Please visit our home page at
http://www.marcive.com
and give us ideas about what you would like to see there. Right now it has general information about our company as well as the most recent newsletter, which we publish approximately three times a year.
What are your ideas for an interesting and useful homepage?
Please be careful when dialing our FAX number
210-646-0167
Some customers are typing 201 for the area code instead of 210 and faxing their orders, contracts, and questions to a FAX number in Hackensack. As in New Jersey.
The result is that your paperwork never gets to us. Your order for 2,000 MARC records does not get processed. Your contract or purchase order for a start-ASAP GPO CAT/PAC Plus subscription is listed as "Awaiting" in our files. Your questions ("Can you normalize Fiction on our shelflist you're converting right now?") do not get answered. And you don't know what the hold-up is.
Naturally, we want your orders, we want your contract or purchase orders, and we want your questions. Our business depends on them. So think
2-1-0h for San Anton-i-o
As in Texas!
If you are at any of the following conferences, look us up!
| PACIFIC NW CHAPTER/MLA Bellevue WA Sept. 15 |
| MIDATLANTIC CHAPTER/MLA Richmond VA Oct. 16-17 |
| DEPOSITORY COUNCIL MEETING Memphis TN Oct. 16-18 |
| 1996 |
| ALA MIDWINTER MEETING San Antonio TX Jan. 20-22 |
| COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES Arlington VA Feb. 27-29 |
| PUBLIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION Portland OR Mar. 27-29 |
| FEDERAL DEPOSITORY CONFERENCE Rosslyn VA Apr. 15-18 |
| TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION Houston TX Apr. 24-26 |
| MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION Kansas City MO June 1-4 |
| SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION Boston MA June 9-12 |
Many of you have asked if we are going to the American Library Association Annual Meeting in New York City next summer. You may have heard some of the controversy: moving it from Orlando to New York should have been discussed with ALA members and exhibitors before the decision was made. The change of dates results in the loss of the July 4 weekend. Setup costs will be at least 40% higher. Hotel and meal expenses in NYC will limit the number of librarians and exhibitors who can afford to attend.
We agree with all the objections raised. MARCIVE management would rather spend money on customer service than exhibition labor and high travel expenses. However part of customer service is to meet with our customers at conferences. We feel we need to be there.
Our solution is to limit our expenditures to what they would have been in Orlando. It will mean taking a smaller booth and fewer staff but we will be at the ALA meeting in New York City.
MidWinter in San Antonio!
If you can only attend one ALA meeting next year, we hope you will come to MidWinter in San Antonio. It's our hometown and we'd love to see you here!
by Joan Chapa
Getting cataloging for your government documents collection does not have to be a difficult process. We have assisted over 200 libraries and have the expertise to guide you and anticipate your questions. Usually it is the documents librarian that we hear from first, but eventually the systems librarian, catalogers, and public services staff get involved because providing access to this once-underutilized collection will have an impact on everyone!
We encourage librarians to form committees to discover the various issues of such a project, formulate their questions and contact us through a conference call. This way, everyone can ask questions from their own point of view and hear the answers at the same time.
You complete a questionnaire called the "GPO Record Processing Profile". It calls for decisions on options, output specifications, and details of any desired special processing. An agreement is also sent at this time to be signed by the director or head of the department. Then follow the next three steps, and you are on your way!
And what happens next is predictable. The records are loaded, perhaps in various stages, and the library sees an increase of up to 600% in the use of its government documents collection. More documents circulate, the public service desks get more government questions, and there are all those documents to reshelve. Amazing! The reward of course, is that this under-utilized collection will become visible for the first time as patrons discover a gold mine of information through the inclusion of government documents cataloging in the online catalog.
The success of the project may make you dizzy but your patrons will be grateful as they find a resource that they may never have known existed.
Every day a librarian decides, "Today is the day we are going to automate our library." If that librarian has been our customer, he or she may call MARCIVE and ask to get the library's card database output. It's really simple if the library has also made the decision to buy a library automation system that reads MARC records, which is what most librarians know to do.
Libraries are incredibly lucky that there is a nearly international standard for the transmission of cataloging information from one computer to another, referred to as the USMARC format. In a community that does not have the potential sales volume of a mass market, the implementation of this standard has permitted the development of relatively inexpensive software and systems.
However, sometimes the library's funding body compares the prices of those systems (thousands or tens of thousands of dollars) with the costs of such consumer programs as Lotus ($99.95). Without realizing the complexity of the task, the body directs the librarian to somehow utilize a consumer program.
Here are some examples:
1. "We have had an offer by a man in our community to program a library system for us for free. He's a DBase programmer. Would you please call him and explain how to read these MARC records you sent us?"
We understand why you appreciate his offer, as special-purpose library systems often seem expensive. It is our experience that the task of designing a library system is bigger than most people realize. We hope that before accepting his offer you will look at the ramifications, financial and otherwise, of having a nonstandard system. Naturally the decision is yours and we are happy to be able to supply you with your database of MARC records regardless of your decision.
However, we are not in a position to offer guidance or consulting in the matter of the standard format of bibliographic records. The structure of those MARC records is defined in the USMARC Format for Bibliographic Data. It is available from the Cataloging Distribution Service at Library of Congress for $75. It consists of three volumes of crucial information and we encourage you to purchase a copy.
2. "Our MIS department looked at what it would take to automate our library and decided that the `bells and whistles' on the commercial systems were unnecessary. They are going to program something for us at a fraction of the cost. You just need to send them the documentation for what you did to our cataloging."
In fact, we really did not "do" anything to your cataloging, except for adding some fields for your library code and call numbers. The rest of the record format is documented in the USMARC Format for Bibliographic Data.
3. "What do you mean by asking about the system I am going to load my catalog cards into? Lotus. You act as though you are not familiar with it."
Yes, we have heard of Lotus, DBase IV, Paradox and many of the other general purpose, consumer programs into which some people want to load specialized cataloging data. We use some of them ourselves here in the office for office applications, but not for managing cataloging information.
It's just that there is not a good fit between cataloging information and spreadsheets. There is too much complexity in cataloging to map it in any meaningful way into the nodes of a spreadsheet.
Indeed database management programs could serve as a rather basic inventory tool. However, you will drive yourself crazy mapping fields and displaying them properly to begin with, and then maintaining them, as the USMARC format changes.
We cannot recommend loading MARC-formatted data into general purpose programs.
4. "We cannot read this diskette you sent us. I can print it out and see authors and titles and a lot of numbers that are probably used by your computer. Please send us a diskette with just the important information and leave out the information that your computer put in."
Much of the information you see does not appear to be important but actually has its uses. We would not know how to define what is important and what is not in your library.
While it is true that we can strip selected fields and data from bibliographic records before outputting them, we believe that your objection to the data is not just content. You object to the format of the record itself. For example, the MARC format distinguishes among various kinds of subject headings through the use of tag names and indicators.
We agree that the MARC format is complicated. Over the years, librarians have seen the need to pack a lot of information into it, some of which you do not need today, but you may want tomorrow.
If you are loading these data into a library automation system, you should have parameters available to you that allow you to strip out selected fields during the loading process. Some library systems also permit you to control what displays to the public, without requiring you to actually throw the fields away.
The point that we would like to make is that the functions of a library are far more complex than most non-librarians realize. We have seen that non- librarian programmers try to automate seemingly simple library functions and then lose interest. The library is left with unfinished and unusable programs that no one wants to complete or maintain.
As a company that does not sell integrated library systems, we have no financial interest in your purchase of a commercial library system. However, we have quite a stake in customer satisfaction and we do not want to be a character in a sad story of automation gone awry.
We strongly urge you to purchase a commercially available system which has the ability to import and export USMARC records.
We also urge you to purchase a copy of the USMARC Format for Bibliographic Data and USMARC Format for Authority Data. They are essential reference tools for building and maintaining your catalog.
The USMARC format is transportable, it is the standard, and it represents true economy. That's our standard story and we are sticking to it!
Are you a busy hospital librarian? Here are some tips on getting cataloging for the maximum number of titles with the minimum amount of work.
1. Send ISBNs via CIS.
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is often printed right on the book, which makes it a fast and convenient way to order. It looks like ISBN 0-387-94185-1 on the book but to order from us, you need to type it without the word ISBN or hyphens:
0387941851
The best way to order is to use the Cataloging Input System, our IBM-PC compatible program that costs $175.
Most of the time just sending us the ISBN will result in us sending you the right catalog cards, spine labels, MARC records, and barcodes.
However, sometimes our computer cannot find the cataloging you want by ISBN. The title may be very new and we will not get the cataloging for a couple of weeks. Or we have the cataloging but our indexes do not show that ISBN. In either case, we send you a no-hits card listing that ISBN and any other search numbers which resulted in "no-hits". This card is the second card in the package, right after the "header card" with your library name.
2. Look no-hits up on CATLINE.
If you have access to the National Library of Medicine database CATLINE, you can search those no-hits by title and see if NLM has cataloging yet. If so, make a note of the Unique Identifier. This citation number may look like 9319177 online.
3. Send in the NLMC number.
Reformat that citation number to order from us:
NLMC9319177
We have a subscription to CATLINE so we should have anything that you can find online in that database.
4. Submit deletes for no-hit ISBNs.
Remember that MARCIVE is maintaining a database of your search numbers for you. It is a good idea to submit a delete to us for any search numbers which did not result in a hit. This is just in case they do hit some other title later and are erroneously added to your database. There is no charge for sending in ISBN deletes on CIS.
Many health service librarians like to get their cataloging through one of the outstanding book distributors such as Majors, Login, Rittenhouse, or Matthews who obtain cataloging from MARCIVE. These librarians receive cataloging automatically when they order their books.
This very efficient alternative to ordering directly from MARCIVE is easy to start up. Fill out a MARCIVE profile (if you do not already have one). Give your MARCIVE ID to the distributor and ask that future orders generate MARCIVE cataloging.
Whether you always order directly, always through a distributor, or a combination, the important thing to remember is that Customer Service is always available to answer your questions and give you tips appropriate to your particular situation. Call toll-free or send them a message on the Internet to custserv@marcive.com.
GPO CAT/PAC Plus has been available in a quarterly frequency since the beginning of the year and the response has been enthusiastic. Libraries that have never had an online version of the Monthly Catalog can now afford it. Others that wanted to download cataloging data for the occasional government document acquisition found the quarterly frequency perfect for their light usage. Whatever the reason, subscriptions of all frequencies--monthly, bimonthly, and quarterly--are up.
Regardless of which frequency you chose, we wish to welcome the depository libraries that have recently subscribed to the MARCIVE GPO CAT/PAC or Plus product:
Brooklyn Public Library (NY), Carleton College (MN), East Central University (OK), John A. Logan College (IL), Nashua Public Library (NH), Norfolk Public Library (VA), Northeastern University (MA), Northern Nevada Community College, University of Alabama, University of Pittsburgh, University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus, University of Richmond, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Wayne State College (NE).
Libraries signing up for the product that are not depository libraries are the <B>Augusta Technical Institute<D> (GA) and the Johns Hopkins University-School of Advanced International Studies (DC). Augusta Tech is a selective housing site for the Medical College of Georgia, and Johns Hopkins wanted the ability to show holdings for their parent institution in Baltimore.
GPO CAT/PAC Plus is a CD-ROM version of the MARCIVE Enhanced GPO Database and Shipping List Database. This handy reference tool is used for finding government documents and the libraries which select them.
Please call Joan Chapa at MARCIVE to order a free, 30-day trial of GPO CAT/PAC Plus. jchapa@marcive.com
by Joan Chapa
Our SLS customer list has grown considerably over the last few months as libraries discover that our service is a great way to manage the receipt of government documents.
Shipping List Service (SLS) includes SuDoc labels, catalog cards, and brief level records in dBase or MARC format.
New customers start with Albion College (labels and MARC records with smart barcodes) in Michigan; Appalachian State University (labels) in North Carolina; Bucknell University (MARC records) in Pennsylvania; Carleton College (labels and MARC records with smart barcodes) in Minnesota; Cleveland (OH) Public Library (labels); Library of Virginia (labels); Memphis-Shelby County Public Library (dBase records); Michigan State University (MARC records); Montana State University (labels); Naval Postgraduate School (labels) in California; Nicholson Memorial Library System (labels) in Texas; Northeastern State University (MARC records) in Oklahoma; Pennsylvania State University (labels); Ramsey County Public Library (labels) in Minnesota; and Robert Morris College (labels) in Pennsylvania.
The list of libraries continues with Sam Houston State University (MARC records) in Texas; State University of New York at Binghamton (MARC records); State University of New York at Plattsburgh (MARC records); University of Alabama (labels and MARC records with smart barcodes); University of California at Davis (MARC records with smart barcodes); University of Oregon (labels and MARC records with smart barcodes); University of Richmond (labels) in Virginia; Washington University (MARC records) in Missouri; and Western North Carolina Library Network (MARC records for Appalachian State University, Western Carolina University, and University of North Carolina at Asheville).
by Joan Chapa
Several Innovative Interfaces libraries have recently contracted to load either retrospective or ongoing MARCIVE Enhanced GPO Database Service records. They are Albion College (retro & ongoing) in Michigan; Carleton College (retro & ongoing) and Ramsey County Public Library (retro & ongoing), both in Minnesota; Evansville- Vanderburgh Public Library (ongoing with smart barcodes) in Indiana; Muhlenberg College (ongoing) in Pennsylvania; Nova Southeastern Law Library (ongoing) in Florida; University of Colorado at Boulder (retro and ongoing), and University of Oregon (ongoing).
MARCIVE Enhanced GPO records will be loaded into the following NOTIS libraries: Florida International University (retro), Michigan State University (gap tape and ongoing), State University of New York at Binghamton (ongoing), University of Alabama (ongoing) and University of Wisconsin at La Crosse (KeyNOTIS-ongoing).
We will be supplying the following Dynix sites with cataloging for their government documents: Anaheim Public Library (retro & ongoing) in California and the University of Richmond (ongoing) in Virginia.
New customers with the DRA system are Sam Houston State University (ongoing) in Texas and University of California at Davis (retro).
GEAC library Seton Hall University in New Jersey will be profiling for ongoing service.
If you would like a list of references of customers with the same integrated system or the same percentage of depository selection as your library, please call me jchapa@marcive.com
by Janifer Meldrum
Do you view outsourcing as a threat or as welcome relief? Attendees at most of the professional conferences this year (especially the Special Libraries Association meeting in Montreal and American Library Association meeting in Chicago) debated what outsourcing meant for their libraries and themselves.
Ideally, outsourcing involves contracting specific tasks that can be done more efficiently by a vendor than can be done in-house. Cataloging of trade publications, spine labels for government document depository shipments, and automated comparison of traceable headings in bibliographic records to an authoritative file are examples of tasks which can be outsourced.
Even if you think you do not know what outsourcing is, one MEDLIB-L correspondent pointed out that if you have used MARCIVE for cataloging, you have outsourced. She made the further point that you have to keep yourself aware of what services companies are offering to see if it still makes sense to perform all of the work in-house.
Few of the tasks which can be outsourced threaten the job security of professional librarians, although this was a fear that came up regularly during discussions at ALA. In most cases, the tasks were ones which library managers would have dearly loved to do, but had no resources to accomplish in a reasonable time period.
To give you a summary of some of the tasks with which MARCIVE can help, we have listed those which came up with the most frequency at the professional meetings we have been attending.
While it is unlikely that any vendor can provide cataloging for 100% of the library's acquisitions, MARCIVE can provide a large percentage. Areas of strength:
| current trade publications |
| anything which Library of Congress catalogs |
| medical books |
| medical audiovisuals |
| Canadiana |
Several customers came by our booth at the Medical Library Association meeting in Washington to express appreciation for our catalog card and USMARC record service. Comments such as "you saved my life" and "I don't know what we'd do if it weren't for MARCIVE" prove these librarians view outsourcing with MARCIVE as a great idea.
Sending a library's shelflist to a vendor for retrospective conversion has become almost the classic example of outsourcing. It is a self-contained project that can be established with specific guidelines for a predictable cost. It is almost always instituted because it would take too long to do in-house with available staff.
A case in point: Louisiana Tech University had been converting and reclassifying their collection as they had time. The Head of the Cataloging Department, Fred Hamilton, affirmed, "With the advent of our on-line catalog, we realized the need to get as much of our holdings in the database as soon as possible."
The Library looked at the available companies and chose MARCIVE to convert and reclassify the shelflist, produce smart barcodes and spine labels, do authorities processing, and output the matching authorities records for loading into the Library's NOTIS system. Mr. Hamilton stated that MARCIVE saved the Library time and money because "they were able to do the job much quicker than we could have done it."
We use the word reclassification to mean converting a library's call numbers from one scheme to another, and it typically entails relabeling the collection and replacing call numbers in the cataloging. It is not a task for the faint of heart, but enlisting MARCIVE to process the library's database (or reprint the card catalog) and print new spine and pocket label sets can save a lot of time and grief.
One library which recently moved from Dewey Decimal Classification to Library of Congress was the Fort Hays State University in Kansas. They were very pleased with the way MARCIVE was able to process their USMARC records and generate suitable labels in a matter of weeks. Such a project if handled in-house without additional staff might have taken years.
A traditionally under- utilized resource has been depository collections of US government documents in many libraries. Cataloging did not exist in the OPAC and so patrons did not know the documents existed.
Now however, hundreds of libraries outsource their processing of depository titles to us.
Ali Kalstein, Supervisor of Technical Services and Auto- mated Systems at Flint Public Library, knew the library needed to provide access to government publications on their PAC and have better bibliographic control for inventory and tracking purposes. She also wanted to monitor patron usage on circulating documents for collection development and needed to fulfill GPO's requirement for bibliographic access.
To accomplish these tasks she turned to MARCIVE for Shipping List Service and Ongoing GPO Database Service. She is enthusiastic about outsourcing, stating, "We have had absolutely no backlog ever since we started using MARCIVE."
A library may outsource tasks associated with authority control. Memorial University in Newfoundland is preparing to implement a new automated system and chose MARCIVE for the task of authorities processing and matching authorities records suitable for loading into the Sirsi system. The entire project-- processing nearly a million records took less than two months.
Your opinion of outsourcing will depend on several factors.
Do you have tasks which could be more easily and inexpensively accomplished by an outside contractor?
Are you working with a vendor who has a good reputation and understands library requirements?
Can your workflow accommodate the fact that the vendor is not onsite in your library, or is it necessarily rigid?
Are you having to provide a high level of service despite budget cutbacks?
Librarians who have seen that MARCIVE saved them time and money are enthusiastic about outsourcing. We strive to ensure that when libraries need cataloging tasks outsourced, they view MARCIVE as welcome relief.
Our Manager of Cataloging and Authorities Processing, John Hammer, has accepted the position of Head of Cataloging at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. We appreciated his expertise in Internet matters (as well as cataloging, of course!) and understand that his new position will use that knowledge even more extensively.
Diane Jeffcoat is a new name in GPO Technical Support but its owner looks a lot like our long-time employee Diane Fuentes. In a story that almost sounds made-for-TV, Diane's husband was happily reunited with his birth father this summer. As a result he changed his surname to his dad's and Diane followed suit.
Wedding bells are behind Technical Support Representative Blanche Wissmann's name change. She became Blanche Ford when she and Ray married on August 12. (It was a great Texas-style wedding complete with BBQ and the Cotton-Eyed Joe!) Best wishes to the happy couple!
To keep up with the changes, please call and ask for a copy of "Who To Call At MARCIVE", or send your request to info@marcive.com.
Please include the name and address to which it should be mailed.
You are having MARCIVE convert your shelflist to USMARC format and at the same time you are getting USMARC records for your new acquisitions through MARCIVE's Ongoing MARC Record Service.
You chose to have both the retro records and the ongoing records coming from the same company because you know that it is important that the records be consistent.
How can you ensure that they will be?
Records that are created by our conversion staff are fairly detailed with separate fields and subfields for the various pieces of local information you asked us to key. You might get copy number, volume, price, and funding source keyed as part of your retro.
To make the holdings statements in your ongoing records match your retro records, you need to use the Cataloging Input System (CIS), Version 4, to create your search requests. It contains the same field prompts that our keying staff use.
If you simply send in paper orders in the format Search Access Number-Call Number- Location-Accession Number, we do not get enough information to generate records as detailed as your retro records.
For further information about CIS, please contact Customer Service. custserv@marcive.com