Organizational affiliations of the creators of works are important to a variety of stakeholders, including academic administrators, funders, publishers, repository managers, software developers, rights agencies and individual researchers. Identifying and tracking these affiliations can be challenging, as organizations may be known by a variety of…

Examines the problem resolution phase of a retrospective conversion project of monographic records at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass). The kinds of problems encountered are categorized and discussed. Suggestions for developing editing guidelines are offered, and the guidelines developed for standardization of problem resolution at…

Briefly describes the 1978 National Conference on Cataloging and Information Services for Machine-Readable Data Files, listing its recommendations; notes related cataloging activities of the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards and the MARC Format Working Group; and illustrates the cataloging of two bibliographic data bases using…

Reports on the American Library Association's efforts to update the Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (DCRM). Describes topics of working groups that include transcription of early letter forms, rare book cataloging of machine-press books, collection-level cataloging, problems and lacunae, and varieties of editions and issues and when to…

Discusses efforts by the Library of Congress, the National Library of Canada, and the British Library to harmonize their respective MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) formats. Describes the harmonization of USMARC and CAN/MARC and explains why problems make the harmonization with UKMARC not feasible at the present time. (LRW)

Discusses artificial intelligence and attempts to catalog expert systems. Topics include the nature of expertise; examples of cataloging expert systems; barriers to implementation; and problems, including total automation, cataloging expertise, priorities, and system design. (LRW)

Discusses the legal deposit laws that have been enacted since 1950 for all materials published in Nigeria. Efforts at bibliographic control of the materials are described, the National Bibliography of Nigeria is explained, problems with noncompliance among the book industry are addressed, and suggestions for improved legal deposit collection are…

Presents an overview of the developments and dilemmas related to the cataloging and classification of maps, addressing the areas of online library systems, cooperative cataloging, descriptive cataloging, subject access, and the improvement of network capabilities. Seventeen references are cited. (FM)

This description of the experience of a large academic library using headings in the OCLC database which have been converted to AACR2 forms incorporating LC authority records includes specific problems as well as benefits. Cataloging guidelines used by the staff at the University of Illinois are appended. (RAA)

Rare book catalogers can use Internet resources in a cost-effective and time-saving way to improve the quality and accuracy of their work; this article discusses theoretical strategy as well as practical examples. Use of electronic information may answer questions about item description and about problematic rules and MARC fields. It also raises…

Guidelines are presented for categorizing, documenting, and storing a historical videotape collection. Causes of videotape deterioration are discussed. (Contains three references.) (SLW)

Discusses the quality of cataloging in bibliographic control based on experiences at the Library of Congress. Highlights include the down side of quality and quality review, copy cataloging, CONSER (Cooperative Online Serials), NCCP (National Coordinated Cataloging Program) and PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging), minimal-level cataloging,…

Explains the Open Directory Project (ODP), an attempt to catalog the World Wide Web by creating a human-compiled Web directory. Discusses the history of the project; open source models; the use of volunteer editors; quality control; problems and complaints; and use of ODP data by commercial services such as Google. (LRW)

Describes UNISIST efforts to design a single flexible format for the international exchange of bibliographic information in machine-readable form. Such a format would handle records of varying completeness for either direct use or transfer between established international communication formats. There are ten references. (Author/RAA)

This report describes the principal problems connected with the registration of documents in the current national bibliography (CNB) of the socialist countries, particularly the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, Bulgaria, and Poland. Sections detail the following: (1) definition of CNB, (2) coverage of CNB, (3) the dynamic model of…