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.
