1. Looking to the Future: CJK Processing at the Crossroads Presentation at the 2007 CEAL Committee on Technical Processing Karen T. Wei University of Illinois March 21, 2007

2. Outline Preamble Highlights of CJK Developments Future Prospects of CJK Processing Conclusion

3. Comparative Study of 20 Years Ago Title: RLIN CJK versus OCLC CJK: The Illinois Experience Co-author: Karen Wei and Sachie Noguchi Presentation: CEAL Subcommittee on Library Technology, 1987 in Boston Publication: Library Resources & Technical Services 33 (2): 140-152 (April 1989)

4. Milestones in CJK Developments Card Catalog 1983 – RLIN CJK 1986 – OCLC CJK 1992 – RLG and OCLC exchange CJK records 2000 – Pinyin Conversion: from Wade- Giles to Pinyin 2006 – OCLC and RLG merger

5. RLIN CJK Initiated by RLG (Research Libraries Group) in 1980 Supported by the Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and NEH, at $1.1 million Goal: to develop an automated system to input, store, transmit, search, display, and print CJK scripts 9/12/83 – LC created the first record containing Chinese scripts online into the RLIN database RLIN CJK terminal contains 179 keys, 3x regular pc Character-component entry system with CJK Components/root words engraved on the keyboard Institution records

6. OCLC CJK 1986 – 11 US libraries as test site 1986 – Production version released in Dec. CJK 350 workstation – multipurpose microcomputer based on IBM PC/XT configuration Using phonetic/encoding entry system No components/root-words engraved on keyboard Master records – no institution records Membership world-wide – many in Asia/Pacific

7. CJK Records Exchange Prior to 1986 – RLIN CJK was only choice OCLC libraries had split systems for CJK processing, e.g. Illinois and Wisconsin using RLIN CJK 1992 – OCLC and RLG began to exchange CJK records directly, bypassing LC Easy decision for libraries in choosing systems and for libraries to align with their Main Library operation – no separate budget required No more records exchange with the merger of RLG and OCLC in 2006

8. Pinyin Conversion Finally happened in October 2000 Before the conversion – Wade-Giles Many used Karl Los Wade-Giles to Pinyin software in the conversion, including OCLC Post Pinyin conversion cleanup projects Cleanup continues

9. OCLC and RLG Merger Announced 5/3/06; effective 7/1/06 Combine 2 of the worlds largest membership-based information organizations and resources Create a stronger/collaborative organization for the research community RLG to reconstitute as a new RLG-Programs, a new division of OCLC Programs and Research RLGs online products and services to integrate with OCLC products and services (e.g. RLIN21 online cataloging OCLC Connexion cataloging service) RLG Union Catalog to migrate into the OCLC WorldCat database (phased migration)

10. Future Prospects in CJK Processing Impact of OCLC and RLG merger Acquisitions Cataloging Information processing beyond cataloging

11. Impact of OCLC and RLG Merger What are the potential impacts? – Expanded database; addition of unique records – More CJK libraries contribute to the integrated OCLC database without delay; no record exchange required – Switch of system and training of OCLC operations for RLIN users – short term (UIUC and Wisconsin have done it) – Unable to create order records in OCLC – Until Connexion 2.0 release, no institutional records created/updated – One combined Users Group; more collaboration – Absence of competition

12. Future CJK Acquisitions Vendor records will be increasingly used European vendor records have appeared in OCLC and RLIN databases since 1996; CJK not far behind CJK vendor records for acquisitions have already been adopted by at least 9 East Asian Libraries in the past year At least 10 other libraries indicated highly likely to likely to use vendor records within the next year Centralized acquisitions possibility Vendor Records: A Brief Survey to be reported at the OCLC CJK Users Group meeting on Saturday, March 24

13. Future CJK Cataloging - Challenges Cataloging challenge in the Age of Google Understanding how our faculty/students in East Asian studies conduct research? Do they Google first before searching our OPAC? Do we? Sometimes? How can we provide access as good as Google does? How detail do we or our users need in a catalog record? Do we really need parallel fields in CJK records? Can we accommodate vernacular data without parallel Romanized fields?

14. CJK Cataloging - Future Prospects Gradual but steady shift of CJK collections from locally-owned resources to more remotely held content – more CJK cataloging in e-format More continuing education for existing staff Mentoring/training of new generation of catalogers Using CJK vendor cataloging records – cost/quality/US standards/workflow/compatibility Outsourcing in the US – quality/affordability Shelf-ready processing – acquisition, cataloging, labeling, bar-coding – one stop shop Emergence of non-profit CJK cataloging centers – national or regional, e.g. UC system – more centralized cataloging More shared programs, such as CJK NACO Project

15. Information Processing Beyond Cataloging Understanding current needs of our faculty/students Shifting from collection-based to access-based service Increased user expectations to provide clear/ comprehensive access Implications for the collection and organization of digital access resources Managing increasingly expensive library resources Organization of information - quality web presence Partnership for virtual reference service, 24/7 Impact of mass digitization on technical processing Assessment of technical and public services Remote storage processing Shared binding and preservation service for both print and digital resources

16. Conclusion CJK processing is clearly at a crossroads Option to explore new ways of processing Next decade will be an exciting and trying time Have CEAL and CTP to lean on, to learn from each other As a group, we can succeed in our service mission to help our users obtain the information they need Many changes are necessary to get us there

17. Thank you!