The last few posts here have been great for thinking about what the
catalog is. I want to add to what Thomas said below. Two of the many
hats I wear are those of collection manager and teacher so I when I
teach students I describe the catalog as that tool that lets people
discover things that our library owns, has bought, pays for, etc or what
is locally available (proof of ownership). If it is in the catalog, you
have access to it, period. This distinguishes the catalog from article
databases and other tools (Google Scholar being one) which are discovery
tools only (proof of publication) and do not guarantee access to the
documents described therein. I think this local ownership, which can be
of either electronic or paper documents, is an important element that
needs to be considered. The catalog has an economic description as well
as technical ones.
Scott Warren
Thomas Dowling wrote:
> On 6/7/2006 9:31 AM, Drew, Bill wrote:
>
>
>> One of the first things that needs to be done is to define what the
>> catalog is currently...
>>
>
>
> In a universe of information resources, not all of which are available
> to me, the catalog is the tool that talks to me in terms of which ones
> are and are not available.
>
> Traditionally this has been in the form of a locally maintained database
> focused on a local physical collection--especially the monographs in
> that collection--and tightly tied into modules like acquisitions,
> cataloging, and circulation. But none of this is integral to the task
> of answering these questions:
>
> Given my search criteria, what resources are available to me?
>
> Given a specific resource, it it available to me or not?
>
>
> Ways in which current catalogs fall short of answering those questions
> is a matter of protracted conversation. Ironing those wrinkles out in
> the next generation is why we're here, right? :-)
>
>
> --
> Thomas Dowling
> tdowling_at_ohiolink.edu
>
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scott Warren, M.A. LIS
Assistant Head
Textiles Library and Engineering Services
North Carolina State University Libraries
Box 8301
Raleigh, NC 27695-8301
919-515-6602 (phone)
919-515-3926 (fax)
scott_warren_at_ncsu.edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Received on Wed Jun 07 2006 - 10:35:30 EDT