This digest highlights bibliographic file creation and maintenance practices that affect a library's ability to use various automated system capabilities for current and future applications. The first section covers database creation options, cataloging resource file forms, and record creation and editing. The importance of adherence to MARC…

This paper focuses on the establishment of three standard international formats for the exchange of bibliographic data--UNIMARC, CCF, and the UNISIST Reference Manual--and outlines their common and differing features. The development of the UNIMARC manual as the standard international MARC network exchange format is traced, and its salient…

This workbook for participants in a 1988 Texas State Library workshop is designed to provide a step by step outline for the full process of bibliographic, item, and patron conversion from paper files to an online environment; to orient participants to various methods and major vendors of bibliographic retrospective conversion; and to provide a…

A new electronic bibliography, the Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalog, currently contains title and location information for 315,000 English-language books, monographs, and ephemera printed during the eighteenth century. The database is available to scholars on the Research Libraries Information Network and the British Library Automated…

Describes a prototype system--GeoMatch--that allows users to interactively define geographic areas of interest on a background map and to define, qualitatively or quantitatively, the relationship between the user-defined area and the map coverage. The knowledge discovery in database (KDD) factor is analyzed in the retrieval process. The MARC…

Discusses use of the MARC format for cataloging Internet resources. The benefits of MARC, importance of integrated information resources, and the guarantee of public access are cited as major reasons for using traditional cataloging and library OPACs. Suggests Internet resource collection criteria and the roles of various groups of people needed…

Three reports describe the standards and format to be used when contributing bibliographic records to MELVYL, the University of California (UC) online library catalog. The first report, which was revised and approved in May 1990, defines record format standards, record maintenance information standards, bibliographic fields, local data fields,…

The International Project of the Commission on Preservation and Access was begun in June 1988 to explore the feasibility of creating an international database of preserved materials. Its main goals are to: (1) determine the extent to which preservation records exist in other countries; (2) identify the difficulties in converting records to…

Describes a study that examined four sources of LC-MARC cataloging records (a CD-ROM version available through Bibliofile, an online version from DIALOG, and two bibliographic utilities, OCLC and the Research Libraries Information Network) to determine the extent to which exact and/or helpful cataloging is present in each. (two references) (CLB)

Discusses the need to reassess the objectives of online public access catalogs and how those objectives might be met before costly investments are made in electronic versions of "other data" for online catalogs. Several objectives are outlined and their feasibility in the modern telecommunications environment is examined. (two references) (CLB)

The University of California Catalog and Periodicals databases each have over 20 separately contributing libraries, and records for the same work can enter the MELVYL system from different campus libraries. MELVYL's goal is to have one union record for each distinct edition of a work. To promote this goal, the University's Division of Library…

This report provides the specifications for a bibliographic format which is a detailed and structured method for recording a number of mandatory and optional data elements in a computer-readable bibliographic record for exchange purposes between two or more computer-based systems. The specifications are designed to permit local designers to devise…

This study compares the cost effectiveness of using a CD-ROM (compact disk read-only memory) system known as Bibliofile and the currently used OCLC (Online Computer Library Center)-based method to convert a university library's shelflist into a machine-readable database in the MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloging) format. The cost of each method of…

Traces the history of ways in which publishers of abstracts journals have provided readers with serial print products, the development of searchable products manipulated by the purchaser, and the economic impact of such products on the publisher. The discussion also covers major improvements needed in online searching systems. (CLB)

Describes a project that examined the effects of incorporating subject terms from the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) into a bibliographic database. It is concluded that the incorporation of DDC and possibly other library classifications into online catalogs can enhance subject access and provide additional subject searching strategies. (11…