What is it that cataloguers and librarians fear the most? Concetta La Spada Library Data Analyst I think it is unhappy users; users that cannot find resources within library catalogues and consequently cannot user these resources within publishers’ platforms

As a publisher we don’t want users to be unhappy because we know that unhappy users make: Unhappy librarians. Librarians that cannot offer the best services to their users. And they can’t do that because of miscommunication between them and publishers.

In order to have happy users and happy librarians we know that we have to improve the discoverability of our resources.

How a University Press is improving discoverability Concetta La Spada

Topics MARC records and discoverability Improvements of the automated eBook MARC records at CUP Manual improvements of the eBook MARC records A special project: CLC eBook MARC records Special project 2: OPL MARC records Cambridge Core: eBook MARC records and KBART lists

The importance of MARC records to improve discoverability A MARC record is the bibliographic description of a resource. And this description has to be properly coded and complete in order to achieve the best discoverability possible. What happens when this description is not complete? This is what happens. No results at all. Why did this happen? This happened because the MARC record supplied did not have subject headings. As a publisher we do not want this to happen because if I were a student I would have thought that the library did not have this title and then I would have gone to the librarians to ask for help and consequently I would have lost time and the librarians would have lost time. As a publisher we don’t want students and librarians to lose their time; we want our resources discoverable without any delays. When I started working at the Press, I realized that our eBook MARC records needed to be improved so we have improved them in two ways. I was looking for this eBook within the library catalogue of the University of Cambridge and I started my search as any student would have started: with a subject search. These are the results I got.

How automated eBook MARC records have been improved at CUP First we had modified the automated eBook MARC records, the ones customers can download from our platform. 8a instead of 8i. i is for RDA rules, a for AACR2 s is for electronic, it should be o for online AACR2 form of 040. To Change to RDA n/a when there is no data is incorrect Space before the 050 b is incorrect No 082 No punctuation before n and p Not correct Old form not used since 2012. Change to editor. On the right we have a record as it looks like now. It is a good record because is technically correct and properly described but it is still not a “perfect record. It doesn’t have subject headings, Dewey and other fields. At the Press we want to supply the eBook records with all the access points needed to achieve the best discoverability possible. On the left we have a record as it looked before. We have removed AACR2 data since we want to supply RDA records and we have corrected technical errors and description errors.

So I have worked on our eBook records with these tools: in particular MarcEdit to modify records, and also to merge our eBook records with the print LC records; I also needed to create Macros in order to make these records RDA records. I also used the LC’s Authorities.

How eBook MARC records have been manually improved I have merged the eBook records with the LC print records No 082 No Subject headings No authorized forms of authors’/editors’ names and series titles. On the left is the automated record from before, with no Dewey, no subject headings and other elements. On the right there is a record how it looks like now after margining it with the print records. After merging them I checked they had all the access points needed, that LC numbers and LCSH were still correct.

Enhanced eBook MARC records at CUP LC and Dewey Classification numbers (050 and 082 fields) LC Subject Headings (600, 610, 611, 630, 650 and 651 fields) LC Authorized forms of authors/editors’ names (100 and 700 fields) Also, in these records that require them, Language and Geographical codes (041 and 043 fields) LC Authorized forms of Series’ titles (490 and 830 fields) Corporate or Conference main entry (110 and 111 fields) Title variants (130, 240 and 246 fields) Now they have all the access points needed to achieve best discoverability possible.

I did this for the majority of our collections (about 24. 000 titles) I did this for the majority of our collections (about 24.000 titles). These projects are updated every month when we publish new titles with new perfect MARC records. If you are now happy with the eBook MARC records you can download from our platform you can write to me or your sale rep and we will send you these records. We are working on having them on our platform too so that customer can download them and upload them in their library systems without any delays.

Cambridge Library Collection The CLC collection is a beautiful collection, with titles in different languages and we have achieved amazing results with it in terms of use and sales. But we know that we could achieve better results if the eBook MARC records for this collection were improved. These titles were all originally published between the 16th and the 20th century. This collection is born from a joint project between the Cambridge University Press and the University of Cambridge.

CLC eBook Marc records Title Page Title Page verso Original Title Page Original pub. date 1890 Print Publication date 2013 Here you can see how these eBooks look like. We have new title page, a new title page verso with new and original print publication date and a reprint of the original title page.

Unfortunately, our system doesn’t have all the data about the original publisher and place of publication so our records look like this example on the left. Here you see the kind of record we want to supply for this collection. Again, a perfect records with all the access points needed to achieve the best discoverability possible. The process will take a bit longer than before because we don’t have LC print records for this collection so what I can do is to copy (after checking that everything is still correct) what I find in the LC records for the original publication. I am confident to be able to complete this project by mid 2017. Please look forward to it.

Special project 2: OPL Marc records The MRS Online Proceedings are an Archive but they are also a collection of monograph. We have decided to supply MARC records created by describing the collection but with links to the archive, which is available on Cambridge Core.

The records will be RDA records with all the access points needed to achieve the best discoverability possible. This will be a unique set that will be greatly improve the discoverability of the MRS Proceedings Archive on library catalogues. I am confident to be able to complete this project by the end of November 2016. Please look forward to it.

How will MARC records and KBART files be downloaded from Cambridge Core?

Recap Improved automated eBook MARC records at CUP Manually enhanced eBook MARC records available CLC and OPL MARC records: works in progress CUP new platform, Cambridge Core

Along with a certificate. I have also received this box of cakes. This is me, when I received the Quality Award from the Press. I received this award because the quality of the eBook MARC records I have produced has been really appreciated by our customers. This is to show you that the Press is committed in improving our eBook MARC records and understand their importance.

Please contact me if you have any questions, if you want eBook MARC records and if you have any advice on how better develop my projects. I am always happy to hear from fellow cataloguers. Thank you Concetta La Spada Library Data Analyst email: claspada@cambridge.org