San Antonio, Texas, Feb. 14, 1997. The Fisk University Library in Nashville, Tennessee, has completed the first phase of a project with MARCIVE, Inc., to convert and process several significant portions of its internationally recognized collections.
"Our Special Collections are very important to us and have the first priority in the conversion project," explains Gwendolyn Hawk, Assistant Librarian for Technical Services. "Since the inception of the Library, our librarians have been dedicated to amassing these materials." Fisk University, which opened its doors as Fisk School to a student body of former slaves in 1866, is a small, predominantly African American institution with a strong liberal arts and science emphasis. The first collection converted includes works on the African Diaspora, more than 20,000 titles on Africans and their descendants in America and the Caribbean.
As part of the project, MARCIVE is handling the reclassification of older materials from the Dewey Decimal system to Library of Congress classification system. Special acid-free spine labels with LC call numbers and book labels with both the LC and former Dewey call numbers have been generated in Dewey order to assist the Library in identifying and relabeling its collections.
The historical shelflist was provided to MARCIVE in segments and, as each segment was converted, the resulting records were loaded into the Library's Innovative Interfaces Inc. system. MARCIVE is also supplying matching MARC authorities records for names and subject headings. The authorities records will provide bibliographic heading control and cross-references in the Library's new catalog.
Smart barcode labels, specially formulated using PermaSeal® to prevent "burning", were generated by MARCIVE for both the existing OCLC records and newly converted titles.
Dr. Jessie Carney Smith, University Librarian and William and Camille Cosby Professor in Humanities, summarizes the Library's satisfaction with the progress of the project: "MARCIVE's work has been exacting as well as timely; without exception, the company has met or exceeded established deadlines."
Further information about this project is available by contacting Gwendolyn Hawk, Assistant Librarian for Technical Services at the Fisk University Library, (615) 329-8733 or ghawk@dubois.fisk.edu .
Further information about MARCIVE or this press release is available by contacting Janifer Meldrum, Director of Marketing, 1-800-531-7678 or info@marcive.com .