| « TS Awards Committee
| Call For Chapman Nominations » |
Technical Services Special Interest Section
The Administration Subcommittee, charged with investigating libraries' use of paraprofessionals in copy cataloging, developed a brief survey on copy cataloging practices, which was distributed in February 2002 via the TS SIS and AUTOCAT lists. We received 70 responses to the survey, reflecting a broad cross-section of the library community: 23 responses were from academic law libraries, 1 represented a public law library, 2 were submitted by government libraries, and 1 by a law firm library. Representing the non-law library community were 30 responses from college or university libraries, 12 from public libraries, and 1 from an independent research institute library.
The survey data reflects a fair range of practice in the choice of library materials for copy cataloging, the extent to which paraprofessionals are employed in copy cataloging, the extent to which they edit copy, and the extent to which paraprofessionals' supervisors revise their work. Though a surprisingly large number of libraries responding have no written procedures which they use for training, the survey did yield quite a few references to published training materials, and numerous libraries offered to share URLs for their own web-mounted training materials. Several other libraries also have offered to share with us procedures that they have available in print form only.
Summary of Survey Responses
1. What is your job title?
While exact job duties cannot always be extrapolated from the title of a position, especially when institutions' relative sizes are unknown, the 70 respondents characterized themselves as follows:
The only generalization that can be made is that, depending on institution, supervision of cataloging para-professionals is done by staff at varying levels, some of whom may have additional responsibilities unrelated to cataloging, and in some cases may involve paraprofessionals' supervising other paraprofessionals.
2. What type of copy is used for copy-cataloging in your library?
Most libraries indicated that they use both LC and shared copy, edited when necessary:
Several libraries also indicated that, although they do edit LC and shared records, the editing done is typically quite minimal.
3. What types of materials are designated as copy-cataloging in your library?
In response to this question, most libraries indicated a willingness to use available copy for most formats they collect:
4. Do paraprofessionals copy-catalog materials in your library?
Most libraries indicated they do employ paraprofessionals as copy-catalogers, qualified by materials' format in some cases:
5. Do you revise copy-cataloging done by paraprofessionals?
Although a few libraries responded that copy-cataloging done by paraprofessionals is always revised, most indicated that revision ceased, or was done on demand only, after an initial training period:
6. Does your library obtain any of its catalog records from an outside source? If yes, do paraprofessionals load and/or do any checking of these records?
Many respondents believed that this question referred to the use of OCLC as an outside source of copy. Those responses have been broken out separately where possible. Bear in mind that the lack of definition in the question renders the results somewhat unreliable:
7. Have you discovered any published training materials that you find useful in training brand-new copy-catalogers? If so, please list briefly.
47 libraries either gave no answer to this question or indicated that they had found no helpful published materials. Among the titles listed by remaining libraries were:
Numerous libraries also identified OCLC documentation and local workshops presented by their regional OCLC providers as being more helpful than any printed materials.
8. Have you any in-house written procedures to train new copy-catalogers?
Many libraries have no in-house training materials at all. Of those that do, the majority have them in print versions only, though quite a few do declare their eventual intent to put them on the Web. Some libraries have placed, or plan to place, procedures on their intranets only:
9. If you have web-format procedures available on your library's site, would you be willing to share the URL with the members of the Administration Subcommittee? Would you be willing to share the URL with other interested members of the law library community, on a web site or in our newsletter?
Numerous libraries offered to share the URLs for their web-mounted training materials, and all but one (which is not listed below) would be willing to have the URL published outside this committee:
To this list should be added an annotated bibliography of training sources compiled by Beth Holmes for the Intermediate Law Cataloging Workshop this past summer in Orlando. It may be found at: http://www.arches.uga.edu/~eholmes/Trainingbib.html
This report fulfills the charge of the Administration Subcommittee. We would be happy to discuss the survey results at our meeting in Seattle.
Respectfiully submitted,
OBS/TS Joint Research Grant Available
The joint OBS/TS Research Grant to provide support for technical services law librarians to perform research that will enhance law librarianship in service to our clients is available each year. Applicants must be members of AALL and must show evidence that the research will benefit technical services law librarianship. The goal of the Joint Research Grant Committee is to award grants in a single year ranging in amount of no more than $1,000. Additional general information about the grant is available at: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/obssis/research/researchinfo.htm
The agreement form for grant recipients can be viewed at: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/obssis/research/agreement.htm. Grant recipients will be announced at the annual AALL meeting. Award amounts will be mailed to successful grant recipients as soon as final approval is received by the JRGC Chair. For additional information, please contact this year's chair of the committee, Eloise Vondruska, by email at e-vondruska@law.northwestern.edu or by phone at 312-503-7369.
Standing Committee on Cataloging & Classification
Final Report of the Administration Subcommittee
Judith A. Vaughan-Sterling
Chair, Administration Subcommittee
| « TS Awards Committee
| Call For Chapman Nominations » |