Report for Week 3 - April 11 to 15
To: Robin Haun-Mohamed
From: Cathy Zegelin
CC: Ingrid Reyes-Arias
Date: 4/15/2011
Re: Status Update Week 3
Hours worked:
4/13 – 2.5; research online and in UW collection, 10:00 – 12:30
4/13 – 2.5; research in Engineering Library, conversation with Mel DeSart about Engineering collection
4/15 – 1; call with Robin to check in on project and discuss direction and progress, 8-9am
4/15 – 5; research online; 10:00 – 12:30, 2:30 – 5pm
Week 3: 11 hours
Total: 39 hours
I came across an interesting example of the availability of free online digital documents and commercially available material with an entry in the 1863 printed Monthly Catalog in the UW collection. The entry is for Instructions for Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers on outpost and patrol duty, and troops in Campaign. The document was printed by the GPO in 1863, is listed in the MoCat for that year, but does not appear to have been distributed through the depository program. I found the document in the UW catalog in the Microfiche collection from the CIS US Executive Branch Documents 1789-1909 collection. The UW call number is ‘microfiche M-5003, no.W112-14. I found an OCLC record, #244109238 that lists three libraries that have the item in their microfiche collection, presumably from CIS. I viewed the microfiche and the quality of the document was very poor. A .pdf of the Microfiche document is available through this link (62MB). I made using the digital microfiche viewer as an example of the quality of the document in microfiche form. I was unable to compress the file into a smaller size. Upon further research I found the item through Google Books. Google digitized a print copy from the Harvard Library. The Microfiche version came from the New York Public Library. The Google Books file is attached below. The Google version has the advantage of the advances in digitization equipment, as well as professional digitization techniques and a higher quality source document on its side in generating a superior copy. However, I think this is a good example of the proliferation of materials through various private and public digitization projects. The Google version is available for free download, while three libraries (possibly more, but three with records in OCLC) provide access to the document via microfiche format. The value of the many digitization projects under way is that more and more material is being made available somewhere out there on the internet. If this item is of interest to the GPO for inclusion in the catalog, which record would be referenced? The OCLC records are for the Microfiche format, which is not a very usable format and the text is hard to read. Since Google is not a depository, I suppose it wouldn’t make sense to include its records in the CGP catalog, or if Google is even willing to share the bibliographic records for its collection of federal documents with GPO. Would it be beneficial to have a cross reference from the CGP to Google records for the sake of locating the ‘best’ version of a document?
I also spoke at length with Hillary Reinert, a library tech who has worked with the GovPubs collection at UW for several years, about the collection, cataloging and classification methods. The entire Government Publications collection is not yet cataloged in the ILS. They have worked hard to get all of the materials into the online catalog, but are still working through the Y4s and blocks of the legacy collection, and no records exist for any of the individual items in the Readex collection. The items I’ve located in Readex have been found through the older versions of the print Monthly Catalog, referencing dates and item numbers, where librarians at the UW have marked items in the print catalogs with a red ‘x’ indicating the item was included in the Readex Microprint collection. The Redex cards are sorted by item number so there is no subject co-location, however, there is a print index (Index to Readex Microprint edition of JPRS reports) in the Government Publications reference collection. Many of the items in the collection are classified using LC or Dewey classification. These items are dispersed through the stacks in the Suzzallo library and other libraries on campus based on subject and LC classification. In instances where these items have bibliographic records in the UW catalog, in many cases, any SuDoc number or reference to GPO or Government Publications have been stripped from the records. These items are going to be more difficult to locate because it will involve subject searching, searching by agency or discovery through sampling items listed in the Monthly Catalog. Hillary mentioned that in cases where the card information was transferred into the electronic system, cataloging librarians often striped the SuDoc information from notes or other fields, eliminating it from the record to save space in the file. She and other librarians have slowly worked to add the SuDoc number back into the record as they find them, but lack of resources prevents them from being able to make any real effort in updating the older catalog records.
I found my way to the engineering stacks looking for a print version of the Rotary Wing Aircraft Handbooks and History, an 18 volume set edited by Eugene K Liberature, published in 1954. The publication was produced in partnership with the Prewitt Aircraft Company, and is listed in the 1954 MoCat section for August, pg. 6, with SuDoc number D301.45:R74. I found some OCLC records under #3674637 and the UW has the print version classified under Dewey, 629.176 R74 v.6-14. I could not find a library that appeared to have the entire set. Some of the volumes are in the Redex Collection located in the GovPubs stacks, under card number 10870. I talked to Mel DeSart, the head librarian of the engineering library, about the use of Dewey classification and he said that early on libraries used Dewey because it was the only classification system available for managing large collections. As institutions moved to LC, it took an immense amount of work to re-classify older parts of the collection. The UW library has spent years re-classifying the collection as they have had time, but has not yet reached the 600s forward. I asked about the inclusion of SuDoc numbers in the record for items that may have assigned SuDoc numbers which were assigned after items were received in the collection. He said that it has taken so much work just to re-classify from Dewey to LC that adding an element of also searching for a SuDoc number when that number will not be used for shelving and access is an unjustifiable use of minimal resources. I asked if there would be a consideration of eventually starting a program of updating records to include the SuDoc number in the bibliographic record as a cross reference or a note to increase access or add description that it is a government document. He said there probably will never be the money and time to do so and a very strong justification for the effort would need to be made. He also mentioned that the UW is moving towards using a simplified MARC format, only assigning one subject heading and eliminating some of the fields. This will save catalogers time when processing original cataloging because of the effort needed to assign appropriate subject headings, and the movement of the users to keyword and full text rather than subject heading search. With the shift in cataloging there would be even less of a reason to add information to the record such as a SuDoc number when that information would not be considered useful in providing access to items.
The Engineering library contains a massive collection of technical reports, microfiche from the National Technical Information Service, collections from the US Bureau of Mines, National Bureau of Standards, and many other government agencies. These were acquired through gift or purchase, not necessarily through the GPO and FDLP. As the items did not come from GPO, they were not cataloged with SuDoc numbers or treated as government documents. I think as I speak to librarians in the various collections within UW libraries I will find a similar case of items classified with Dewey or LC which were not considered government documents because their provenance did not include the FDLP.
As per our conversation this morning, I am going to focus my process on touching the surface of these collections, documenting the steps taken and creating a process of where to start. The frame will be what is known by GPO, where to start, and what to do with the information found. I will also create an overview document describing the UW collection of government documents, where they are kept, how they are classified, accessed, and handled. I will begin drafting these documents from my notes in the next few weeks and hope to have drafts ready for your review by Mid-May. I have also talked to Cass and we are setting up a time to meet and look at the UW ILS to try running reports on the collection and figure out some queries that might help cull records to cross check based on call numbers, location, subject headings, or issuing agency.
From: Cathy Zegelin
CC: Ingrid Reyes-Arias
Date: 4/15/2011
Re: Status Update Week 3
Hours worked:
4/13 – 2.5; research online and in UW collection, 10:00 – 12:30
4/13 – 2.5; research in Engineering Library, conversation with Mel DeSart about Engineering collection
4/15 – 1; call with Robin to check in on project and discuss direction and progress, 8-9am
4/15 – 5; research online; 10:00 – 12:30, 2:30 – 5pm
Week 3: 11 hours
Total: 39 hours
I came across an interesting example of the availability of free online digital documents and commercially available material with an entry in the 1863 printed Monthly Catalog in the UW collection. The entry is for Instructions for Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers on outpost and patrol duty, and troops in Campaign. The document was printed by the GPO in 1863, is listed in the MoCat for that year, but does not appear to have been distributed through the depository program. I found the document in the UW catalog in the Microfiche collection from the CIS US Executive Branch Documents 1789-1909 collection. The UW call number is ‘microfiche M-5003, no.W112-14. I found an OCLC record, #244109238 that lists three libraries that have the item in their microfiche collection, presumably from CIS. I viewed the microfiche and the quality of the document was very poor. A .pdf of the Microfiche document is available through this link (62MB). I made using the digital microfiche viewer as an example of the quality of the document in microfiche form. I was unable to compress the file into a smaller size. Upon further research I found the item through Google Books. Google digitized a print copy from the Harvard Library. The Microfiche version came from the New York Public Library. The Google Books file is attached below. The Google version has the advantage of the advances in digitization equipment, as well as professional digitization techniques and a higher quality source document on its side in generating a superior copy. However, I think this is a good example of the proliferation of materials through various private and public digitization projects. The Google version is available for free download, while three libraries (possibly more, but three with records in OCLC) provide access to the document via microfiche format. The value of the many digitization projects under way is that more and more material is being made available somewhere out there on the internet. If this item is of interest to the GPO for inclusion in the catalog, which record would be referenced? The OCLC records are for the Microfiche format, which is not a very usable format and the text is hard to read. Since Google is not a depository, I suppose it wouldn’t make sense to include its records in the CGP catalog, or if Google is even willing to share the bibliographic records for its collection of federal documents with GPO. Would it be beneficial to have a cross reference from the CGP to Google records for the sake of locating the ‘best’ version of a document?
I also spoke at length with Hillary Reinert, a library tech who has worked with the GovPubs collection at UW for several years, about the collection, cataloging and classification methods. The entire Government Publications collection is not yet cataloged in the ILS. They have worked hard to get all of the materials into the online catalog, but are still working through the Y4s and blocks of the legacy collection, and no records exist for any of the individual items in the Readex collection. The items I’ve located in Readex have been found through the older versions of the print Monthly Catalog, referencing dates and item numbers, where librarians at the UW have marked items in the print catalogs with a red ‘x’ indicating the item was included in the Readex Microprint collection. The Redex cards are sorted by item number so there is no subject co-location, however, there is a print index (Index to Readex Microprint edition of JPRS reports) in the Government Publications reference collection. Many of the items in the collection are classified using LC or Dewey classification. These items are dispersed through the stacks in the Suzzallo library and other libraries on campus based on subject and LC classification. In instances where these items have bibliographic records in the UW catalog, in many cases, any SuDoc number or reference to GPO or Government Publications have been stripped from the records. These items are going to be more difficult to locate because it will involve subject searching, searching by agency or discovery through sampling items listed in the Monthly Catalog. Hillary mentioned that in cases where the card information was transferred into the electronic system, cataloging librarians often striped the SuDoc information from notes or other fields, eliminating it from the record to save space in the file. She and other librarians have slowly worked to add the SuDoc number back into the record as they find them, but lack of resources prevents them from being able to make any real effort in updating the older catalog records.
I found my way to the engineering stacks looking for a print version of the Rotary Wing Aircraft Handbooks and History, an 18 volume set edited by Eugene K Liberature, published in 1954. The publication was produced in partnership with the Prewitt Aircraft Company, and is listed in the 1954 MoCat section for August, pg. 6, with SuDoc number D301.45:R74. I found some OCLC records under #3674637 and the UW has the print version classified under Dewey, 629.176 R74 v.6-14. I could not find a library that appeared to have the entire set. Some of the volumes are in the Redex Collection located in the GovPubs stacks, under card number 10870. I talked to Mel DeSart, the head librarian of the engineering library, about the use of Dewey classification and he said that early on libraries used Dewey because it was the only classification system available for managing large collections. As institutions moved to LC, it took an immense amount of work to re-classify older parts of the collection. The UW library has spent years re-classifying the collection as they have had time, but has not yet reached the 600s forward. I asked about the inclusion of SuDoc numbers in the record for items that may have assigned SuDoc numbers which were assigned after items were received in the collection. He said that it has taken so much work just to re-classify from Dewey to LC that adding an element of also searching for a SuDoc number when that number will not be used for shelving and access is an unjustifiable use of minimal resources. I asked if there would be a consideration of eventually starting a program of updating records to include the SuDoc number in the bibliographic record as a cross reference or a note to increase access or add description that it is a government document. He said there probably will never be the money and time to do so and a very strong justification for the effort would need to be made. He also mentioned that the UW is moving towards using a simplified MARC format, only assigning one subject heading and eliminating some of the fields. This will save catalogers time when processing original cataloging because of the effort needed to assign appropriate subject headings, and the movement of the users to keyword and full text rather than subject heading search. With the shift in cataloging there would be even less of a reason to add information to the record such as a SuDoc number when that information would not be considered useful in providing access to items.
The Engineering library contains a massive collection of technical reports, microfiche from the National Technical Information Service, collections from the US Bureau of Mines, National Bureau of Standards, and many other government agencies. These were acquired through gift or purchase, not necessarily through the GPO and FDLP. As the items did not come from GPO, they were not cataloged with SuDoc numbers or treated as government documents. I think as I speak to librarians in the various collections within UW libraries I will find a similar case of items classified with Dewey or LC which were not considered government documents because their provenance did not include the FDLP.
As per our conversation this morning, I am going to focus my process on touching the surface of these collections, documenting the steps taken and creating a process of where to start. The frame will be what is known by GPO, where to start, and what to do with the information found. I will also create an overview document describing the UW collection of government documents, where they are kept, how they are classified, accessed, and handled. I will begin drafting these documents from my notes in the next few weeks and hope to have drafts ready for your review by Mid-May. I have also talked to Cass and we are setting up a time to meet and look at the UW ILS to try running reports on the collection and figure out some queries that might help cull records to cross check based on call numbers, location, subject headings, or issuing agency.
officers_google.pdf | |
File Size: | 3253 kb |
File Type: |