Cataloging an online document John Gallwey GTRIC meeting Sunday June 15, 2008 SLA Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington.

Cataloging an online document

John Gallwey

GTRIC meeting

Sunday June 15, 2008

SLA Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington

Technical reports online

Technical reports are being published on the internet as well in print.

Some reports appear exclusively online.

Most technical reports are now “born digital”, from word processor to website. The printed report is almost a by-product.

Formats of online documents

PDF (Portable Document Format) is the most commonly used.

Some reports are still published in HTML format.

For this demonstration we will use a report in PDF format.

How online reports are different

They are bodiless; they have no physical dimensions.

Being bodiless they cannot be shelved, so they do not require call numbers.

Their continued existence is not within our control. Websites get redesigned, URLs change, documents get deleted.

Cataloging online documents vs. cataloging printed documents Not very different!

Most fields (e.g. title, author, publisher, notes, subjects) are the same.

If you can catalog a printed report you can manage an online report.

The URL must be included in the record. It will provided immediate access to the document for the catalog user

Marc fields peculiar to online docs

007 c $b r $d c $e n

516 Text document in PDF format.

546 Mode of access: World Wide Web.

500 Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 6, 2008).

856 the document’s URL

300 marc field for a PDF

The marc 300 field contains information on a document’s physical characteristics, but it is formatted slightly differently for digital documents

300 *** p. : $b digital, PDF file with col. ill., col. charts.

(For a printed document, the $b field would give information on illustration, and a $c field would give the document’s physical dimensions, i.e. “28 cm.”)

007 marc field

The 007 field contains codes for describing the physical characteristics of a computer file.

007 [$a] c $b r $d c $e n

Subfield a: c (computer file) Subfield b: r (remote access) Subfield d: c (contains color) Subfield e: n (dimensions: not applicable)

516 marc field

A standard note to indicate the document’s format.

516 Text document in PDF format.

546 marc field

A standard note to indicate how the document is accessed.

546 Mode of access: World Wide Web.

500 marc field

A standard note showing where the document’s title was derived, and the date of viewing.

500 Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 1, 2008).

856 marc field

The 856 field is where the URL (Uniform Resource Link, the document’s address on the internet) is inserted.

856 40 $u http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/facts-research/research-technology/report/FMCSA-H2-Regs-and-Inspections-Final-Report-Nov2007.pdf

(Yes, a typically lengthy and complex URL! Don’t fray your sanity trying to enter a URL manually; copy and paste it from the PDF’s web page instead.)

PDF title page

Despite the lengthy title, this is a relatively tidy title page.

Technical report documentation page

Technical report numbers.

Authors. Performing and

sponsoring organizations.

Abstract. Subject

keywords

OCLC blank work form

OCLC provides work forms for various media.

For online reports use the “Books” work form.

Constant Data for online documents

Constant Data removes the necessity for entering recurring information every time a new record is created

Applying the Constant Data record

Workform with CD record applied

The OCLC workform is flexible; new fields can be inserted anywhere, and moved about within the record.

Title field (245) added

The 245 field contains the title, subtitle and authors.

It also contains a subfield ($h) that specifies the medium; in this case “Electronic resource”

Publishing details (260 field) added

Place of publication, publisher and year of publication.

(With technical reports, it can be hard to figure out who is the publisher; in the end it’s often the cataloger’s decision.)

536 field added

The 536 field specifies the agencies that performed the research, and the research’s sponsors. It also gives the contract and project numbers.

Subject headings (650 fields) added

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are used.

Transportation Research Thesaurus (TRT) headings can also be used, to cover gaps in LCSH’s coverage.

Performing and sponsoring agencies

The performing agency and the sponsoring agency. They go into the 536 field, and both are entered as corporate authors in 710 fields.

Corporate authors (710 fields) added

The performing and sponsoring agencies are entered as corporate authors.

Adding the URL (856 field)

The all-important URL, which will provide direct access to the document from the bibliographic record, goes into the 856 field.

Almost done

All the necessary fields are filled, and the bibliographic record is ready for addition to the OCLC database.

Done!

This is OCLC bibliographic record # 226970317

WorldCat

The record as it appears in WorldCat, the public face of the OCLC database.

Melvyl

The record as it appears in Melvyl, the union catalog of the University of California libraries.

For further enjoyment

Intner, Sheila S. with Sally C. Tseng, Mary Lynette Larsgaard (eds.) Electronic cataloging : AACR2 and metadata for serials and monographs. Haworth Information Press, c2003. ISBN: 0789022249

Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA. Available from: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/jsc/index.html

Completion of RDA (Resource Description and Access) the successor to AACR (Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules) is expected towards the end of 2009.

Special cataloging guidelines. In: OCLC bibliographic formats and standards. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC, 2007. Available from: http://www.oclc.org/bibformats/en/specialcataloging/

Contains a brief but useful outline of the Marc fields used to catalog reports.

Subject guide for U.S. government technical reports. San Diego, Calif.: San Diego State University Library, 2007. Available from: http://infodome.sdsu.edu/research/guides/gov/techreport1.shtml

Contains much useful information on the nature of government technical reports.

Weber, Mary Beth. Cataloging nonprint and Internet resources : a how-to-do-it manual for librarians. Neal-Schuman, 2002. ISBN: 1555704352

Contact information

John Gallwey Harmer E. Davis Transportation Library

409 McLaughlin Hall, MC1720 Berkeley, CA 94720

(510) 642-4973 [email protected] http://library.its.berkeley.edu