Cataloging Working Group
August 21, 2006
9:30 to 11:00
Grainger Commons
Minutes of Meeting
1. Minutes of May meeting
The minutes of the group’s first meeting of May 17, 2006 will be posted on the Cataloging Working Group forum at:
https://www-s2.library.uiuc.edu/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=37
2. CAPT update (Michael Norman, 10 minutes)
Sarah Shreeves will organize a metadata workshop for members of this group. The date will be announced soon.
CAPT is in the process of prioritizing issues it needs to deal with. A list of about 60 suggested items has been compiled, many concentrating around electronic resources, ORR, SFX, Discover, Search Assistant and federated searching, and the OPAC (using the online catalog, faceted browsing).
Endeca representatives visited UIUC several weeks ago and they will probably make a return visit. CARLI is considering purchasing the Endeca service. To view the possibilities for MARC records offered by Endeca, the website of North Carolina State University is a good place to look. Demos are also planned for September by representatives of the TLC AquaBrowser and the Ex Libris Primo Service.
3. Mass digitization update (Michael Norman, 5 minutes)
CAPT is in the process of hiring two visiting faculty members as metadata librarians. One will work on the Illinois Metadata Harvesting Project, focusing on material about Illinois or produced by Illinois scholars. This will involve different formats, such as serials on microfilm, print serials, WILL broadcasts, and will involve IDEALS and the University Press.
The other major project is the mass digitization initiative in partnership with the Open Content Alliance, which aims at digitizing thousands of books in the next two years, involving a grant of $900,000. Project members, headed by Betsy Kruger, meet weekly. There will be an announcement from Betsy soon seeking input on collections to digitize.
CAPT aims at educating the Library as a whole in metadata issues as this becomes increasingly important. Watch for announcements concerning the upcoming workshop.
4. Training & Documentation update (Gail Hueting, 15 minutes)
In connection with the continuing effort to provide more coherent documentation for Room 220 and across Library units, there is a need to review procedures and make them accessible. Gail has been working with a group to review, update, organize, and make available current cataloging documentation. A new website is being developed to provide the documentation. Gail displayed the website, still in progress, which will incorporate and enhance the information in the current cataloging documentation website. A mockup of the site may be seen at:
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/xhzhou/www/catalog.html
Training in connection with the recent Voyager upgrade included a session on Unicode led by Marek Sroka and ShuYong Jiang. Information about Unicode and other updates
in Voyager 6.1 was sent out by e-mail. A new version of the Connexion client, 1.60, will need to be installed by October, but Systems is having difficulty with the required Windows components. It is expected that information about this upgrade can be sent by e-mail as well. It will allow automatic cataloging of websites, among other changes.Training sessions have been held in small groups, and this afternoon and tomorrow basic cataloging training will be offered to new graduate assistants.
Since the last meeting, Gail has approved a number of authorizations for cataloging permissions.
5. New cataloguing web site (Naun, 5 minutes)
The new cataloguing web site was discussed by Gail Hueting, see above. Cataloguing units will be consulted about how their details will be presented on the new web site.
6. E-book cataloguing update (Janet Weber, 10 minutes)
In the last few months catalogers have worked to create documentation for cataloging e-books, and have catalogued about 20 e-books. E-books are being cataloged differently than electronic serials (that have a single record for print and electronic versions). E-books involve two records, one for the print and one for the electronic version. E-book records are not added to the ORR. At present catalogers are handling only individual titles, and are not cataloging those that come in electronic databases.
Examples of items recently cataloged as e-books include the Karen Calhoun report, “The Changing Nature of the Catalog and Its Integration with Other Discovery Tools,” and a children’s book, “Why Libraries Matter.”
A webform will be available for submissions of individual e-books to be catalogued.
Several questions were raised, and there was a discussion of the OPAC display of e-book records. Voyager is not consistent in displaying either the print or the electronic version first in a title list.
There is also a problem in that Voyager does not distinguish between works for which the large red “E” in the OPAC denotes full text access and those for which it denotes access to table of contents only. This confuses people.
Another confusing issue is that ISBNs are sometimes identical for print and electronic versions, and sometimes different. It was suggested that the 776 linking entry field be used to link print and electronic records.
7. Bib notification procedures (Naun, 5 minutes)
Procedures have been outlined for a way to prevent a UIUC Voyager record from being accidentally replaced by an enhanced OCLC record. A handout on “Guidelines for Coding Records To Prevent Overlay by Bib Notification” was distributed at the meeting. This is a concern for units that do significant local editing of records, such as for items catalogued in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, or items involving special projects or customized URLs. The new procedure will make it possible to retain the local notes and edits if a record is replaced by an enhanced OCLC record.
8. Regular update sessions on procedures (Naun, 5 minutes)
Feedback is requested on whether we should organize regular cataloging update sessions to cover UIUC policies and procedures as well as national cataloging policy. Updates may be handled at physical meetings, through the electronic cataloging forum, or by e-mail, or any combination of these. People will need to be assigned to specific areas to monitor and report on. Naun will draft a proposal for handling update sessions and the Cataloging Working Group can discuss what they think will work best.
9. Mellon/OCLC retrospective conversion issues (Naun, 5 minutes)
Up to now there has been no systematic way of dealing with Mellon/OCLC retrospective conversion errors. In particular we need to find a way to indicate on a record that it has been reviewed and corrected, so that questions are not raised repeatedly regarding the same records. Naun will draft procedural guidelines and will request feedback from the Cataloging Working Group on this.
10. Cataloguing clearinghouse (Naun, 5 minutes)
An effort is underway to identify pending projects in various units outside the usual workflow, such as backlogs, special projects, etc. Key information will include who is involved, how many items are involved, how long the material has been awaiting cataloging, significance of the material, and special skills needed for cataloging.
11. Draft cataloguing authorization policy -- to be circulated
Gail handed out and requested feedback on the draft “Guidelines for Obtaining Voyager Cataloging Maintenance Authorization,” dated 8/21/06.
12. Other cataloguing policy issues
Naun reported that progress is being made on Voyager records that did not transfer in the upgrade or that converted improperly. This is a workable problem. Reports will be generated and funds are available to hire students to fix the errors.
Naun foreshadowed discussion at a future meeting on cataloguing policy issues relating to copy-specific notes, games, series, and title added entries for tables of contents.
The next meeting will be on Monday, October 16, from 9:30-11:00.
Submitted
by Janice Pilch
Revised
1 September 2006