New Improved Labels To Debut This Spring!
You Are The Star At Users' Meetings
MarciveWeb SELECT Questions & Answers
Two Public Libraries Talk About Their Success With Retrospective Conversion
Shelflist Conversion for a Public Library in Texas
Brief Record Upgrade for a Public Library in Maine
ALA MidWinter 1998 Users' Meeting Recap
Why Public Libraries Should Consider Shelving Depository Collections By Sudoc Number
Good news for cataloging customers who receive book label sets and for GPO Shipping List Customers who receive our SLS label subscription: new improved labels are on the way!
Our labels are a time-saver for thousands of libraries. From time to time we have had to deal with quality issues, and for over a year we have been investigating and testing alternatives.
The search was made tougher by the fact that we insisted that all of the superior features of our existing labels remain unchanged:
 | strong adhesive to keep labels on the books |
| acid-neutral components |
| foil-backed stock to prevent contact between the paper of the label and the book |
| rounded corners to discourage peeling |
| clear, well-formed letters and numbers |
| ALA-character set |
| three font choices for spine labels |
We are pleased to say that, with the help of the inventive folks at University Products, we did it!
You should find that the new labels blend in with labels you have already received from us. So what did we change?
We changed the process and we changed the stock. The new way we are printing labels builds on our existing strengths and adds these new features:
These new features are sure to prove popular with our many customers. We anticipate that the transition to the new process will occur in March or April, but check our website for more information as it becomes available.
http://www.marcive.com
When the new labels are implemented, prices for label sets will increase to $0.08 per set. We believe that the superior quality of the new labels will be well worth the small additional cost.
SLS customers who receive labels on subscription will not have a price increase during the term of the subscription. Pricing for renewals will be sent out 60 days in advance of the renewal date. We are investigating ways to keep down the cost of SLS labels.--JM
Kansas City MO: Public Library Association
Come by booth #620 for information on retrospective conversion, AV cataloging, or authorities March 11-13.
San Antonio TX: Texas Library Association
Call your favorite MARCIVE rep to find out when he or she will be in the booth. Remember there's a new schedule this year and stop by booth #1415 Thursday Friday, or Saturday (Apr. 2-4).
Washington DC: Federal Depository Conference
Joan and Jim look forward to meeting with you at this annual conference in April.
Philadelphia PA: Medical Library Association
We'll be in booth #502. We wouldn't miss the 100th anniversary of MLA--and hope to see you there too. Make plans to come to our Users' Meeting and learn about all the new developments with MarciveWeb SELECT.
Washington DC: American Library Association
June 27-30 are the dates to mark.
Anaheim CA: American Association of Law Libraries
Visit Mickey & Minnie, but save time for MARCIVE July 12-14.
MARCIVE Newsletter
Number 30 March 1998
Editor Janifer Meldrum
Address changes Brenda Garza
Contributors Joan Chapa
Rose Marie McElfresh
MARCIVE, Inc.
P.O. Box 47508
San Antonio TX 78265
1-800-531-7678
(210) 646-6161
FAX (210) 646-0167
E-mail info@marcive.com
Web Site http://www.marcive.com
All of the information in this newsletter is protected by copyright. If you would like
to use any of the information, please reference the source. If you would like to republish
an entire article, please let us know.
Thanks to all of you who came to the Users' Meeting at the ALA MidWinter Conference in New Orleans! It was very well attended. For a complete report please see page 6, "Users' Meeting Recap".
We will not be having a users' meeting at the Texas Library Association conference. You have told us that there are already too many good programs and other competition for your time. But we do hope you'll stop by our booth and let us show you the latest enhancements to our services.
There will be a users' meeting at the Federal Depository Conference this Spring, but we normally wait until the Government Printing Office has made its schedule known before planning our own meetings.
The agenda for the Users' Meeting at the Medical Library Association conference will include
| how to use the new defaults in MarciveWeb SELECT to save yourself time. |
| where to click in MarciveWeb SELECT to get to a complete list of MARC tags, including examples for their use. |
| when you can use Express Order and when you must use Standard Order |
| how Special Order can save you from creating an original cataloging record from scratch. |
If you have questions you would like to have discussed, we would love to know about them in advance. Just send them to info@marcive.com and be sure to give us your name, institution, phone number, and e-mail address. Thanks!
At the ALA users' meeting in Washington DC this summer we plan to discuss issues in migration from one system to another, including:
| examination of names and subject headings to bring them up to a current, consistent form |
| correction of inconsistencies such as ending punctuation in traceable fields |
| smart barcode label creation and holdings field generation |
| upgrade of brief records to full records with subject headings and complete MARC tagging |
| shelflist conversion of the remaining pockets of unconverted materials |
If MARCIVE has assisted your library in migrating from one system to another, and you plan to be at ALA, please contact Janifer Meldrum at info@marcive.com. We would love to hear about your experience.--JM
One of the great features of MarciveWeb SELECT is that you can add to an order over the course of several days, review the order one last time, and then click on "Submit Order".
Nothing happens until you actually submit your order.
It is important that you click on "End Session" whenever you are done for the day...but don't think that by so doing you are submitting an order. Look at Current Order on the initial screen to see how many titles are in the order that you are building. For example, the message under Current Order might read:
You currently have cataloging for 12 titles in your order.
Click on Submit Order.
The screen will ask for a batch number. Click on Submit Order again, whether you filled in a batch number or not.
Once you submit your order, the "number of titles in your order" will revert to zero and you can start a new order.
(You may have to page down to see the section "Current Order". If you find yourself doing a lot of paging down, set up your browser to use the smallest possible font and don't show the tool bar, etc.)
All customers who receive catalog cards, shelflist cards, or spine labels need to insert commas in any library-specific call numbers.
Whenever you supply a local call number, you will see a message:
If you receive catalog cards and/or book labels, please remember to insert commas in the call number to indicate where you want to break to a new print line.
For example, if you type:
PR,6003,.E72,Z66,1987
this will appear on your spine label:
PR
6003
.E72
Z66
1987
If you forget to put the commas in, your local call number will print until it runs out of room ... probably not what you intended!
PR6003.E72
Effective April 1, 1998, prices for certain ongoing cataloging services are going to be increased:
Smart barcode labels $0.05
Book label sets $0.08
A/V Access{Special Char 226 in Font "Symbol"} hit $0.60
Over the last few months, there have also been some changes in prices quoted for archival database output. Here is a summary of those changes:
Database count $10.00
per ID code
Database output $0.05
with a $150 minimum (formerly a $100 minimum)
Printouts Various
prices with a $100 minimum (formerly a $75 minimum)
Smart barcode labels $0.03
with a $30 minimum
Generic barcode labels $0.03
with a $30 minimum
We try very hard to keep our costs low and our prices the best in the industry. As a result, it has been several years since our last price increase and it finally became necessary for us to institute these small increases.{Graphic stripped}
If you have been entrusted with public funds to automate your library, you undoubtedly feel a special responsibility to do the best you can for your community. You want to be sure your retrospective conversion project is a success. Will the records be of the highest quality with the most current name and subject headings? Will the project be delivered on the schedule promised? Will everything come together on the day the mayor walks in and searches the brand-new online catalog?
Your best guarantee of success may lie in others' experiences. Public librarians generally want to "compare notes" with other professionals who have gone down a similar path. Here are a couple of success stories from public libraries that needed assistance with MARC conversion. For more information, contact Rose Marie McElfresh at info@marcive.com.
In preparation for automating her library, Shirley Cockrell, Director of the Mickey Reily Public Library in Corrigan, Texas, spoke with several librarians in the Houston Area Library System (HALS) who had used MARCIVE for retrospective conversion. Judy Hunter, Director of the Huntsville Public Library, was particularly helpful in answering her questions. Ultimately, Ms. Cockrell and the automation consultant from HALS decided that MARCIVE would do the best job for them.
Mickey Reily Public Library, Corrigan, Texas
They were not disappointed. Ms. Cockrell had several complimentary things to say about the experience. "Retrospective conversion through MARCIVE was very satisfactory. The project was completed and delivered back to our library in the promised time period."
She really liked the MARCIVE service representatives who were "gracious, very patient, helpful and understanding." Some of the records which came back to them had mistakes. However, Ms. Cockrell felt that their shelflist had been difficult to read and work with, and that MARCIVE staff interpreted them as best they could.
Nichols Advanced Technology's Athena system was selected to accept the more than 20,000 MARC records. Computers and software will be delivered soon, probably before this newsletter is distributed.
"I will continue to recommend MARCIVE to other libraries that are planning a retrospective conversion project," states Ms. Cockrell with conviction. And she also believes in ongoing conversion with MARCIVE. The Mickey Reily Public Library uses MarciveWeb SELECT to order cataloging over the Internet: MARC records, smart barcodes, and shelflist cards.--RM
We asked Susan Winch, MLS, Assistant Director, Scarborough Public Library, Maine, to talk to us about their MARCIVE retrospective conversion project.
1) How did you decide to use MARCIVE's Brief Record Upgrade service?
Imagine that you're a small public library with no technical services department and no source for obtaining bibliographic records. You've completed converting part of the shelflist into machine-readable form as part of the vendor contract when the circulation/catalog system was purchased. The remainder of the shelflist, all backlog materials, and all new materials were entered into the database by public service staff just beginning to work with MARC format and numerous volunteers. Three years into the process, you suddenly realize that MARC formats have not been consistently applied, there is no authority control, and the large numbers of brief records (particularly of audiovisual materials) severely limit all but the most simple searches. We opened up the Librarian's Yellow Pages and looked for help!
2) Who was involved in the decision-making process?
Nancy Crowell, Library Director; myself, then Children's Librarian and now also Assistant Director / Technology Coordinator; and the Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees.
3) How was the project funded?
The Library Board of Trustees agreed with our proposal that full access to all of our materials through the catalog could only be accomplished by improving the quality and consistency of its records. The Finance Committee developed a special line in the library operating budget to fund the upgrade and also agreed to fund ongoing cataloging of all audiovisual and some print materials through MarciveWeb SELECT.
4) What would you tell others considering this service?
MARCIVE has become our partner in providing our patrons full access to the library's holdings. We are very pleased with the results of the record upgrade and authority checking of our AV materials and look forward to sending the remaining records within the year. Considering MARCIVE's accuracy and competitive cost per record, we could not have done the work quicker or more inexpensively by creating a permanent professional technical services position. Equally important, since July 1997 I've also added another 600 records myself using MarciveWeb SELECT service. Our backlog has all but disappeared.
5) What is one thing you really liked about this service?
When I look at all of the larger libraries MARCIVE services, I realize what a small account we must be in relation to the others. Nevertheless, the customer services staff gave every question their full attention and literally walked me through the process step by step. We have a fine working relationship.
6) What is one thing you wished could have been done better or differently?
Honestly, can't think of anything.
7) What is the current status of your project?
We've completed the AV portion of our project which numbered about 3000 records from our Winnebago's CIRC/CAT system. We continue to prepare another group of records to send and by the end of the project expect MARCIVE will process about 40,000 records.
8) Are you using any of our ongoing services?
Yes. MarciveWeb SELECT gives me terrific results on hard to catalog materials like videos, books-on-tape and computer software.--RM
We were especially pleased at the turnout at this meeting. Sorry for the close quarters--we never know how many to expect! After introductory remarks, Janifer Meldrum, Director of Marketing, described MarciveWeb SELECT enhancements and a special offer for libraries interested in obtaining an authorities analysis of their databases. (See this and previous newsletters for details).
Want a copy of the handout? Contact Joan Chapa.
We were lucky to have three superb speakers describe the LOUIS project (Louisiana Online University Information Systems) comprising university and community college libraries in Louisiana. A shared NOTIS database is housed at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
Jill Fatzer, Dean of Library Services at the University of New Orleans spoke on how she chaired a statewide documents recon project with grant funding. Eleven libraries were involved in the retrospective conversion project, and they will continue to receive new cataloging records and shipping list records from MARCIVE.
Zehra (ZeeZee) Zamin, Network Librarian for LOUIS, gave great details on the coordination of the project with their specialized loader programs and the test process. She will continue to oversee the loading of the current MARCIVE GPO records and shipping list records. John Conover, Documents Librarian from Nicholls State University, spoke on the profiling process from a documents point of view.
MarciveWeb DOCS: MARCIVE version of the Monthly Catalog + Shipping List Records, depository holdings, and hotlinks to URLs.
The "Express Screen" now includes color, and a descriptive line telling what this product represents. The arrangement of the screen has been realigned to be more attractive and usable. Directional buttons now appear at the bottom of the screens, so you no longer have to scroll back up to the top.
A much-requested feature was implemented: "next record" and "previous record" buttons (represented by the +/- (plus and minus) keys in GPO CAT/PAC Plus, our CD-ROM version of the database). Also, you will be happy to see that records which have web access now display the clickable link in blue at the top of the record, so you can instantly tell that this access is available. We will continue to work towards making searching by the Boolean operators NOT and OR available (AND is already implied) as well as the many other enhancements that users and evaluators have requested. Thanks for your input!
We discussed URLs in GPO cataloging records and problems with certain characters in the 856 fields. A show of hands revealed that not all libraries yet have systems that provide the "hot link" functions. Some libraries said they were not happy with links that led the user to the agency homepage, then gave no guidance to locate the individual document they were seeking, so they added an additional URL to the actual title.
LSU stated that they had looked at every record with an 856 field, checking for validity and making changes. They get changed GPO records from MARCIVE and, to prevent the overlay on their own editing, added an "x" to the end of the OCLC number in the edited records. GPO has substituted %5F for the spacing underscore and %7E for the spacing tilde. While this has caused problems for some libraries, others say their OPAC can't use the actual characters anyway. We leave the characters as-is unless a library asks us to convert the characters for their records.
Jim Noël, our Manager of GPO Services, noted that GPO will soon be moving to the use of PURLs (Persistent Uniform Resource Locators) which may make it harder to guess what the proper URL should be if there is a problem. It will certainly make it more important than ever that errors or problems in URLs be reported to GPO for correction. GPO says it will be easier for them to maintain the URLs on the PURL server than it has been in the bib records.--JIC
Is your public library a depository for federal government documents? And do you shelve by SuDoc Number? While many public libraries shelve their documents by Dewey call number, some publics are finding that it is easier to shelve by SuDoc Number because of the existing systems that use the Superintendent of Documents system.
The Daily Depository Shipping Lists that arrive with the documents as shipped by the Government Printing Office (GPO) are arranged by SuDoc Number. GPO creates cataloging records with SuDoc Numbers and rarely includes Dewey or LC call numbers. Libraries using MARCIVE's Shipping List Service and Ongoing GPO Database Service find that our documents check-in service with the use of brief, preliminary records and call number labels makes the management of document receipt and maintenance much easier.
Alternatively, libraries which insist on using Dewey Decimal Classification for their documents will have to assign their own call numbers (usually through their cataloging department). In addition, they will either have to hand-write the number on the documents or create their own labels for the documents. These are time-consuming steps which delay the documents getting to the shelves.
Documents are supposed to be available quickly. Obtaining "ready-made cataloging" is fast and efficient. If document cataloging is integrated into the Online Public Access Catalog, patrons will not care what the call number is. They will simply see that a current, useful title exists and they will locate it, even if it has a SuDoc Number.
However, it is true that public libraries (and academic libraries too!) need to train their staffs to recognize and understand the SuDoc number since it is very different from the familiar format of the Dewey call number. Once libraries have loaded retrospective and/or current cataloging for government documents into their online catalog, their public services departments immediately feel the impact as they see increases in requests to retrieve documents, circulate them, and then reshelve them.
Such an experience is related by Lynn Bellehumeur, Head of Technical Services at Milwaukee Public Library. The Library, a regional depository, recently loaded the entire retrospective MARCIVE Enhanced GPO Database into its INNOPAC online catalog, integrating documents with other library materials. MPL continues to get current full GPO cataloging through MARCIVE's Ongoing GPO Database Service and checks in its documents using MARCIVE Shipping List Service. "We've not had this kind of usage before, and we quickly realized that our circulation staff needed to be retrained on how to locate and shelve by SuDoc Number!" Ms. Bellehumeur recalls.
The results made the effort worthwhile. She states enthusiastically, "We no longer have a backlog, we have more streamlined procedures, and are able to more efficiently get the documents out to the public."
Providing access through MARCIVE cataloging has enabled many public libraries to have similar success. (See sidebar below.)
For a free copy of a case history detailing the Milwaukee Public Library experience or for any information on how your public library can integrate its documents into the main catalog, please contact Joan Chapa.--JIC
Public Libraries Using
MARCIVE GPO Services
Anaheim Public Library (CA)
Boston Public Library
Clark County Public Library (OH)
Cleveland Public Library
East Brunswick Public Library (NJ)
Enoch Pratt Free Public Library (MD)
Evansville-Vanderburgh Co. Public Library (IN)
Flint Public Library (MI)
Houston Public Library
Jefferson County Public Library (CO)
Kansas City Public Library
King County Library System (WA) *
LaCrosse Public Library (WI) *
Livonia Civic Center Library (MI)
Macomb County Library (MI)
Mamie Doud Eisenhower Library (CO)
Mesa Public Library (AZ)
Milwaukee Public Library
Minneapolis Public Library
Newark Public Library
Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg Co.
Ramsey County Library (MN)
Reading Public Library (PA)
Rosenberg Library (Galveston, TX)
San Antonio Public Library *
Scranton Public Library
Seattle Public Library
Shreve Memorial Library (LA)
Suffolk Cooperative Library System (NY)
Ventura County Library (CA)
* Project in process
Milwaukee Public Library shelves government documents by SuDoc number. Should your library? For more information, see story on page 7.
Milwaukee Public Library, Wisconsin