Automated Control of Subject Headings at the OSU Libraries

As more libraries acquire online catalogs, the interest and attention given to automated authority control continues to increase. Baer and Johnson recently did a survey of the authority control literature produced since 1974. They found that most of it (some seventy references) did not support the idea that advanced computer-searching capabilities are making authority control less necessary in online catalogs. In addition, their survey of the uses of authority control in American college and university libraries inspired "a number of comments to the effect that maintaining authority control online was just as time-consuming as maintaining authority control manually."(1). If automation has not made authority control unnecessary or even less time-consuming, what has it done in this area? Baer and Johnson express the hope that automation has enabled libraries to provide better authority control even if it has not allowed them to save time.(2). Such has been the case at the Ohio State University Libraries (OSUL). What follows is a description of how automation has recently been used to improve authority control of subject headings in the online catalo

Japanese bibliographic records and CJK cataloging in U.S. university libraries.

In the last two decades, American university libraries have developed Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) enhancements to their library automation systems and transitioned from conventional card catalogs to online public access catalogs (OPAC) by using CJK vernacular scripts, although non-Roman script search options of these systems are still limited

Libraries in major universities in Lebanon.

This paper puts the contemporary situation of some Lebanese university libraries in a broader context. It introduces the country, and outlines its higher education system, library science education, professional association, and publishing activity. It reviews the varying situations in the libraries of 3 selected Universities - the American University of Beirut, the Beirut Arab University and the Lebanese University, and contrasts this with other university libraries in the Arab world. It adds to the body of published knowledge about the current situation in respect of management, staffing, buildings, automation, information retrieval, bibliographic records, online and CD databases, and document delivery. The limited published information was supplemented by interviews with a number of staff to elicit their views on the current situation and a survey of students experiences of using the libraries. With the exception of the American University of Beirut, the libraries facilities and services are not comparable to best practice in other Arab countries or the western world. This work highlighted some of the difficulties encountered by the libraries and their users, perhaps not entirely the result of the civil war, but indicates that plans are in place to take the libraries to the next step of development

Open Source Integrated Library Systems in Public Libraries

One of the most fundamental decisions a library makes is choosing an integrated library system, or ILS. A public library can remove unwanted outside influence and save money by switching their ILS to free and open source software, or FOSS. This article is an examination of the progress made by FOSS ILSs to become not only contenders against proprietary systems, but also an appropriate choice for financial, functional, and philosophical reasons. Included is a timeline of published evaluations, the milestone of 14% adoption, a summary of the current landscape, and example implementation cases. A functional analysis shows why a public library can now safely make the switch. A philosophical analysis shows why they should do so. Finally, a proposal is made to “Buy Back America’s Libraries, and return ownership of the keystone of our public information infrastructure to the people

Special Libraries, March 1955

Volume 46, Issue 3https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1955/1002/thumbnail.jp

Special Libraries, September 1957

Volume 48, Issue 7https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1957/1006/thumbnail.jp

The New Technology and Competencies for "The Most Typical of the Activities of Libraries": Technical Services

At a library conference in 1940, William M. Randall called technical services the "most typical of the activities of libraries" "they are..." he said, "the things which librarians do that no one else does the secrets of the craft." 1 In those intervening forty-three years much has been written and uttered in defense and derision of these "secrets of the craft." These most typical of library activities have changed the name Randall used, technical processes, to technical services. They have moved from being sneeringly derided as "backroom," "basement" or other dreary location activities to being enthusiastically hailed today as "where the action is." They are, fortunately, no longer the "secrets" that they were in Randall's day. They have been moved into, moved around within and even moved out of the organizational charts. Regardless of all these attitudes and activities, the functions of acquiring, organizing and preserving library materials persist and the competencies necessary to carry out these three functions will be the focus of this paper. In the paper, reference will frequently be made to the "technical services librarian" meaning any librarian who works in that aspect of librarianship. The emphasis is on no particular type of library. The term library will be used as meaning also information center.published or submitted for publicatio

Special Libraries, February 1966

Volume 57, Issue 2https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1966/1001/thumbnail.jp

A Survey of Church Libraries

This article reports the results of a survey of congregational libraries, documents the current state of congregational libraries, and updates previous statistical studies. A survey was conducted to collect demographic statistics, information on collection size and composition, budgets and acquisitions methods, staffing characteristics, automation, and circulation