2. Looseleaf Publications Access
3. Index to Legal Periodicals and "Hook to Holdings"
4. "FIX" to Index Displays of non-LC Call Numbers
AACR2 21.30J1 states that we may make an added entry for any version of the title, except those which constitute a change in title proper, "if considered necessary for access." Access to materials via the citation title is necessary in a law library environment, if the online catalog is to be a truly useful tool. Therefore, in 1991 the Cataloging Dept. added these variant title fields to nearly 1,000 bibliographic records in the online catalog; in 1995/96 we are reviewing and updating this project.
Issues: There is some variation in the citation forms used in the Bluebook, in the Shepard's citators, and in Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Citations. Our public services librarians preferred that we use the Bieber citations, but another choice might be reasonable.
Issues: Most of our statutes, administrative codes and looseleaf services are cataloged using the BOOKS format. These had 740 fields added, with corresponding 500-tagged notes, e.g., "Cited as: E.E.C.L." Under phase 1 of MARC format integration, these will need the change to 246-field tags. We are delaying these corrections until a determination has been made by our automation center about the feasibility of a global fix.
In 1994 our statewide automation center, the Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA), implemented three types of search qualifiers in our online catalogs: language, format, and date(s). The format qualifiers provide access for biographies, sound recordings, computer files, fiction, microforms, periodicals, serials, videorecordings, and the like.
But what about looseleaf publications as a format? Such materials are of great importance to attorneys and legal scholars, because the volumes are constantly updated by substitute pages containing the ever-changing legislation and case law. Unfortunately, the only indication that the work was "loose-leaf" appeared in our bibliographic records in the 300 (physical description) field, and on some older records, in a 500-tagged note. It was not reasonable to ask FCLA to provide format qualification--or even keyword access--based on the 300 field.
However, after some digging around, we found that MARC already had a "home" for this kind of data: field 007 has a subfield "t" for text which accepts a second character "d" to indicate that the item is text in a looseleaf binder. FCLA was able to program this coding to function as one of the format qualifiers, and the Cataloging Dept. started adding the corresponding data to its online catalog records. We are using the latest edition of Arlene Eis's Legal Looseleafs in Print to identify the works for which the Library has a current subscription, and are editing those records. By the end of 1995, this project was about 2/3 completed.
To retrieve a list of all the coded records, the command is fmt=ll. "Fmt" stands for format and "ll" was chosen as the abbreviation for looseleaf. We think it is more likely that the patron will remember only some of the words of a title, or will be interested in looseleaf publications on a certain subject. The following illustrates how the format might be used as a qualifier in such instances:
k=Florida evidence && fmt=ll
s=environmental law && fmt=ll
Issues: An argument can be made for applying this coding--and thus limiting the online access by format--only to looseleaf services. A looseleaf service is a set that usually includes component parts such as laws, administrative rulings, court decisions, current developments, indexes, and sometimes bound "transfer" volumes containing older materials, a newsletter, and special-subject pamphlets, with the some parts often having separate numbering. A looseleaf treatise, on the other hand, may consist of a single volume. Its content may be similar to that of the looseleaf service, but the subject is usually narrower. (For example, compare Kathryn Heidt's single volume Environmental Obligations in Bankruptcy to the Bureau of National Affairs' service, Environment Reporter, with its 100+ volumes.) Our public services librarians recommended that we include both the services and the treatises in this project, as in each case the material is generally updated at least annually, and having access to Library materials based on this criterion would increase the effectiveness of the OPAC.
Issues: It is important to note that this project includes only those works which are "looseleaf-for-updating." Despite the MARC definition about text "in a looseleaf binder," we are not adding the format coding to certain one-time publications such as seminar materials, and some government documents, that happen to be distributed in 3-ring binders, even though there is no intention (or subscription information) to issue replacement or supplemental pages in the future. Likewise, we omit those special binders that some publishers of newsletters may send, pre-printed with the serial title and publisher name. When determining whether or not an item is truly looseleaf-for-updating, we apply the Cub Scout motto: "Do the best you can."
In the same system that hosts the online catalog which we share with the main campus libraries, we have access to a dozen online periodical indexes. Finally in 1995 a law-related index was added, the Wilson Company's Index to Legal Periodicals.
A feature in our system which we find very helpful is the "hook-to-holdings" device. When the patron has displayed a listing for a journal article that s/he wants to examine, the "lib" command can be used to find out if the home library owns the journal in which the article appears; then a "ho" command allows the patron to see what volumes and issues of the journal are in the collection. (A different command--"sus"--will show which libraries in the entire state university system own the journal; this can be quite useful for ILL purposes.) The international standard serial number, or ISSN, is the common element that serves as the "hook" between the entries in the periodical indexes and the bibliographic records in the OPAC. Hence, when someone executes the "lib" or the "sus" command, the system identifies the unique ISSN that's assigned to the journal being cited, and goes and looks for a match in the data appearing in 022 fields on library serial records.
To gain the full benefit from this feature, the Cataloging Dept. decided to examine all of our Library's records for serials which are indexed in ILP, to make sure that the ISSN was present. We identified 250 records which lacked the ISSN and for which we could ascertain that an ISSN existed. These records were updated accordingly.
Issues: When new journals, law reviews, other periodicals, yearbooks or annuals are first cataloged, the ISSN may not yet appear in the issue, and it may not be included in the cataloging copy we find through our bibliographic utility. Also, when a serial changes its title (alas! they do this too often, huh?), a new ISSN is assigned, but often too late for the cataloging staff who handle the publication. Therefore, some plan should be implemented to re-check the indexed serials' records on a periodic basis.
In our NOTIS-based online catalog, the "local" accession-style call numbers have never indexed satisfactorily. We assign this type of numbering--1, 2, 3, 4, etc., in the order of acquisition--to our audiovisual materials (ATP and AVTP), and computer files (Disk, CDisk, and Vdisk). The problem is, when you search by call number, the online system arranges the entries decimally rather than numerically, e.g.,
AVTP 1
AVTP 10
AVTP 100
AVTP 101, etc.
with 11 following 109, and 2 coming after 199, and so forth. Recently, our Head of Public Services had the idea of adding leading zeros to the single-digit and the double-digit numbers. We tried this, and the indexing works the way we want it to! This is a simple database management technique, and we were left wondering why we'd never thought of it before.
Issues: Patrons and library student assistants might be confused by the fact that the OPAC displays a call number as, say, "AVTP 009," while the label on the videotape itself has "AVTP 9." Library staff will also have to remember to add the leading zeros if they are searching under a specific call number, e.g., "co=avtp 047." We are presuming that these will not be serious difficulties, however.
Issues: One must consider carefully the question of how many leading zeros to add to the call numbers. In the case of our Library's videotapes, we have thusfar used only 270 consecutive numbers for the cataloged videos. Therefore we feel it is unlikely that we will reach the number 999 anytime soon, and are content with choosing three digits as the required length.
Back to Cataloging Department Homepage
Alva T. Stone,
Head of Cataloging
Jon Lutz, Senior LTA and Webmaster