNT’s holdings attached automatically to the cor-responding
WorldCat record. The latest improve-ment
has been to add the automatic creation of
item records with barcode numbers as the records
are loaded into the local system.
Four material vendors are involved in the
PromptCat workflow at UNT: Academic Book
Center; Blackwell’s Book Services; Yankee Book
Peddler Library Services, a Baker & Taylor Com-pany;
and netLibrary. com. Because we use several
PromptCat vendors— each with a different work-flow—
communication with the vendor is essential
to a successful operation. These vendors are eager
to work with us and OCLC PromptCat for the
fastest, easiest delivery of materials with records.
PromptCat and the Firm Order Process
PromptCat is an integral part of both acquisitions
and cataloging at UNT. The library uses Prompt-
Cat primarily with firm orders, although there are
a few PromptCat titles that come through on an
approval plan.
PromptCat use starts when a firm order record
is created locally. The firm orders are identified
in the vendor’s ordering system, and a file is
downloaded from the vendor that creates a
brief bibliographic record as well as an order
record in the local system. The funds are automat-ically
encumbered in the local system, an order
file is created, and the file is electronically trans-mitted
to the vendor. The file includes local infor-mation
( purchase order number and the local sys-tem’s
order record) that the vendor will send to
OCLC to be included in the PromptCat record.
Automatic Record Delivery
Once the titles ordered are available to be
shipped to UNT, the vendors send an electronic
manifest to PromptCat. PromptCat pulls copies of
the matching OCLC records from WorldCat, adds
the local data, and delivers the records to UNT via
electronic data exchange ( EDX). Given that the
PromptCat file is being used to create or update
information in the local system, delivery by EDX is
the best choice. PromptCat also creates an elec-tronic
file of call number labels delivered to the
vendors, which are used to create the spine labels.
Holdings are attached to the WorldCat record 21
days after PromptCat delivers the records. UNT
chooses the delay holdings option to give users a
chance to borrow the new materials before inter-library
loan requests start coming in. PromptCat
also offers the option to set holdings immediately.
Shelf- ready Arrival
Academic, Blackwell’s and Yankee provide physi-cal
processing for UNT, which includes printing
and affixing the call number spine labels created
by PromptCat so that books arrive at the library
shelf- ready. With the increased funding for materi-als
and the automating of the acquisitions and cat-aloging
process, the Processing Unit ( where the
stamping, stripping and spine label creation is
done) was beginning to have a large backlog of
materials when UNT was evaluating PromptCat.
PromptCat’s ability to deliver shelf- ready materials
was a decisive factor in convincing library admin-istration
of PromptCat’s effectiveness. Staff vigor-ously
supported the move to let the vendors take
care of the physical processing.
PromptCat improves workflow at the University of North Texas
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 17
Records Before Books
The PromptCat records are available to UNT
before the books are shipped from the vendors.
UNT has chosen not to load the records until they
receive the books because state law requires UNT
to pay all invoices within 30 days of material
receipt. Loading the records updates the order
record and starts the clock ticking on the 30- day
payment window.
Once the books arrive, the records are loaded
into our Innovative Interfaces local system. The
Innovative Interfaces software works well with
PromptCat; PromptCat can format local data ele-ments
specifically for Innovative systems. The
same loader is used for all the vendor’s book files,
but an additional loader was purchased from Inno-vative
Interfaces for the netLibrary records. There
were some features with the electronic books that
required enough changes to the defaults that the
choice had to be made between a great deal of
rapid updating or a new loader. Again, the limita-tion
on hiring new staff was the major factor in
making the decision to buy a new loader.
Trouble- shooting
After the records are loaded, Acquisitions staff
receive the shipment. They match the books with
the records, checking for four key points: title,
author, edition and publisher. If the match is cor-rect,
the spine label is checked against the call
number, and the book is sent to the collection. If
the record is CIP, acquisitions staff are trained to
complete the cataloging. If there is no full biblio-graphic
record, the acquisitions staff do the copy
cataloging after the shipment has been processed.
The majority of the time, PromptCat use has been
trouble- free. If there is a problem, such as a mis-match,
the book is sent to the Cataloging Unit.
The head of the Cataloging Unit keeps a log of
the problem books. The log helps to identify pat-terns
that are used to fine- tune the profiles and
improve the PromptCat process. Feedback from
problem logs have resulted in PromptCat updates,
making PromptCat even easier to use and offering
more consistent results.
Profiling and constant fine- tuning of profiles
explains how UNT uses PromptCat so effectively.
Continually testing possible improvements and
trying small changes helps the library optimize
workflow processes.
Suggestions for New PromptCat Users
From our experience, I would suggest that each
library write and continuously revise instructions
on how library staff will process PromptCat titles.
We found the OCLC documentation useful while
setting up PromptCat, but found that we needed
to customize it for our own workflows. UNT
involved the entire staff in designing the work-flow.
We also found that the more automated you
become, the more everyone has to be involved.
Although it was a gradual adjustment, the staff at
UNT now embrace the additional resource of
PromptCat records being delivered automatically
with our materials.
I would suggest that libraries build their use
of PromptCat in stages, first getting PromptCat
records, and then adding the physical processing.
This focuses staff attention on what they are
The University of North Texas is located in Denton, near Dallas and Fort Worth.
photo provided by the University of North Texas
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
18 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
Following a four- week trial, 13 members of
the Turkish University and Research Librarians
Association ( UNAK) formed a consortium to
use the OCLC FirstSearch service. Two more
libraries have joined the consortium since the
libraries began using FirstSearch in early January.
The UNAK consortium has focused on full- text
capability combined with access to OCLC’s unique
databases available through the OCLC Base Pack-age
with Full Text option, which includes World-
Cat, the OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections
Online service ( bibliographic index), the OCLC
ArticleFirst database, the OCLC ContentsFirst
database, the OCLC NetFirst database, the OCLC
Union Lists of Periodicals database, OCLC
PapersFirst, OCLC ProceedingsFirst, ERIC,
GPO, MEDLINE, World Almanac and H. W. Wilson
Select Plus.
“ Fifteen OCLC consortium members are very
pleased to have access to a huge database that
covers all subjects with reasonable prices,” said
Adile Gunden, president of UNAK and deputy
director of the Hacettepe University Libraries,
Ankara Turkey. ��� Besides this, we can access a
wide range of electronic periodicals through
the Electronic Collections Online database in
FirstSearch.”
“ This agreement offers UNAK libraries access
to quality content coupled with links to online
full text for immediate delivery to the desktop,”
said Nick Rawson, director, Library Services,
OCLC Europe, the Middle East & Africa. “ We
are delighted to be working with UNAK on
this important project, and we look forward
to strengthening our links with Turkish libraries
in years to come.”
The Turkish University and Research Librarians
Association ( UNAK) aims to investigate the prob-lems
of university and research libraries, docu-mentation
and information centres and related
special libraries with reference to the swiftly
developing technologies; to make international
comparisons of problems and their solutions;
to search for the problems of personnel working
at the information centres; to provide aid to the
application of new technologies, etc. In short,
their mission is to try to adapt or introduce to
contemporary functions the tasks undertaken
by the Turkish information centres and libraries
< http:// www. unak. org. tr/>.
• • •
Turkish consortium to use FirstSearch
trying to accomplish— load records, overlay mini-mal
bibliographic records, receive shelf- ready
materials— and makes problem identification and
resolution more manageable. Once a workflow is
established for one vendor, then expand Prompt-
Cat use by adding additional accounts and vendors.
At UNT, we started slowly with PromptCat.
UNT first used PromptCat for a small number of
firm orders from Academic Book Center. Initially,
PromptCat only added the library control num-bers
to the records so that they would overlay the
order records in UNT’s local system. A few
months later, UNT profiled several more local data
elements to be added to PromptCat records. A
few months after that, PromptCat was given the
ability to create call number labels. Once this
feature was available, PromptCat started creating
call number labels for all of UNT’s books.
By February 2000, almost three years after
receiving our first PromptCat records, we had
expanded its use of PromptCat by adding Black-well’s
Book Services as a vendor, quickly followed
by Yankee Book Peddler and netLibrary. com. Sev-eral
other vendors are under consideration as well.
At UNT, outsourcing was the only way we could
handle the budget increase. The hardest part was
the profiling. But once we realized how fast we
could get materials on our shelves and to our users
with PromptCat, we never looked back. We are so
glad we have it as part of our library’s workflow.—
Kathryn Loafman is head of Technical Services,
University of North Texas Libraries.
• • •
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 19
The National Library of New Zealand/ Te Puna
Ma– tauranga o Aotearoa has selected Preservation
Resources to digitize 13 titles of 19th century
newspapers from several areas of New Zealand.
“ This newspaper digitizing project is one of our
library’s first steps toward a long- term strategy of
digitizing selected material to make it accessible
for New Zealanders as well as users in other parts
of the world,” said Christopher Blake, the chief
executive of the National Library of New Zealand.
“ We selected Preservation Resources for this pro-ject
because they demonstrated throughout our
project’s vendor- selection processes that they were
able to meet all the specific needs of the library in
terms of time, quality, cost and experience.���
This project will bring the number of newspa-per
images digitized by Preservation Resources
for international institutions to more than 1 mil-lion
in one year.
“ Worldwide organizations trust Preservation
Resources with their important collections,” said
Meg Bellinger, president, Preservation Resources,
a division of OCLC. “ We have expertise handling
retrospective library materials and archival micro-film,
and also are able to produce superior quality
images within our clients’ delivery schedules.”
For this project, Preservation Resources will
scan more than one- quarter million microfilmed
pages, which is equivalent to nearly 520 reels
of film. The pages will be scanned bitonally at
a resolution of 400 dpi. In addition, Preservation
Resources will provide metadata by enriching the
pre- existing bibliographic information with spe-cifics
about the issues and the digital files. The
metadata records will contain information about
the title, such as the number of image files, scan-ning
resolution and conditions of the material on
film as well as record instances of missing issues
and pages. The images will be delivered on
Digital Library Tape ( DLT), which is cost- effective
to ship and has a higher storage capacity than CDs.
Preservation Resources has digitized other
large research collections, including the Library of
Congress National Digital Library Program— the
papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,
Abraham Lincoln and the 19th century sheet
music; the Early Canadiana Online Project;
Cornell University’s SagaNet Icelandic collection;
Yedioth Aharonoth, currently Israel’s largest cir-culation
daily newspaper; as well as material in
Chinese, Macedonian, Spanish and French.
The National Library of New Zealand’s role
is to collect, preserve and make available New
Zealand’s documentary heritage. The library has
a strong focus on electronic access with an ulti-mate
aim to make its resources available to users
anytime, anywhere. The library has a rich range
of books, manuscripts, drawings, prints, pho-tographs,
paintings and ephemera relating to
New Zealand and the Pacific. It also has a large
general reference collection, and it provides
advice and support to New Zealand schools in
the development of school libraries and in sup-port
of the curriculum.
Preservation Resources is a nonprofit organiza-tion
devoted to the reformatting or conversion
of library and archival materials. Originally called
MAPS ( Mid- Atlantic Preservation Service), the
organization was established in 1985 to serve
the preservation microfilming needs of five Mid-
Atlantic research libraries— Columbia University
Libraries, Cornell University Library, Princeton
University Library, New York State Library and
the New York Public Library. It has been a divi-sion
of OCLC since 1994 and is based in Bethle-hem,
Pennsylvania. More information about this
project is available at the Preservation Resources
web site < http:// www. oclc. org/ presres/>.
• • ��
Preservation Resources to digitize National Library
of New Zealand 19th century newspaper collection
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
20 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
Preservation Resources has created pathfinders
of digital resources and a database of publications
related to preservation. Both the pathfinders and
the database can be found on the Publications
and Presentations page of the Preservation
Resources web site < http:// www. oclc. org/ oclc/
presres/ pubpres. htm>.
The page contains pathfinders ( web biblio-graphies)
of digital resources available on the
Internet that meet the following criteria:
• Web sites that provide project management
documentation for projects using digital
imaging as a reformatting method
• Image databases of paper- based research
collections or library materials that have been
reformatted using digital imaging technology
• Resources and documents that describe
general or specific aspects of the digital
imaging process, including hardware, software,
guidelines and procedures useful for
reformatting projects
• Web sites related to digital archiving— the
preservation of electronic resources
The bibliographic database of print and online
publications related to preservation contains over
500 records with topics that include digital imag-ing,
preservation microfilming, digital libraries,
preservation funding and preservation standards.
The database is searchable by author, title, date,
publisher, and literature type. Users can export
their search results to a text file.
“ Preservation Resources has always sought to
share its knowledge with libraries and archives,”
said Meg Bellinger, president of Preservation
Resources. “ We want to share our in- house biblio-graphic
database with anyone planning or partici-pating
in a digital reformatting project.”
• • •
Preservation Resources provides digitization pathfinders
and preservation database on web site
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 21
by Jean Hirons
A cataloging staff member
in a university receives
a new serial title. She
searches the title on OCLC,
finds a CONSER record for
the title and downloads the
record to her local system.
Along with the bibliographic
data is the publication pat-tern
data that her system is able to use to auto-matically
create the predictive pattern for its
check- in record. Within minutes, the new title
is cataloged, checked in and ready to go.
For another title, there is no record in the data-base
and she creates a record, adding the pattern
data for the title. Several years later, the same
university decides to change to another library
system. In the process of implementing the
new system, all holdings and check- in data are
smoothly transferred from one system to the
other along with the bibliographic data.
The Current Status of Predictive Check- in
Many libraries have recently implemented, or are
about to implement, an integrated library system
( ILS) that features a predictive check- in module.
“ Prediction” enables the system to display the
expected issue and a range of upcoming issues
to facilitate accurate check- in. The expected
issue is highlighted in the system and as each
issue is received the check- in staff need only
“ click” to check in the issue. When it works, it’s
great! But what makes this possible is an elabo-rate
prediction pattern, based on the MARC 21
Format for Holdings Data ( MFHD) that must be
created when the initial check- in record is set up.
The pattern includes information such as the fre-quency
and regularity, the number of issues per
volume, and the captions that identify individual
parts of the issue, such as “ volume” and “ number.”
MFHD was introduced in the mid- 1980s, and
there have been various attempts over the years
to promote interest in the standard. It is only
now, however, with the widespread use of the
format by integrated library systems, that libraries
are beginning to adopt it. While holdings have
traditionally been considered local in nature, the
captions and pattern data are universal to the
serial itself. Additionally, with the advent of
web- based catalogs, library holdings are now visi-ble
to all and it is becoming increasingly impor-tant
to standardize their format.
Unlike bibliographic and authority records,
which have been cooperatively created and
shared through OCLC and other utilities since
the early 1970s, pattern data has been created
in- house in every institution, over and over again.
Until now, the sharing of pattern data was limited
to users of the same ILS. While most systems base
their prediction systems on the MFHD, only a few
have fully implemented the format, and staff fre-quently
have to create “ work- arounds” to make up
for the system’s inability to handle difficult pre-dictions.
Thus, patterns created in one ILS may
not work in another.
Furthermore, because of the differences
in systems, check- in and holdings data have
not transferred well from one system to another,
forcing libraries to begin from scratch. This
redundant effort is costly and should be avoided
for future conversions.
The CONSER Publication Pattern Initiative
Despite these obstacles, the Cooperative Online
Serials Program ( CONSER) is promoting the shar-ing
of patterns through the CONSER Publication
Pattern Initiative. Key to its success is a two- year
pilot to add publication pattern data to the
CONSER database. The CONSER Task Force on
Publication Patterns and Holdings Data, chaired
by Sally Sinn ( National Agricultural Library), man-ages
the initiative. Included are pilot participants,
experts in the MFHD and CONSER, and represen-tatives
from OCLC, RLIN, and local systems and
subscription vendors. Participation of local sys-tem
representatives is considered particularly
important because one of the primary goals is
to achieve greater standardization and use of the
MFHD across all systems. OCLC has played a key
role in making the pilot possible and furthering
the work of the task force.
Why CONSER?
CONSER has evolved since the 1970s from a con-version
project to a cooperative program dedi-cated
to standards setting and quality cataloging.
Indeed, the cooperative nature of CONSER and
the adherence to standards form the foundation
A vision for the future:
CONSER extends cooperation to prediction patterns
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
22 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
of the program. CONSER’s realm has traditionally
been limited to cataloging; however, there is a
growing awareness that publication pattern data
is equally important to the bibliographic data
for processing a serial. While other groups have
tried to tackle some of the issues related to use
of the MFHD, CONSER has the advantage of being
system- neutral and having full- time staff to over-see
operations.
Diane Hillmann, from Cornell University,
suggested that serial holdings be included in
CONSER records in 1998. Ms. Hillmann’s idea
was to cooperatively build a universal holdings
record for the published issues of a serial, not
the issues owned by any one institution. She also
advocated including this data in the bibliographic
record because it could be imported into systems.
However, many CONSER records have exceeded
the maximum length, and the inclusion of com-plete
holdings data is currently not feasible. Work-ing
with CONSER members Frieda Rosenberg,
from the University of North Carolina – Chapel
Hill, and Ruth Haas, Harvard University, I, as
CONSER coordinator, concluded that the current
pattern data was what was most needed and that
inclusion of this data along with limited holdings
would be possible.
The Pilot
The pilot began in June 2000 and as of March
2001, captions and/ or pattern data now reside
in over 40,000 CONSER records. Twenty institu-tions
have volunteered to participate and have
contributed patterns to over 800 of the records.
The remaining data was loaded from Harvard
University. The Harvard load was accomplished
in early March and provided the first substantial
influx of MFHD data into CONSER records. The
data is up to date and accurate, but in many cases
the complete pattern data will not be present,
only the captions. This is due to the fact that
most of the Harvard libraries have not yet imple-mented
predictive check- in. Having even partial
pattern data in so many CONSER records, how-ever,
will make it feasible for systems to test
uploading of the data and will give a higher visi-bility
to the CONSER initiative.
OCLC’s assistance has been key to the pilot’s
success. Rich Greene, OCLC senior consulting
database specialist, has been instrumental in the
development of a specially defined field ( 891)
in which pattern and related holdings data is
included, and in managing the load of Harvard
data. To help make pattern creation as easy as
possible, Robert Bremer, OCLC consulting
database specialist, has created a macro that
makes use of the bibliographic data found in the
CONSER record to automatically create the 891
fields in a matter of seconds. The macro is great
for serials with normal patterns but requires edit-ing
to accommodate irregularities.
Documentation and Training
The CONSER Guidelines for Input of Caption/
Pattern and Holdings Data were created in 2000
by Ms. Rosenberg and others for use by partici-pants
and are updated as decisions are made. Ms.
Hillmann set up a discussion list that includes all
participants, system vendors and task force mem-bers.
The list has provided a forum for discussion
of difficult pattern questions and is probably the
first really cooperative effort to make decisions on
how to apply the format. As decisions are reached,
they are documented in the guidelines, which
could become the equivalent to the CONSER
Editing Guide for bibliographic data. The guide-lines
are freely available on the CONSER web site,
along with the strategic plan for the initiative
and a list of frequently asked questions < http://
lcweb. loc. gov/ acq/ conser/ patthold. html>.
Ms. Rosenberg was also key to the completion
of the Serial Holdings Workshop for CONSER’s
Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program
( SCCTP). The course, co- created by Thom
Saudargas ( College Center for Library Automa-tion),
will be an important aid in training libraries
all over North America in the use of the holdings
format and, hopefully, will increase pattern contri-butions
and appreciation for their importance.
More information on the course is available from
the SCCTP web site < http:// lcweb. loc. gov/ acq/
conser/ scctp. html>.
Working with System Vendors
and Improving MFHD
An equally important aspect of the initiative is
working with system vendors to encourage more
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 23
compliance with the MFHD. A sub- group, chaired
by Linda Miller, Library of Congress, developed a
survey to assess vendors’ usage of the MFHD,
which was completed by 11 of 13 systems; sum-mary
results are available on the CONSER web
site. The task group is working on receiving per-mission
to post vendor- specific data. A second
part of their charge is to identify needed changes
to the format. A proposal to add a new subfield
to accommodate roman numerals and other non-numeric
enumeration schemes was passed by
MARBI in June 2000.
The inclusion of pattern data is, of course, only
the first step; being able to use the data is the real
test. Following the input of the first pattern to a
CONSER record, VTLS announced that the pattern
had been successfully imported into the VTLS
Virtua system to create a check- in record.
Challenges
The major challenge is the fact that not all sys-tems
fully use the MFHD. CONSER hopes that,
through its collaborative efforts, this will be reme-died
over time. But there is an awareness that
these changes are not always easy, and members
and system liaisons must strive to find the most
workable solutions.
Workflow is also a significant issue. Tradition-ally,
pattern and check- in activities are handled
by staff that may be in another section or divi-sion
and, in the case of CONSER libraries, do not
have CONSER authorizations. A Workflow Task
Force, under the leadership of James Castrataro,
of Indiana University, will be studying workflow
in various types of libraries and suggesting “ best
practices.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge to involving
more CONSER members is that many institu-tions
have yet to convert to a new system, or
are heavily involved in implementation and
cannot imagine taking on one more task. The
Library of Congress was certainly in that position
last June when we sought participation. They
agreed to begin slowly and are now in a better
position to contribute more patterns. It is hoped
that more institutions will recognize the long-term
benefits of contributing and sharing this
data and will find ways to contribute. I envision
the day when pattern data will routinely be added
to records, but this will happen only when it is
in the interests of the institutions involved.
Upcoming Events
At its January 2001 meeting, the task force set
a goal to reach 1,000 member- input patterns
by ALA Annual in June and explored ways to
heighten awareness of the initiative. The timing
is right because there will be a LITA- sponsored
pre- conference,“ The Future of Serials Control:
Implementation of the MARC21 Holdings For-mat,”
from 8: 30 a. m.– 5 p. m. on Friday, June 15,
which will include presentations on the CONSER
initiative and demonstrations. A meeting of those
interested in the format will follow that evening.
For those attending the North American Serials
Interest Group annual conference, pattern con-tributor
Wen- ying Lu, from Michigan State Uni-versity,
will provide a workshop on the pattern
initiative from her institution’s perspective.
Conclusion
Much has been accomplished toward the goals
of the project in two years, but much remains
to be done. A long- term goal is for a relational
record structure on OCLC that would enable
the complete holdings record, envisioned by
Ms. Hillmann, to be attached to the bibliographic
data. With OCLC’s upcoming database restructur-ing,
this seems feasible. And as more and more
patterns are added to CONSER records, it is
hoped that library staff will realize their value
and be willing to contribute patterns.
System vendors, in turn will be encouraged to
make their systems more MFHD- compatible and
to make it possible for libraries to easily import and
export patterns. Indeed, CONSER’s success may
be measured by whether this vision of the future is
that of the near future, or of the far.— Jean
Hirons is CONSER Coordinator, Library of
Congress.
• ��� •
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
24 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
by Robert Stere
The Mount Aloysius College
Library in Cresson, Pennsyl-vania,
has received a new
special collection for theol-ogy
and religious studies.
The Rev. Gerald Myers of
Hooversville, Pennsylvania,
donated the Ecumenical
Studies Collection of over
10,000 volumes to the col-lege
in April 2000. For the last 35 years, Rev.
Myers has collected titles covering areas of the
Judeo- Christian tradition, including supporting
material with a historical and biographical empha-sis.
The scholarly value of the collection is high,
with a significant part of it being devoted to pri-mary
religious sources and their explication.
Rev. Myers continues to add new titles, and
it is his desire, as well as the college’s, to see
the Ecumenical Studies Collection become a
focal point of dialogue among all denominations.
“ The college is honored to have been given a
collection of such high quality,” said Lisa Dallape
Matson, library director.
Copy cataloger Joan Mix has cataloged more
than 8,500 volumes in just nine months using the
OCLC Cataloging service, and records for these
can be accessed through WorldCat, and through
the library’s online catalog, Mountlink, which will
soon be available on the Internet.— Robert Stere
is reference librarian and cataloger, Mount
Aloysius College Library.
• • •
Mount Aloysius College Library adds
Ecumenical Studies Collection to WorldCat
The Rev. Gerald Myers and visitors to the library browse
the collection.
photos provided by Mount Aloysius College
Mount Aloysius College Library
Robert Stere
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 25
Eleven members of the OCLC Reference Services
Advisory committee visited OCLC on March 26
and 27 to discuss current OCLC reference initia-tives
with staff.
Members participated in a focus group on
OCLC Cooperative Expert Reference to advise
OCLC on issues related to its efforts to foster
cooperative reference, such as quality measures
for reference, statistical reporting needs of coop-erative
reference endeavors and managing staff
workloads. This information will be of use to the
Library of Congress and OCLC as they move for-ward
in their development of a Collaborative
Digital Reference Services ( CDRS) pilot. The goal
of CDRS is to provide professional reference ser-vice
to researchers anytime, anywhere, through
an international, digital network of libraries and
related institutions. For more information, or to
register your library for this pilot project, visit
the CDRS Library of Congress web site at < http://
www. loc. gov/ rr/ digiref/>.
The committee also provided perspectives on
the direction for OCLC FirstSearch service collec-tion
development and on several OCLC Global
Strategy initiatives, including the discovery view
of WorldCat, the library integration manager, and
OCLC fulfillment services.
• • •
OCLC Reference Services Advisory Committee meets
Members of the OCLC Reference Services Advisory committee include, front row, left to right:
Carol Antoniewicz, Washington University ( MLNC); Carole Richter, University of Notre Dame
( INCOLSA); Maryhelen Jones, University of Houston Libraries ( AMIGOS); Constance Scofield,
University of Wisconsin– Marinette ( WILS); Barbara Berg, Juneau Public Library ( OCLC
Western); Gary Shook, Grace University Library ( NEBASE) representing Jim Soester, Chadron
State College, who was unable to attend; back row, John Tombarge, Washington & Lee
University ( SOLINET); Gilles Caron, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi ( OCLC Canada); Ellen
Seidel, Michigan Technological University ( MLC); Stewart Bodner, New York Public Library
( Nylink); and Paul Ulrich, Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin ( OCLC Europe, the Middle East &
Africa). Lynn Sipe, University of Southern California ( OCLC Western), was unable to attend
the meeting.
The OCLC Institute hosted four IFLA/ OCLC
Early Career Development Fellows for 2001
from April 30 through May 26. The program is
designed to provide early career development
and continuing education for library and infor-mation
science professionals from countries
with developing economies.
Through a rigorous and highly competitive
process, the IFLA/ OCLC selection committee
sought to identify dedicated and promising library
and information professionals who exhibit quali-ties
necessary to meet the global information-access
challenges of the 21st century.
More information on the IFLA/ OCLC Fellow-ship
is available on the OCLC Institute web site
< http:// www. oclc. org/ institute/ ifla/ index. htm>.
• • •
OCLC Institute hosts
four international fellows
The 2001 IFLA/ OCLC Fellows, left to right: Andy Igonor, formerly of South Africa, now senior
consultant, Knowledge Management, ICUS, Singapore; Tuba Akbayturk, senior systems
librarian, Suna Kirac Library, Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey; Smita Chandra, librarian, Indian
Institute of Geomagnetism, Mumbai, India; and Rashidah Bolhassan, project coordinator for
the State Planning Unit, Pustaka Negeri Sarawak ( Sarawak State Library), Kuching, Sarawak,
Malaysia.
M E M B E R S H I P N E W S
26 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
Mary Carroll and Jessica MacPhail have been
appointed to the Decimal Classification Editorial
Policy Committee ( EPC).
The committee is a 10- member international
board that advises the editors and OCLC Forest
Press on matters relating to the general develop-ment
of the Dewey Decimal Classification ( DDC).
EPC represents the interests of Dewey users; its
members include public, special and academic
librarians, and library educators.
“ Mary Carroll’s experience in providing subject
access to electronic resources will be an invalu-able
asset on EPC,” said Joan S. Mitchell, editor in
chief, Dewey Decimal Classification, and execu-tive
director, OCLC Forest Press. “ We are looking
forward to her advice on how to develop the
DDC to meet current and emerging knowledge-organization
challenges.”
Ms. Carroll is currently standards librarian,
Standards and Support Division, Acquisition
and Bibliographic Services, National Library
of Canada. Her work and research has focused
on maintaining Canadian MARC communication
formats, developing metadata records for elec-tronic
documents, and communicating standards-development
work and changes in MARC cata-loging
policy within the National Library of
Canada and throughout the Canadian library
community. She has also developed and main-tained
the CAN/ MARC web page < http://
www. nlc- bnc. ca/ marc/ index. htm>. Ms. Carroll
holds a master’s of library and information studies
from Dalhousie University and a bachelor’s degree
from Saint Francis Xavier University. Ms. Carroll’s
term on EPC runs through December 2006. She
was appointed by OCLC Forest Press.
“ We are delighted that the American Library
Association nominated Jessica MacPhail as the
ALA representative to EPC,” said Ms. Mitchell.
“ With her 25 years of U. S. public library experi-ence
across four states, Ms. MacPhail is well
equipped to represent the needs of ALA members
on EPC.”
Ms. MacPhail is currently city librarian, Racine
( Wisconsin) Public Library. She is an active mem-ber
of the American Library Association, Public
Library Association and several regional associa-tions.
Ms. MacPhail also served as a member on
the ALA Task Force on the Revised Dewey 780s.
She has written Yesterday’s Papers: a Bibliog-raphy
of the Rolling Stones ( Pierian Press, 1976),
as well as regular columns in library newsletters.
She holds a master’s of library science from
Rosary College and a bachelor’s degree in writing
and humanities from Columbia College. Ms.
MacPhail’s term on EPC ends in December 2003.
OCLC Forest Press, a division of OCLC since
1988, publishes the Dewey Decimal Classification,
the world’s most widely used system for the classi-fication
of library materials, and a variety of related
materials. More information about OCLC Forest
Press is available on the Dewey web site < http://
www. oclc. org/ fp/> or via telephone at 1- 800- 848-
5878, extension 6237, or + 1- 614- 764- 6237.
• • •
Two appointed to Dewey Editorial Policy Committee
The OCLC Western Service Center has opened
a new office in Spokane, Washington. Bonnie
Chadbourne, training and support coordinator,
will work with library staff in Montana, Idaho
and eastern Washington from this new office.
The OCLC Western Service Center, which
was created with the merging of OCLC Pacific
and OCLC WLN, now has five offices to serve
libraries in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho,
Montana, Oregon, Washington and Guam. In
addition to the Spokane office, there is an
office in Lacey, Washington. The Oregon office
is in Portland, and California offices are in
Rancho Cucamonga and Santa Rosa.
More information is available at < http://
www. oclc. org/ western>.
• • •
OCLC Western Service Center opens new office
R E S E A R C H
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 27
by Robert C. Bolander
Sarah E. Thomas spoke at
OCLC, Jan. 31, as part of
the Office of Research-sponsored
Distinguished
Seminar Series. Dr. Thomas
is Carl A. Kroch University
Librarian at Cornell
University. Her presenta-tion,
titled “ The Library
Catalog as Internet Portal,” examined the role
of the library catalog as gateway to the library
collection and, possibly, the Internet.
According to Dr. Thomas, the traditional
library catalog exhibits the strengths of reliability,
consistency and authori-tativeness.
Furthermore,
it offers the assurance of
ready and continuing
availability of the materi-als
represented in it.
Web portals such as
Yahoo! have the advan-tages
of currency, scope,
customizability, relevance
ranking and hotlinks to the actual resources.
Dr. Thomas asked the audience to consider
whether the library catalog can be adapted to
serve as a scholarly and authoritative portal to
research- quality Internet resources, and whether
this is its proper function. What tradeoffs must
be made to develop such a catalog? What resources
and supporting activities would be required for
the effort to be successful? What would be the
relationship between such a library catalog and
other guides to information, whether these
resources are found in the library or “ out on the
web?” Dr. Thomas’ presentation addressed these
issues and stimulated many questions from audi-ence
members afterward.
Dr. Thomas said libraries as places are well liked
by faculty and students, yet both students and
deans want to use electronic resources instead of
paper. At least one of her colleagues maintains
that he and other colleagues find 80 percent of
what they need on the Internet. Some say that
technological developments move too quickly for
rigid librarians to keep up. Others question
whether there will be continuing needs for build-ing
funds as reliance on electronic resources
serves users’ needs wherever they may be.
Are libraries too busy optimizing traditional
services? Are we missing opportunities to rein-vent
ourselves in meaningful ways? Dr. Thomas
maintains that libraries add real value to the com-munities
they serve, yet she recognizes that they
will nevertheless be in trouble if that value is not
recognized by the decision makers who control
library funding: “ If an increasing number of infor-mation
seekers acquire what they need indepen-dently,
from sources other than libraries, then it
becomes more difficult to justify the investment
the host organization makes in it, and support for
the library erodes.”
Libraries need to develop an approach that
incorporates their
traditional strengths
with a rapidly changing
external environment.
Dr. Thomas maintains
that, in essence, libraries
should determine just
what it is users want,
and then proceed to
do everything possible
to meet those needs. She believes users want
information quickly and conveniently. Some
prefer information that is relevant and reliable;
most want information for free. Increasingly,
they appreciate self- service, customization,
and pro- active service. Most libraries currently
find it challenging to meet such needs.
Dr. Thomas suggested that libraries need to
change many current goals and practices, collabo-rate
with other organizations to achieve greater
breadth, depth and economies of scale, and advo-cate
more aggressively on their own behalf to
promote an understanding of their value and
secure appropriate funding.
She sees the library catalog as symbolic of
traditional library strengths. It has the reputa-tion
of being a reliable starting point for finding
resources that have undergone rigorous review,
editing and selection processes. Ongoing
investment in the catalog itself generates added
value as items are consistently described and
presented in a manner that integrates them
with other related resources and facilitates
access to them. The library’s further investment
in preservation ensures continuing availability
over time.
Sarah Thomas discusses the role
of the library catalog as gateway to the Internet
Sarah Thomas
“ If an increasing number of
information seekers acquire what
they need independently…
support for the library erodes.”
R E S E A R C H
28 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
Library catalogs are subsidized by their host
institutions, publicly accessible, free of charge,
and free of advertisements and other commercial
messages. They now are generally available
through web access, and offer improved keyword
searching, relevance ranking, the ability to limit
searches by various characteristics, and reference
linking. Although most materials represented in
online library catalogs are monographs and printed
materials, records for films, audio recordings,
computer files, maps and graphic images also
are common.
Current trends identified by Dr. Thomas
include rapid technological change, information
becoming a commodity, increasing globalization
of many spheres of human activity, and the avail-ability
of multiple options for formats and sources
of information. Given these issues, she maintains,
libraries need to change— not only to save librari-ans’
jobs, but to fulfill libraries’ missions. It can’t
be done incrementally, however. Librarians must
strive to connect information seekers with the
resources they need in a timely and cost- effective
manner, and the catalog can help.
The library catalog has the advantages of being
selective, consistent, predictable, trustworthy,
credible and familiar. Quality of access and
content are implicit in catalog records, which
not only help identify particular works, but also
provide linkages to related materials. It also is
implied that works cited in the library catalog
are currently available to the library user, and
will continue to be in the future.
On the other hand, library catalogs lack surro-gates
for many materials of interest to searchers.
A library catalog is not necessarily up- to- date, and
its records are labor- intensive to produce. Users
want access to more than the bibliographic
record and may react to the catalog as an anti-quated
tool.
In comparison, Internet portals are popular
with faculty, students and many other informa-tion
seekers. They offer a broad array of online
resources and services together with vast quanti-ties
of current information, great variety, ease of
use, depth of resources, and personalization.
Furthermore, they are seen as trendy. Portals
gather a variety of useful information resources
into a single “ one- stop” web page, and this helps
the user avoid feeling overwhelmed or lost.
The last characteristic suggests a “ portal pitfall,”
as Dr. Thomas put it. These include overwhelming
or incomplete results, dead ends and sources of
dubious authenticity. Searching the open web can
be time consuming, a fact that often is overlooked
by focusing on the novelty or other characteristics
of the portal interface. Furthermore, there is no
implied guarantee of access to materials.
Dr. Thomas suggests that libraries have an
opportunity to combine the best features of the
library catalog with those of the Internet portal
to develop “ The Scholar’s Portal,” a system that
provides enduring access to selected, authorita-tive
resources, regardless of their location.
Libraries also should address issues of archiving,
preservation, and the scale of resources available
on the Internet to achieve this goal.
Such a commitment will involve changing local
practices to adapt to universal ones. Nevertheless,
change continues outside the library, and librari-ans
must decide whether to cope with it or risk
being passed by as others do a better job of meet-ing
users’ information needs. Dr. Thomas said
libraries must focus on the resources people
want, those they say they need and those they
actually access, rather than what librarians
say they need or should want. She noted that
selectors and catalogers look more at print than
electronic resources, while users consistently say
they want electronic access. Libraries still buy for
the “ just in case” use, even though circulations are
down in many places and much material is avail-able
overnight or within a very short time if
someone should request it.
Dr. Thomas urged libraries to expand access and
coverage through collaboration and new metadata
and cataloging standards, and to reduce the cost
of cataloging by accepting copy, increasing the
use of technology, eliminating little- used informa-tion,
adopting simpler approaches, and supporting
encoding early in the document- creation process.
She argued that libraries can expand the universe
of selected, controlled materials by reallocating
staff time from cataloging books to processing
other formats, insisting on greater granularity,
organizing into virtual teams, digitizing existing
materials, working to transform the scholarly com-munication
process, employing search engines to
capture Internet content, and creating a “ Citizen
Science” capability to encourage users to con-tribute
to the value of library finding aids, much as
online booksellers encourage buyers to submit
reviews and opinions of the items listed for sale.
At the same time, Dr. Thomas also urged
libraries to collaborate with systems designers
to create new discovery tools that incorporate
the best features of the catalog and the portal.
Library discovery tools should help users find it
and get it, and provide help and auxiliary services
such as instruction and interpretation.
R E S E A R C H
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 29
Libraries should augment the primary dis-covery
tool with value- added services such as
24 × 7 × 365 global reference services, document
delivery to individuals and institutions, archiving,
hard- copy purchase, and rights management and
compensation. Furthermore, the discovery tool
should be enhanced with reference linking, rec-ommended
titles, relevance ranking, customiza-tion
and personalization. Finally, libraries should
develop a culture of advocacy by advertising,
quantifying the benefits of the services they pro-vide,
and promoting the need for support and
partnerships with the private sector.
Active in academia and library and information
science for over 25 years, Dr. Thomas has, along
with other professional activities, cataloged books
in Harvard University’s Widener Library, taught
German at Johns Hopkins University, and directed
both the Cataloging Directorate and the Public
Service Collections Directorate at the Library of
Congress. She currently serves on the Executive
Steering Committee of the Digital Library Federa-tion
and frequently speaks or writes on the topic
of digital libraries. She recently spoke on this
topic at the Library of Congress Bicentennial Con-ference
on Bibliographic Control for the New
Millennium. Dr. Thomas is a life member of the
American Library Association, chair of the Access
to Information Resources Committee of the
Association of Research Libraries ( ARL), and a
member of the ARL Board. She serves on the
advisory councils to several university libraries,
including Harvard, MIT and Washington Univer-sity.
Dr. Thomas earned a Ph. D. in German liter-ature
from Johns Hopkins University, an MSLS
from Simmons College, and a bachelor’s degree
from Smith College.— Robert C. Bolander is
manager, Communications and Programs, OCLC
Office of Research.
• • •
OCLC and Ohio State University Libraries are
working together to examine the characteristics
of web- based information sources that participant
libraries are selecting for inclusion in the OCLC
Cooperative Online Resource Catalog ( CORC)
database. CORC, a system developed by OCLC,
provides capabilities for selecting web sites and
harvesting information from their pages; the
automated creation of metadata; and the sharing
of these resources through integration with
WorldCat ( the OCLC Online Union Catalog), the
largest bibliographic database in the world.
Of particular interest to these researchers are
issues pertaining to the selection and description
of web- based information sources, as they apply
to metadata creation. Such issues include how
to determine the boundary, or extent, of selected
content, as well as the appropriate representation
level ( e. g., entire sites, sub- sites, or individual
pages). The findings are expected to serve as a
point of departure for discussions and the devel-opment
of guidelines for the selection and
description of web- based resources.
The project is being led by Chandra Prabha,
senior research scientist, OCLC Office of
Research, and Tschera Harkness Connell, associate
professor and serials coordinator, Ohio State
University Libraries.
�� • •
OCLC and Ohio State University to study CORC database
Chandra Prabha, at left, senior research scientist, OCLC Office of Research, is
working with Tschera Harkness Connell, associate professor and serials coordinator,
Ohio State University Libraries.
R E S E A R C H
30 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
Nobuko Kishi, associate professor at Tsuda
College, Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan, has begun a
one- year term as an OCLC Visiting Scholar.
The Visiting Scholar Program is sponsored
by the OCLC Office of Research to bring exper-ienced
scientists, educators and administrators
to OCLC.
During her tenure, which runs through
March 31, 2002, Ms. Kishi will conduct research,
in collaboration with staff of the OCLC Office
of Research, on the structure, organization
and content of the World Wide Web.
“ We anticipate a mutually beneficial collabora-tion
with Ms. Kishi,” said Ed O’Neill, OCLC con-sulting
research scientist and manager of OCLC’s
Web Characterization Project. “ The web is an
information resource of remarkable depth and
scope. The OCLC Office of Research and Ms.
Kishi share the same fundamental objective,
which is to understand and characterize the struc-ture
and content of the web in ways useful to
librarians and other information managers.”
Since 1992, Ms. Kishi has been a faculty mem-ber
in the Department of Mathematics and
Computer Science at Tsuda College. From 1984
to 1992, she was an associate researcher at Tokyo
Research Laboratory, IBM Japan. Ms. Kishi
received a bachelor of science degree and a mas-ter
of engineering degree from the University of
Tokyo.
• • •
Nobuko Kishi is visiting scholar
in the OCLC Office of Research
Nobuko Kishi
The Research Advisory Committee ( RAC) met at
OCLC, Feb. 26– 27. Two members attended:
Bruce Morton, dean of libraries at Montana State
University, and Herbert Van de Sompel, visiting
assistant professor of computer science at Cornell
University. This was Dr. Van de Sompel’s first RAC
meeting.
The meeting was structured differently than
those of the recent past. Instead of a series of
formal presentations by Office of Research staff
members in a large meeting room, RAC members
met with research scientists and their staffs,
primarily in the scientists’ offices. The research
scientists described their current projects and
future plans, while RAC members asked questions
and commented on the focus and direction of
research activities. This format allowed for a great
deal of discussion and exchange of ideas, and par-ticipants
said they considered it very productive.
Plans call for the next RAC meeting, Aug. 6– 7,
to be conducted as a retreat at a nearby confer-ence
facility.
• • •
Research Advisory Committee meets
See announcement of new vice president,
OCLC Office of Research, page 48
3 0 Y E A R S O F W O R L D C A T
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 31
WorldCat WorldCat is the world’s largest
and most comprehensive data-base
of bibliographic information.
Containing the merged catalogs
of libraries around the world, it
makes available to libraries and
their users resources no single
library could possess.
3 0 Y E A R S O F W O R L D C A T
32 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
by Christopher Barton
The largest database of its
kind contains more than
46 million bibliographic
records and keeps growing
by more than 2 million
records each year. More
than 9,000 OCLC member
libraries around the world
continue to contribute to
this enduring achievement in librarianship.
WorldCat ( the OCLC Online Union Catalog)
has helped libraries reduce duplication of effort
and get materials on their shelves more quickly
and efficiently. The database is a unique global
resource highly valued by scholars and
researchers.
The most- consulted database in higher educa-tion,
WorldCat’s usefulness is based on its scope,
timeliness, accuracy and comprehensiveness as
well as its functionality and flexibility.
“ The cooperative efforts of OCLC member
libraries have brought about dramatic changes,”
said Glenn Patton, director, OCLC Metadata
Standards and Quality. “ Thirty years ago, many
of the large academic libraries in the United
States had to do original cataloging for as much
as half the materials they acquired. That has now
dropped well below 20 percent and, for many
libraries, copy cataloging is possible for as much
as 95 percent of their acquisitions.”
“ From the beginning, OCLC’s founder and
first president, Frederick G. Kilgour, conceived
of the ‘ union catalog’ as a tool for cataloging,
resource sharing and reference,” said Tam
Dalrymple, manager, OCLC Product Marketing
and Communication.
Cataloging began in 1971 with 54 contributors
from academic libraries in Ohio. WorldCat has
blossomed into a worldwide treasure for librarian-ship.
Member libraries contribute all their cur-rent
roman alphabet catalog records for maps,
sound recordings, scores, computer files and
more. The breadth and depth of recorded
knowledge in WorldCat spans over 4,000 years
in 400 languages.
WorldCat— The Future
Although WorldCat earned its reputation as a
cataloging resource, the database was used for
reference even before it became a database in
the OCLC FirstSearch service. “ WorldCat has
always been used by reference librarians to
answer reference questions,” said Ms. Dalrymple.
“ In the past 10 years, OCLC has been working to
make WorldCat use for reference easier, more effi-cient
and more available to library users.”
In August 2000, OCLC enhanced WorldCat
to provide powerful new indexing and linked
members’ holdings from WorldCat to other data-bases
in the OCLC FirstSearch service. That has
made its usefulness for reference even greater by
helping manage library collections.
“ WorldCat is still— and by far— the most heav-ily
used database on FirstSearch,” Ms. Dalrymple
said.“ Use of WorldCat via FirstSearch increased
more than 35 percent from February 2000 to
February 2001.”
During the next three years, OCLC and librar-ies
will build on the framework of WorldCat as
part of OCLC’s global strategy.
“ With the help of libraries, OCLC is working to
transform WorldCat from a bibliographic database
and online union catalog to a globally networked
information resource of text, graphics, sound and
motion,” said Jay Jordan, OCLC president and CEO.
“ This enhanced version of WorldCat will include a
shared knowledge base supported by a set of inte-grated,
web- based tools and services that facilitate
contribution, discovery, exchange, delivery, and
preservation of knowledge objects and shared
expertise of participating institutions.”
The future of WorldCat will include new
participants, new types of metadata and new
automated tools to capture, organize and deliver
metadata. OCLC will seek the input of metadata
not only from libraries, but also from museums
and archives to encourage users to share metadata
that includes descriptions, holdings, reviews and
previews as well as links to content.
Over the past 30 years, WorldCat has continued
to grow along with a growing international mem-bership
and new possibilities technology brings.
Through this emerging, extended WorldCat, users
will increasingly be able to navigate the world’s
constantly expanding body of knowledge and
more easily find the information they need.—
Christopher Barton is public relations
writer, OCLC.
• • •
30 years of WorldCat:
Looking back for a perspective on the future
3 0 Y E A R S O F W O R L D C A T
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 33
by Larry Alford
In celebrating the 30th
anniversary of WorldCat,
librarians are honoring
one of the truly remark-able
achievements of our
profession.
WorldCat was built on
the ideas of two giants of
librarianship, Fred Kilgour
and Henriette Avram. Ms. Avram’s creation of the
MARC record provided the foundation for librari-ans
to share cataloging data and to communicate
that data from one system to another and from
one generation to the next. Mr. Kilgour’s extraor-dinary
vision that bibliographic data could be
shared nationally and eventually internationally
was ahead of the technology of the time and
the thinking of many of his contemporaries.
Those of us working in libraries and informa-tion
services today owe him a great debt of grati-tude
for his persistence in selling his vision and
making it a reality.
As vital as the vision and work of these two
leaders were in creating its underpinnings,
WorldCat was actually built by the individual
efforts of thousands of librarians dedicated to
organizing and providing access to information
for the users of their libraries. As we celebrate
the 30th anniversary of this extraordinary
resource, we acknowledge and celebrate the
work of these individuals and their contributions.
In its early days, WorldCat was seen as a librar-ian’s
tool— a source of cataloging data to print
cards for libraries and a union catalog. It helped
end the drudgery of typing headings on individual
cards in thousands of libraries. Certainly
WorldCat’s earlier names, the OCLC Database
and then the OCLC Online Union Catalog, sug-gested
those functions. It was soon obvious,
however, that even more important was WorldCat’s
role as a tool to promote scholarship and research
and to share knowledge about information.
Today we increasingly refer to information
about information as metadata, viewed by many
as the solution to the information chaos of the
web. Librarians have, of course, been developing
principles and standards for communicating such
information for centuries, and WorldCat is the
embodiment of that work. Through WorldCat,
users have access to much of the record of
human history, culture, and research without
the labor and inconvenience of moving from
one library or card catalog to another. Students,
faculty and researchers from around the world
conduct more than 800,000 searches in WorldCat
daily. WorldCat, with its more than 46 million
records and 780 million locations, has become
the key to worldwide library collections and an
engine for sharing knowledge.
Today this remarkable resource is taken for
granted, but its success was not assured in the
beginning. As recently as 20 years ago, there
were debates about the best way to share cata-loging
records and to make information, both
bibliographic and holdings, available to libraries
and their users. The confluence of technology
improvements, reduction in telecommunications
costs, and recognition of the value of cooperation
among libraries on a national and international
scale made WorldCat the de facto international
union catalog. Anyone who has ever tried to use
a union card catalog that includes the holdings of
only a small number of libraries or the printed
versions of the national union catalogs knows
how important this victory was to the users of
the world’s libraries.
The generation of librarians who created
WorldCat must communicate its value to new
generations of librarians and scholars who may
not understand the vision, the hard work, and the
extraordinary level of cooperation required to
create WorldCat. The OCLC WorldCat Principles
of Cooperation, adopted by the OCLC Users
Council in May 1996, is an important restatement
of the commitment to cooperation librarians
made in the creation of WorldCat. I urge you
to read it and consider the importance of this
shared commitment in today’s information
world. WorldCat is now the driving force that will
power OCLC’s new strategic direction, Extending
the Cooperative < http:// www. oclc. org/ strategy/>.
This plan, with WorldCat as its foundation, pro-poses
extending the ideas of cooperation and the
sharing of resources around the world.
Library cooperation, including the sharing
of intellectual effort and resources, is more criti-cal
than ever in a world with an information-based
economy. The Users Council recently
reaffirmed that the commitment to share intel-lectual
effort and resources should remain the
basis for membership in the OCLC cooperative.
By extending globally WorldCat and the values
and commitment embodied in the Principles of
Cooperation, users of libraries all around the
WorldCat is a remarkable achievement in librarianship
3 0 Y E A R S O F W O R L D C A T
34 OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001
WorldCat has become indispensable to the efficient operations of the Cornell University Library. It is the
primary verification tool our users turn to when their searches in our library catalog come up empty.
It is the vehicle for an increasing proportion of our interlibrary loan activity. The synchronization of CORC
( Cooperative Online Resource Catalog) with WorldCat has made WorldCat a richer resource for patrons
and catalogers alike. We look forward to even greater benefits from WorldCat as OCLC extends the database
and adds new content and fulfillment capabilities. Happy 30th birthday to the pearl of OCLC’s constellation
of products!
— Edward Weissman, assistant to the University Librarian, Cornell University
As a small, rural library, we consider WorldCat
and KYVL ( Kentucky Virtual Library) essential
elements in helping our patrons fulfill their
educational, business and entertainment needs.
There is not a day that passes where the
Rockcastle County Public Library and its citizens
do not access information using these services.
WorldCat and KYVL continue to open the door of learning and
opportunity to all ages of our community. We are convinced that
these services are vital links in our effort as we strive to make
Rockcastle County a better place— a place where people know they
can access resources for their every need and walk away a more
literate and informed individual.
— Kristiana Burk, director, Rockcastle County Public Library
Since 1973, OCLC’s
WorldCat has been
Florida’s de facto union
catalog of library holdings.
In fact, in the mid- 1970s,
through a million- dollar
statewide project of
retrospective conversion
of the holdings of the state’s largest public and
state university system libraries, Florida titles
represented approximately 20 percent of the
OCLC union catalog database. This precedent
established Florida libraries as early leaders
in resource sharing and library cooperation,
a tradition that has been sustained and
nurtured since that time. OCLC’s WorldCat
has been an immeasurable resource for
Florida libraries, and we are pleased to
continue participation in its growth and use
as an international resource. Congratulations
on 30 great years!
— Barratt Wilkins, state librarian of Florida
world will benefit. WorldCat and the myriad
of information services that can extend from
it— including discipline- based access to the web,
electronic pathfinders, and the building of the
collections cooperatively— are the underpinnings
of that cooperation.
As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of
WorldCat, let us, therefore, pause to thank the
visionaries such as Fred Kilgour and Henriette
Avram and those countless thousands of librar-ians
who have worked and continue to work
cooperatively to create WorldCat. Let us also
renew the commitment to resource sharing and
collaboration that extends information access to
library users around the world. Let us reaffirm
that together we can provide more information
more quickly to our users than we can provide
alone.— Larry Alford is OCLC Users Council
president and deputy university librarian, Davis
Library, University of North Carolina– Chapel Hill.
• • •
3 0 Y E A R S O F W O R L D C A T
OCLC Newsletter May/ June 2001 35
by Alane Wilson
Stanley Kubrick’s landmark
film 2001: A Space Odyssey
was released in 1968, a year
after the incorporation of
the Ohio College Library
Center. The film originally
opened to negative or indif-ferent
reviews. Its popularity
grew after it was re- released
in 1975, and it is now recognized as a classic of
enduring importance. Frederick G. Kilgour’s epic
production, the OCLC Online Union Catalog,
released in 1971, was reviewed more positively,
although not without some critics. Today, World-
Cat ( the OCLC Online Union Catalog) is recog-nized
as Mr. Kilgour’s monumental contribution
to librarianship.
The film, 2001: A Space Odyssey is divided into
four sections: The Dawn of Man; The Lunar
Journey in the Year 2000; Jupiter Mission, 2001;
Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite. This article is
divided into four sections: The Dawn of Anglo-
American Cataloging; The Bibliographic Journey
to the 1990s; Metadata Mission 2000; and 2001:
The Galactic Network and Beyond. In no way is
this article presented as an exhaustive history of
cataloging, of librarianship, or of technology
between 1841 and 2001. Rather, it is a synopsis
of a much larger, infinitely more detailed and
complex story.
The Dawn of Anglo- American Cataloging
Our odyssey begins at a point when a way of
doing things was profoundly changed. It is a piv-otal
event because it deals with the ideological
foundations of cataloging.
In 1831, Antonio Panizzi took a position as an
assistant librarian with the British Museum’s
Department of Printed Books. Pan
OCLC Newsletter
