In an effort to develop a simple method for librarians to employ to measure and evaluate author catalogue use, the Library Management Research Unit tested a survey design in four varying libraries. The reader was asked to note details of items not found in the catalogue, the source of the reference, and his status. The items were then checked by library staff to discover the cause of "failure." Library staff interviewed samples of catalogue users to determine the overall rate of "failure," the cooperation (with "Catalogue Query Slips") rate, and the action readers proposed to take in order to obtain the item(s) not found in the catalogue.
A semi-humorous article suggesting that libraries should have both a dictionary catalog and a divided catalog. The author also suggests additional card catalogs, such as a people catalog and a place catalog.
In an effort to speed materials to the user while allowing a maturation period in order to take full advantage of the National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging, many libraries are making their newly-acquired materials available in a public area for circulation before cataloging. The U.C.L.A. library's scheme employs the use of an in-house IBM 360/20 computer to produce a weekly updated author and title listing of these materials; books are shelved and circulated by accession number until cataloging copy arrives.
A brief description of the reasons for and methods employed in arriving at an expansion of the Library of Congress classes PT2600-2688.
Regression techniques are used to define a method determining when and to what extent technical reports should be collected by college or university libraries. Data gathered from a questionnaire sent to ninety-four such libraries and from published sources was analyzed. The result was a formula which can be used to predict the number of technical reports a library should have at each point in its development.
A survey of various methods of obtaining out-of-print materials for library collection-building, this paper looks briefly at various met/rods such as reprints, nricrotexts, exchange, etc. Emphasis is placed on avenues of access to the o.p. book market, as reported in library literature. An effort i.s also made to look at the antiquarian book trade's own booksearching methods, and findings of a survey of o.p. book dealers are presented as an indication to current practice.
With the introduction of nonprint materials into all types of libraries, the question of the need for the use of media designations has risen. This paper discusses some of the pros and cons of the question. It concludes that a generic term should be used after the title of a work as a medium designation and that a more specific designation may be used to introduce the collation if it is needed.
The much-favoured "early warning" generic medium designation is discriminatory, functionally inefficient, and out of line with the national and international acceptance of AACR. A specific designation, placed with the collation, is preferable on all these grounds; and there are better ways of giving an "early warning."
Between the months of October 1971 and March 1972 the University of Utah Marriott Library conducted an experiment to test the turn-around time of card orders sent to the Library of Congress. This article is a brief report of that experiment.
This paper outlines why, in June 1971, the Library of Congress decided to adopt successive entry cataloging for serials, a reversal of its earlier decision made prior to 1967 in connection with the publication of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules. The Cornell University libraries provide an example of why a library decided to follow LC's decision and how. Confusion arising from the ambiguous wording of Anglo-American Cataloging Rule 167G, dealing with successive entry, is discussed and illustrated. Despite some pessimistic predictions concerning the change-over, the future is assessed as bright, especially in the area of bibliographic control.
This article describes a simplified scheme for cataloging and classifying state and municipal documents. The plan, now in use at the State University of New York at Albany, employs a system of double Cutter numbers to designate the documents by state and then by agency. The use of a consistent scheme for subject and state Cuttering makes possible both a subject and an agency approach.