The Catalog vs. the Homepage?
Best Practices in Connecting to Online Resources

Bibliography

(Updated July 29, 2002)

 Georgia Briscoe, Cheryl Nyberg, and Karen Selden

Program I-1

AALL Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida
Presented July 23, 2002

This bibliography updates the one that was published in the Educational Program Handout Materials, Tuesday, July 23 & Wednesday, July 24, Creating Connections: American Association of Law Libraries 95th Annual Meeting and Conference, July 21-24, 2002 Orlando, Florida at 83-86. 

Bell, Steven J.; “New Information Marketplace Competitors: Issues and Strategies for Academic Libraries,” Portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol.2 (2) April 2002. pp.277-303.

• “Administrative portals, e-braries, and other commercial information providers are challenging the academic library's traditional monopoly as the campus information gateway. Are these new information marketplace competitors a threat or an opportunity for academic libraries? Might they draw away the library's user base or can they be harnessed to provide access to more and better digital collections? This article examines the impact of these new competitors, presents results from a survey of library directors about their responses to information competition, and discusses strategies library directors can use to maintain the library's status as the user's first choice of information provider.”

Benjes, Candice and Janis F. Brown, “Test, Revise, Retest: Usability Testing and Library Web Sites,” Internet Reference Services Quarterly, Vol.5 (4) 2001. pp.37-54.

• “Usability is a field that has drawn considerable attention in recent years, particularly in the area of the World Wide Web. Usability asks, “Can someone use this product without it being more trouble than it is worth?” This article describes a usability study of the library Web site at the University of Southern California, Norris Medical Library.”

Berring, Bob, “Making It Up As We Go,” Law Librarians in the New Millennium, Vol.4 (1) 2002. p.3.

• Berring’s “Thinkable Thoughts” column, in which he reflects upon the complicated issues libraries face today.

Boissonnas, Christian M., “Technical Services: The Other Reader Service,” Portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol.1 (1) January 2001. pp.33-46.

• “Technical services is often seen by some librarians as something other than a reader service. This paper explains why this perception is flawed and why it must be changed in order for libraries to deal successfully with their evolution into libraries of the twenty-first century. It suggests that a systems approach to librarianship is necessary to develop the solutions to problems that cross many functional and administrative boundaries, and that such an approach requires the deep integration of technical with other reader services. The paper then defines this deep integration, explains the forces pushing for and against it, and illustrates how it might be implemented in libraries.”

Bolin, Mark K., “Catalog Design, Catalog Maintenance, Catalog Governance,” Library Collections, Acquisitions & Technical Services, Vol. 24 (1) Spring 2000. pp. 53-63.

• “The design of library catalogs and the maintenance of their contents equals catalog governance, that is, professional responsibility for the catalog. The design of library catalogs and their contents are an example of the standards that are the hallmark of modern librarianship. Although design and maintenance standards have always had an array of participants, in recent years the participants in catalog design and maintenance have become more numerous and varied, and therefore its governance has become more diffuse. Although the card catalog had a standard form in which design and maintenance were linked, that is not true of today's OPAC in which the same content can take many different forms. Emerging standards, such as SGML, may actually provide a general solution in which OPACs have various, customized forms based on standard content and in which catalog librarians encode, maintain, and interpret the standard data and help guide the discussion of options for design. This article discusses the past and present governance of library catalog design and maintenance and explores issues in a "programmatic" model of governance for the catalog.”

Cataloging Internet Resources: A Manual and Practical Guide, 2^nd ed. Nancy B. Olson, editor. (Dublin, Ohio: OCLC, c1997) Also available online at: http://www.purl.org/oclc/cataloging-internet.

• Discusses reasons that Internet resources should be cataloged. Provides guidelines for bibliographic description of Internet resources, based on the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2d ed., 1988 revision (AACR2). Includes examples and a selected bibliography.

Cataloging the Web: Metadata, AACR, and MARC 21, edited by Wayne Jones, Judith R. Ahronheim, and Josephine Crawford. (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc, 2002).

• This title is no.10 of the series, ALCTS Papers on Library Technical Services and Collections. It includes papers by Clifford Lynch on the limitations of Web searching, Michael Gorman on boundaries for cataloging the Web, and Brian Schottlaender on how AACR is being adapted for e-resources. Diane Hillman and Eric Miller describe how developments such as the Research Description Framework and Extensible Markup Language have the potential to be the “meta-standards” that can draw everything together.

Chase, Linda, and Claire Dugert, “Organizing Web-based Resources,” The Serials Librarian, Vol. 38 (3/4) 2000. pp.277-286.

• Explores options for providing access to electronic resources, including alphabetical and subject lists on library Websites, full cataloging in the OPAC, and a proposal for creating an access catalog.

CONSER Cataloging Manual, Module 31, Remote Access Electronic Serials (Online Serials). Available online at: http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser/module31.html. 

• “Remote access electronic serials are those available online, generally via the Internet. Cataloging these special kinds of publications raises practical questions as well as theoretical issues, the solutions to which are continuing to evolve. This module provides cataloging guidelines that are workable in the current environment. Given the changing nature of electronic materials and the anticipated variety of practices and policies that will emerge as more catalogers begin to create records, the module will be continuously updated. Except for "single-record approach" guidelines in 31.3.5, instructions in this module concern creation of separate records for remote access electronic serials.”

Curtis, Donnelyn, Virginia M. Scheschy, and Adolfo R. Tarange, Developing & Managing Electronic Journal Collections: A How-to-Do-It Manual for Librarians (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2000).

• Provides a thorough examination of all aspects of managing electronic journals, including: selection; technical issues; licensing and legal issues; the ordering process; cataloging and access; and user services.

Gorman, Michael, “Metadata or Cataloging? A False Choice,” Journal of Internet Cataloging, Vol.2 (1) 1998. pp.5-22.

• “Libraries are institutions that select, acquire, give access to, arrange, and preserve recorded knowledge and information in all formats and give assistance and instruction in the use of that recorded knowledge and information. In pursuing that mission, every library has three priceless assets—a trained and knowledgeable staff of librarians and other library workers, collections, and the bibliographic control architecture that gives access to the collections. A library lacking any one of these three features is not a library. Without bibliographic control, librarians and other staff cannot do their work and library users cannot use the collections effectively. Without librarians and other staff, the library is merely a warehouse. Without collections, a library shrinks to the level of an information office. One should see these three essential features as interlocking and interdependent, each as valuable and necessary as the other. As the old riddle says: Which is the most important leg of a three-legged stool?”

Hinton, Mellissa J., “On Cataloging Internet Resources: Voices from the Field,” Journal of Internet Cataloging, Vol. 5 (1) 2001.

• “Academic librarians from six different institutions of higher learning were interviewed regarding their experiences with cataloging of Internet resources for inclusion into online public access catalogs. They discussed selection procedures and how they began cataloging these resources. They identified problems which have been encountered in the process, described their efforts at maintaining web addresses, and discussed access to web resources both through the catalog and library web pages. They also shared philosophical thoughts on the catalog and the need to catalog electronic resources.”

I in the Sky: Visions of the Information Future, edited by Alison Scammell. (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Pub., 2000).

• Personal predictions of over forty information professionals from around the world. General themes include the increasing globalization and customization of information, as well as the need for authority control.

Knudson, Frances L., et al., “Creating Electronic Journal Web Pages from OPAC Records,” Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship no. 15 (Summer 1997). Found at: http://www.istl.org/97-summer/article2.html. 

• This article explains how the Research Library at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) automatically generates a set of electronic journal web pages from information contained in an online catalog MARC record. These web pages include an alphabetic title listing and subject listings. Patrons may also access these journals by title word. The goal of the project is to present patrons with multiple access points to electronic journals, provide consistent and timely access, and to accomplish this with minimal staff time.

Latham, Joyce, M., “To Link of Not to Link,” Netconnect, supplement to Library Journal, Spring 2002, pp. 20-22.

• Web site selection must be backed with the same sort of policies used to define print collection development. Libraries with documented written policies are listed.

Library Journal, “Automated System Marketplace …”

• Annual review of trends in library automation and automated system vendors’ products and services. Appears annually in the April issue of Library Journal.

Library Networks in the New Millennium: Top Ten Trends. Sara Laughlin, editor. (Chicago: Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies; American Library Association, 2000).

• This title is number 3 of the ASCLA Changing Horizons Series. Provides a precise and concise overview of issues facing multi-type library networks.

LITA Top Technology Trends. Available online at: http://www.lita.org/committe/toptech/mainpage.htm. 

• Web site covering electronic information trends from 1999 to present. Maintained by the Library and Information Technology Division of the American Library Association (LITA).

Marcum, James W., “Beyond Visual Culture: The Challenge of Visual Ecology,” Portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol.2 (2) April 2002. pp.189-206.

• “The library profession remains grounded in textual, print media, creating vulnerability amidst a culture increasingly characterized as visual. This essay develops a model of visual ecology to facilitate full appreciation of the challenge presented by the emerging visual-interactive culture. Librarians must engage the tools and practices of visualization in order to capture, preserve, and disseminate today's culture for posterity.”

Medeiros, Norm, “Delivering the Goods: Web OPACS and the Expanding Role of the Cataloger,” Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, No.18, Spring 1998. Available online only at: http://www.istl.org/98-spring/article3.html. 

• “The proliferation of information available on the Internet is staggering. Although library web sites offer a means of access to Internet resources, these lists often lack subject analysis, cross-referencing, and ultimately prove useless to those unaware of their presence. To that end, bibliographic records represented in web OPACs can describe Internet resources and link directly to them. Catalogers are experiencing a renaissance as the online catalog becomes both atlas and vehicle to Internet-based information.”

Nielsen, Jakob, Designing Web Usability. (Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing, 2000).

• Nielsen is an often-cited leader on web usability. This book covers design of pages, content, and websites; accessibility for users with disabilities; and a plea for simplicity of design. See also Nielsen's website: http://www.useit.com/ and the bi-weekly column, Alertbox.

Porter, G. Margaret, and Laura Bayard, “Including Web Sites in the Online Catalog: Implications for Cataloging, Collection Development, and Access,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 25 (5) 1999. pp.390-394.

• “A pilot project to include fully cataloged Web sites in a library’s online catalog, accompanied by queries sent to listservs and a literature search, demonstrate the implications for policies and practices in the areas of cataloging and collection development. These efforts enhance access and enrich the collections, and the benefits outweigh the time involved.”

Proceedings of the Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium: Confronting the Challenges of Networked Resources and the Web: Washington, D.C., November 15-17, 2000, sponsored by the Library of Congress Cataloging Directorate; edited by Ann M. Sandberg-Fox. (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, Cataloging Distribution Service, 2001).

• Papers presented at the Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium. The conference brought together authorities in the cataloging and metadata communities to discuss outstanding issues involving improved discovery and access to Web resources within the framework of international standards. The following papers are particularly noteworthy:
  • Beacom, Matthew, “Crossing the Digital Divide: AACR2 and Unaddressed Problems of Networked Resources,” pp.135-154. Paper addresses four changes in how people use knowledge that the library community must respond to. These changes are: the change in how knowledge is packaged; the change in how knowledge is published and disseminated; the change in how access to knowledge is controlled; and the change in how we help others use knowledge as it is coming to be packaged, published, and restricted to networked resources.
  • Mann, Thomas., “Discussion Paper: Is Precoordination Unnecessary in LCSH? Are Web Sites More Important to Catalog than Books? A Reference Librarian’s Thoughts on the Future of Bibliographic Control,” pp.87-134. "Books are not vanishing or generally evolving into digital forms; they continue to be published in huge numbers every year, and they provide formats that are more readable for lengthy texts. In the future, LCSH must serve in both the environments of online library catalogs and the Web – not the latter in place of the former.”
  • Thomas, Sarah E., “The Catalog as Portal to the Internet,” pp.21-37. “Can we reinterpret the catalog so that it can serve effectively as a portal to the Internet? Is the catalog the appropriate model for discovery and retrieval of highly dynamic, rapidly multiplying, networked documents? Until relatively recently, the catalog had been the dominant index to published literature for library users. Web portals are rapidly usurping this primacy. Libraries today are struggling as they strain to incorporate a variety of resources in diverse formats in their catalogs and to maintain centrality and relevancy in the digital world. This paper [examines] the features of the catalog and their portability to the Web, and [makes] recommendations about the library catalog’s role in providing access to Internet resources.”

Rich, Linda A. and Julie L. Rabine, “The Changing Access to Electronic Journals: a Survey of Academic Library Websites Revisited,” Serials Review, Vol.27 (3/4) 2001.

• “In 1997-98, the authors conducted their first study of 114 academic library e-journal Websites to determine how libraries were providing access to their electronic serials. The current study replicates the first and clearly shows that access to electronic journals is changing: libraries are certainly cataloging their electronic journals, but they have not abandoned their e-journal Websites. In fact, the e-journal sites are not only still being maintained, they are becoming much more elaborate and sophisticated.”

Silet, Scott A., “Anatomy of the Internet Reference Resources Web Page: A UVA Library Experiment,” Virginia Libraries, Vol.45 (3) July/August/September 1999. pp.6-10.

• A brief history of the Internet Reference Resources Web page, an explanation of how it is maintained and administered, and a listing of issues and challenges that face it and similar collections in the future.

Swanson, Troy, A., “From Creating Web Pages to Creating Web Sites: The Use of Information Architecture for Library Web Site Redesign,” Internet Reference Services Quarterly, Vol.6 (1) 2001. pp.1-13.

• “The librarians at the Moraine Valley Community College redesigned the library’s Web site using Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville’s application of information architecture to Web site design. The librarians…learned that successful Web site design hinges on matching the needs of the user group with available technology. …Web site designers must understand that users visit Web sites to access information, but it is a site’s information architecture that makes the site successful.”

Zemon, Mickey, “The Librarian’s Role in Portal Development: Providing Unique Perspectives and Skills,” College and Research Libraries News, Vol.62 (7) July/August 2001. pp.710-712.

• Article describes how librarians can contribute to portal planning by using their expertise with content, their knowledge of copyright, their commitment to customer service, and their experience in creating customized Web-based information delivery systems.