Geoff Sinclair wrote:
> I suspect LOC didn't put these data in the MARC record because they
> could more easily divide the metadata production workflow among
> different groups of staff.
LC has been putting this info. into MARC records for the last couple of
years: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/beat/mg505.html
"On February 1, 2005, the Library of Congress began enriching
bibliographic records with scanned table of contents data in field 505,
adding information that was previously available only via 856 links.
This BEAT project is adding full text table of contents (TOC) data to
catalog records - - information that was previously available only
through links from within catalog records to LC's web-based TOCs for
those items. In addition to English language materials, the project has
recently expanded to include items in German. Since the scanned table
of contents come in a wide variety of formats and structures, some
errors are to be expected in the placement and configuration of the 505
textual strings. Space, hyphen, hyphen, space will be inserted after
each line break within the table of contents. Chapter and page numbers
will appear as captured from the scanned table of contents images. The
505 data will not undergo review for punctuation. LC records with
existing 856 links to table of contents texts will be batched processed,
modified and redistributed until most of the records containing links
from the 856 to LC’s web-based dTOC (digital table of contents) records
are enhanced." (more on the website)
While it says that older records would be modified & redistributed by
LC, many (most?) cataloging departments don't overlay their records with
updates. This is one of the definite downsides of the distributed
cataloging/ILS model we currently have. Changes made by LC (or anyone
else) hardly ever make it downstream to local catalogs, even despite
notification services from places like OCLC. Most often, the record you
have in your catalog is a snapshot of the record in time, with only the
local (and often, redundant) editing your library has done.
Erin Stalberg
Head, Metadata and Cataloging
North Carolina State University Libraries
erin_stalberg_at_ncsu.edu
919.515.5696
Received on Wed Jun 11 2008 - 16:33:21 EDT