Re: Online catalog access Mitch Turitz 11 Aug 1994 21:21 UTC
>In the days of the card catalog, only the cataloging dept. changed the >catalog -- now everyone is authorized to do so. > > a. What percentage of your staff is authorized to update the > bibliographic records in your opac? Only the technical services staff (and a few selected others, e.g. Systems Office, etc.) > b. Do you limit the update of bibliographic records to the cataloging > dept. or any other specific group? Yes, just the Catalog Dept. > c. Are student assistants allowed to update bibliographic records? Only student assistants in the Catalog Dept who are allowed to do copy cataloging (at the moment there aren't any - budget cuts) > d. What kind of quality control do you have (if any) for changes made > in the bibliographic records? We run a weekly report of all the new headings which have been added to the database (which did not merge with existing headings). Call numbers are checked by the shelf cards - which we are still ordering and filing. > e. Who is responsible for authorizing who may be passworded for > working in the bibliographic records? Head of the Catalog Dept. and the Systems Office. >Please -- I'm getting desperate: all my time lately seems to be taken up >with trying to sort out the ghastly mess our database is becoming (and all >I have to worry about are the serials....) If any dept. or individual >disagrees with the way an item is cataloged or tagged, that item record is >mysteriously changed by the fairies.... The "fairies" have attacked us too, but I think it is different. For us, a number of different call numbers have been attached to some of our periodical records (but we do not classify our periodicals, since we shelve by title). I think this is because in the original match/merge of our OCLC archieval tapes with our old CLSI circulation records resulted in some "mis-matched" records which can only be identified as we come across them. This involves detective work with our shelf list, OCLC, opac and just plain luck! >Thanks for the help. Advice will be gratefully accepted!! > > --Kathleen Thorne (kathleen@sjsuvm1.vm1.edu) > Serials Cataloger > San Jose State University Kathleen - you are not alone! We have similar problems although we have a different online catalog (Geac Advance). -- Mitch _^_ _^_ ( ___ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-( ___ ) | | | | | | Mitch Turitz, Serials Librarian | | | | San Francisco State University Library | | | | Internet: turitz@sfsu.edu | | | | | | ( ___ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-( ___ ) V V Rule #1: Don't let the small stuff upset you. Rule #2: It's ALL small stuff.