McMaster Thesis Cataloguing July 17, 2007
Posted by bibservatmac in call numbers, cataloguing, electronic, theses.1 comment so far
In order to keep up with the volume of McMaster theses arriving on the floor for cataloguing, we’ve made some significant changes here as well.
For Masters theses, we will now be creating enhanced brief records, including basic information like:
- author
- title
- department
- degree and date of convocation
- pagination
- supervisor
- subject keywords
We are including in the 050 a broad LC classification based on the granting department (usually the “General Works” class for that subject) in order to make these discoverable through the Endeca subject browse. The item record will have a call number consisting of that departmental classification, the year of convocation, and a sequential number to be used as a shelving location. For example, the first Psychology thesis catalogued in the 2007 convocation would be: THESIS BF 07 001. These theses will be shelved together as a collection, starting immediately.
For Doctoral theses, we will no longer be retaining a print copy for circulation. The School of Graduate Studies sends PhD theses to ProQuest for digitization. We are currently inputting very brief bibliographic records for new Doctoral theses, containing the author, title, and year. This allows users to request the print copy until the thesis is digitized (it takes several months). Once that is complete, McMaster users will have access to the full text of these dissertations through our DigitalCommons site. A microfiche copy of each thesis is available for interlibrary loan, and a paper copy will continue to be housed in closed storage for preservation purposes.
MARC records for each thesis are supplied by ProQuest. The cataloguers will enrich these records, adding information on the supervisor, granting department, and subject headings, among others. In light of the change in access from print to digital, we have also decided to cease cataloguing Doctoral theses as print materials. Instead, we will treat them as electronic resources. Margaret is preparing a draft of the new procedures and will circulate it for comment when completed.
Electronic Gov. Pubs. cataloguing February 13, 2007
Posted by bibservatmac in Projects, cataloguing, electronic, original cataloguing.add a comment
The original cataloguers are currently undertaking the cataloguing of approx. 160 e-government publication titles. Most of these titles were pulled out of the ERD when it was converted to the nERD and need to have catalogue records in Morris to make them accessible.
Cataloguers will use the Library and Archives Canada archived URL whenever possible. To find this URL, search the title in Amicus and capture the link contained in the record for the electronic format (or just download the electronic record to Morris from Amicus). If the URL sends you to a document where access is restricted, then prefer the Depository Services (dsp) URL instead. If neither of these is an option, use the URL for the parliamentary site contained in the brief bib.
Endeca and Call Numbers February 8, 2007
Posted by bibservatmac in CODOC, Endeca, call numbers, classification, electronic, pre-1800.add a comment
To support our implementation of Endeca (public launch coming soon!), we have revised some of our call number procedures.
Endeca provides for a subject browse feature, based on the LC and NLM classification hierarchy, which guides users from general to specific topics. NCSU’s Endeca catalogue is a good example.
In order for our e-resources and other “non-LC stacks” materials—such as CDs, the CODOC collection, and pre-1800 books—to be included in these results, they need to be classified. To prevent an LC number assigned to these resources from appearing as a shelving location, we opted to put it in the bibliographic record rather than Horizon’s item record. This also allows us to put a “proper” shelving location, such as a CODOC number or pre-1800 book number, in the item record for display to the user.
Endeca will look for the following fields in a bib record. Only the ‡a will be used; the ‡b will be ignored:
- 037 [HSL only. The prefix to the number (such as HSSR) will be ignored.]
- 050
- 055
- 060
Because classification numbers in the bib record are used only in searching, there can be more than one number associated with a title. A Canadian history title, for example, might include both F1015 (Library of Congress) and FC74 (Library and Archives Canada). This gives our users multiple paths to the same resource.
The new policy is now available on the Bib Services website. We hope to investigate possibilities for a retrospective fix to update our existing e-resource and other bib records.
While we hope that adding or accepting these class numbers will be helpful to our users, this is one access point among many and we need to be mindful of the time we spend on it. In some cases, we may assign a general class (BC) or class number (E18) if finding a more specific class number is proving too time consuming.
Kinesiology Publications (Again…) January 8, 2007
Posted by bibservatmac in Projects, cataloguing, electronic.add a comment
Work on the Kinesiology Publications has been completed!
In all, more than 700 records were extracted from OCLC, edited, and loaded to Horizon using our batch processing plan. To see the results, search MORRIS for the series title Kinesiology Publications.
Thanks to Tamara, Barb, and Bev for their work creating copy records and getting the briefs ready to overlay.
Kinesiology Publications January 3, 2007
Posted by bibservatmac in cataloguing, electronic.add a comment
Batchloading of the first 600 catalogue records has been completed! Try a MORRIS search for the series Kinesiology Publications to see the results. Wade is investigating the possibilities for batch processing the remaining 120 titles.
Thanks to Tamara, Barb, and Bev for inserting the OCLC numbers into the brief bibs and creating the copy records for the first 600.
New Morris Codes Replacing the eRD September 26, 2006
Posted by bibservatmac in cataloguing, collection codes, electronic.add a comment
The electronic materials coding chart document can now be found on the Bibliographic Services website. You will be able to find the document, in pdf format, in a few different places at the site (collection codes, electronic resources, A-Z index). The URL to go directly to the document is New Morris Codes Replacing the eRD
This document describes the various types of electronic material catalogued, the collection codes to be used, and whether to update the NeRD or not. Please refer to this document when cataloguing electronic materials.
