Technology and libraries How we got to where we are

Gutenberg Press - 1450

What do we do with them now that we have them?

Jefferson’s library catalog

Melvile Dewey

Dewey Decimal System - 1876

Library of Congress Classification System -1897 A General Works B Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion C Auxiliary Sciences of History D General and Old World History E History of America F History of the United States and British, Dutch, French, and Latin America G Geography, Anthropology, and Recreation H Social Sciences J Political Science K Law L Education M Music N Fine Arts P Language and Literature Q Science R Medicine S Agriculture T Technology U Military Science V Naval Science Z Bibliography, Library Science, and General Information Resources

Library of Congress Subject Headings 1898-present

LCSH Entry

Bibliothéque Nationale de France, Paris, France Where it all started in 1789

Card catalog circa 1960

Catalog Card

Authority records The most common way of enforcing authority control in a bibliographic catalog is to set up a separate index of authority records, which relates to and governs the headings used in the main catalog. This separate index is often referred to as an "authority file." It contains an indexable record of all decisions made by catalogers in a given library (or -- as is increasingly the case -- cataloguing consortium), which catalogers consult when making, or revising, decisions about headings.

National Union Catalog

Bibliographic databases Major distinction between databases dealing with words and those dealing with numbers Libraries on the forefront of creating bibliographic databases

Henriette Avram creator of the MARC record 1967-1968 MAchine Readable Cataloging-a standard format for bibliographic records. (A catalog card is an example of a bibliographic record.)

Standard MARC record MARC record as a computer sees it (although it reads it in one continuous stream, without the line breaks): 00817pam 2200277 a 450000100090000000300040000900500170001300800410003001000170007102000280008 804000180011604900240013405000220015808200170018010000220019724500610021924 600440028025000120032426000390033630000340037550000200040965000290042965000 1900458650002900477650003300506-sw00001 -DLC-19990315150853.0-970626s1997 nyua 001 0 eng - a 97022798 - a0609600907 (alk. paper)- aDLCcDLCdDLC- aA8OXD787n610.1 Mys-00aR726.5b.M98 1997-00a610/.1/9221-1 aMyss, Caroline M.-10aWhy people don't heal and how they can /cCaroline Myss.-3 aWhy people do not heal and how they can- a1st ed.- aNew York :bHarmony Books,cc1997.- axix, 263 p. :bill. ;c24 cm.- aIncludes index.- 0aMedicine and psychology.- 0aMind and body.- 0aMedicine, Psychosomatic.- 0aPersonalityxHealth aspects.- 

MARC record from GU catalog

GU library catalog record

Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature 1901-

Reader’s Guide entry

“Old School” database searching

Database search 1970s-2000s B 1 Ss ((academic achievement/de or grades/de) and (admission/ti or college w/3 placement) ) S1 245 S1 and py=2002-2005 S2 23 S2 and la=en S3 20 T 3/ti,au,de,ab,so/1-20

Precision vs. Recall Use of subject headings makes a search more precise but limits recall Use of free text terms and general searches such as in Google enhance recall but limit precision Libraries typically value precision over recall

Foley DB access http://www.gonzaga.edu/Academics/Librar ies/Foley-Library/default.asp

Bibliographic Utilities RLG WLN OCLC The Research Libraries Group (RLG) was a U.S.-based library consortium which developed the Eureka interlibrary search engine, the RedLightGreen database of bibliographic descriptions and ArchiveGrid, a database containing descriptions of archival collections. RLG was founded by a group of major research libraries in 1974, two years after OCLC, another library consortium, was founded. A major motivation for RLG’s establishment was dissatisfaction among research institutions with OCLC’s record keeping. Western Lib. Network - "WLN provides a broad range of innovative, high quality technical and database services to public libraries, K- 12, college, university, corporate, legal, and medical libraries as well as other institutions throughout North America and abroad.... WLN's union catalog contains over 11 million bibliographic records and over 22 million local library holdings."--About WLN