Message-Id: <199607171453.JAA00931@library.wustl.edu> Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 10:41:25 -0400 From: Valerie Tucci <mailto:val@RESEARCH.NJ.NEC.COM> Subject: Re: Cataloging in Special/Pharmaceutical Libraries To: Multiple recipients of list WEBCAT-L <mailto:WEBCAT-L@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>
Hi Tom,Here at NEC we outsource cataloging. I am a one person library with two part-time people.
We buy our cataloging from Marcive or have Lucent Technologies do the items that Marcive does not have, too new, too old, etc.
We run BasisPlus and TechLib on a Sparc 2 workstation and have installed the Web interface and it is wonderful, as I believe you do.
We ftp our requests to Marcive, and ftp the results (we previously used a modem), upload the records to Techlib, do some minor adjustments, and off we go. We either mail or fax our requests to Lucent, they E-mail the records back, we upload, and adjust. Works great!
Lucent is also doing this for Hoechst-Celanese.
Impact, before retirement I managed a group of 30 people at Air Products, about 26 in the library, and we used OCLC and downloaded records etc. With such a large department, the cataloging staff knew the collection but not the reference staff so really there was not much knowledge of the collection. As a matter of fact, there was friction since the reference and cataloging people did not always agree and we in different buildings. At NEC we all get a look at the records, or at least involved, certainly with the errors of omission.
Now the down-side. Here at NEC I often do not get to a problem until it becomes a problem. For example, I just had the OPAC screeen of TechLib, Web-interface, modified so it is possible to sort by year.
However, there is one small problem. When my predecessor set up the Marc profile in TechLib, the year was not included. So I do not have a year in the year field to sort on, for most cataloging records.
With a large staff, and a cataloging department, that probably would not have happened.
The bad part of outsourcing is that the people who do the outsourcing still have to have expertise about what is happening - they have to be a "jack-of-all-trades". The good part of outsourcing is that you come in contact with more people, with a broader knowledge base and can learn more in the long run.
Hope this helps!
Valerie Tucci NEC Research Institute Princeton, NJ 08540 mailto:val@research.nj.nec.com 609 951-2586