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Announcement-NUCMC/OCLC Gateway



I've been asked to pass the following announcement
on to the listserve.

--
Bob Schmidt
Archives Listserve Coordinator
Miami University Archives
Oxford, Ohio 45056
513-529-6720
rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu
___________________________________________
Subject:
        NUCMC/OCLC gateway
   Date:
        Mon, 23 Apr 2001 09:33:24 -0400
   From:
        Tony Gonzales <agon@loc.gov>
     To:
        rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu




Mr. Schmidt:

Would you please post the following to the
listserv? Many thanks.

The Library of Congress’ National Union Catalog of
Manuscript
Collections (NUCMC)  is pleased to announce that
an agreement has been
reached with OCLC for a trial gateway. Effective
immediately, the NUCMC
Web page (lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc) will contain a
link to a search form
that will provide access to OCLC archival and
manuscript cataloging
through LC’s Z39.50 client. No account number or
password will be
required to use the gateway.

This gateway, in conjunction with the existing
NUCMC/RLIN gateway which
has been running since the summer of 1996,  goes a
long way to
fulfilling the decades-old NUCMC mission of
providing access to
information relating to archival and manuscript
collections in U.S.
repositories. The cataloging in OCLC and RLIN is a
critically important
source of information relating to such materials.
To put this in
perspective, in the thirty-four years during
which  NUCMC distributed
cataloging in its printed volumes, it produced
descriptions of some
72,000 collections; the new “virtual” NUCMC
provides access to over
three-quarters of a million catalog records in the
two bibliographic
utilities.

There is one caution which users should be aware
of in using the OCLC
gateway. This gateway will retrieve between 90 to
95% of the archival
and manuscript cataloging in OCLC.  For those
familiar with MARC Format
Integration, the gateway will retrieve those
records with Leader 06
values of “b” and “p”; it will not retrieve those
records with the
Leader 06 value of “t.” Informal polling has
indicated that such a
gateway will be useful even if it does not
retrieve 100% of the relevant
records and therefore this gateway is being made
available as a pilot.

Our agreement with OCLC sets a limit on the trial;
it is to run for a
period not to exceed six months or for a specific
number of searches,
whichever is reached first. Prior to the
expiration of the pilot, LC and
OCLC will evaluate the results of the period of
free access to determine
the costs and feasibility of  possibly continuing
the gateway.

The Library welcomes comments regarding the
usefulness of the gateway
and suggestions of ways to improve it. Please
respond directly to NUCMC
(nucmc@loc.gov) rather than to the list.

Tony Gonzales
NUCMC Team Leader
Library of Congress

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