Several weeks ago I posted a request for advice, information, etc.
dealing with the purchasing and loading of CIS Cataloging records.
Thanks so much to all of you who responded. While many of the
respondents are still investigating whether or not to acquire the
tapes, several libraries have already loaded them or are about to.
While I suspect there are other law libraries out there who have
purchased the tapes, I can verify for certain that Marquette (an
Innopac library) and Iowa and George Mason (NOTIS users) have
either already loaded them or are about to.
In any case, I will try to summarize the issues and concerns that
have surfaced during my inquiry.
1) The records for the Congressional Hearings are minimum level
catalog records and do *not* contain subject headings or entries
for personal authors (i.e. witnesses). Depending on a library's
circumstances and/or perspective, I suspect a number of libraries
will find these records unacceptable.
2) Records for the CIS/Microfiche Library, which by the way, are
full level GPO records enhanced by Marcive, would nicely compliment
a Marcive load or I suppose, even substitute for one. If you have
already loaded your gov. docs. via Marcive, you do need to be
careful not to overlap your dates or you will end up with lots of
duplicate records (different location, but same record).
3) Libraries who loaded the tapes mentioned that the CIS
microfiche group and accession numbers frequently exceed the limit
of the NOTIS call number field. You'll need to be aware of this
and possibly come up with a local fix.
4) The licensing agreement seems pretty restrictive. If your
main library is a regional depository, you might want to work
something out with CIS so that your main libraries' holdings might
be added as well. I believe Iowa did this.
For anyone who might be interested in what we (Indiana) finally
decided to do, we're not buying anything right now. We just don't
feel that adding thousands (and thousands) of records without
subject headings would be a very prudent investment for us at this
time. We may eventually load CIS/Microfiche Library records, but
the records we need (1970-1978) are not yet available.
Again, thanks to everyone for your input. You've helped us make a
much more informed decision.
*****************************************************************
Nonie Watt
Head of Technical Services
Indiana University Law Library
Bloomington, IN 47405
812/855-9666
inet: wattn@ucs.indiana.edu
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