Dissertation Information for Walter Martin High IIINAME: - Walter Martin High III
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science
SCHOOL:
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (USA) (1990)
ADVISORS: - William M. Shaw Jr.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - James Fauntleroy Govan - Robert N. Broadus - Joe A. Hewitt - Jerry Dale Saye
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: Editing changes to monographic cataloging records in the OCLC database: An analysis of the practice in five university libraries
Abstract: The Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) maintains and provides access to a 21,000,000 title electronic bibliographic database which grows rapidly and is used by thousands of librarians daily. It has served as a source of shared cataloging data since its inception and was established for the purpose of reducing the time and cost of cataloging library materials. The purpose of this study is to measure how often librarians at selected research libraries accepted the cataloging data available in the OCLC database and how often they edited it to suit purposes specific to their institution.
The method of ascertaining the desired measures was to select five libraries with membership in the Association of Research Libraries and examine a sample of one thousand monographic records from each, drawn from a four-week period in April 1985. The edited version of the bibliographic records was obtained from each institution's OCLC archive tape (a machine-readable magnetic tape that records all cataloging transactions). The original, unedited version of the records was obtained on magnetic tape from the OCLC database. The two versions were matched by computer algorithm and printed side-by-side for comparative purposes. The algorithm was also programmed to identify cataloging fields where changes had occurred. The changes were manually analyzed and classified to determine the extent of editing in seven areas of the catalog record.
The results of the analysis show that the ratio of editing changes on records contributed to the OCLC database from a participating library compared to records contributed from the Library of Congress (LC) is 4.5 to 1.0. A little more than half of the editing changes to records could be classified as "cosmetic" as opposed to "substantive." Catalogers showed fairly high acceptance rates of each other's intellectual work, about 85% for records from participating libraries and 98% for records from LC with the series area being the most problematic. Records contributed to the database by participating libraries did not generally lack substantive data that would make them unacceptable. There is potential benefit from having OCLC staff design and run special computer programs to fix specific, identifiable problems that recur throughout database records.
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MPACT Scores for Walter Martin High IIIA = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:20:15
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