Annals of Library and Information Studies 140 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., Vol. 54, September, pp. 140-145
SEPTEMBER 2007
Automated bibliographic record capturing from web OPAC and online bibliographic database for library cataloguing in LibSys P. Rajendiran, Y. S. Parihar, Arati U Deshpande Library, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore – 452 013. E-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] This article presents a method for capturing bibliographic information from collections of Web OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) and online bibliographic databases for library cataloguing. The bibliographic record for document(s) to be acquired or catalogued are searched in the Web OPAC or online bibliographic databases that provides machine-readable or tagged records. If an identical bibliographic record is found against the search query, those record(s) are downloaded in a file for local use. The records copied in the file are transferred to local machine’s appropriate directory/path, as an input file for data import. The LibSys 5 (Release 5.0) - Library Automation Software, module for bibliographic data import was executed, and the cataloguing data for document(s) has been captured. By adopting this method, libraries can create error free, standardized catalogue also saves the time of cataloguer, and reduces the costs.
Introduction Advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) offer new ways to information processing, management and sharing in every field. Libraries are no exception to these technological advancements. By introducing modern technology in the library tasks, jobs can be reshaped, and interactive information services can be provided in a cost effective manner. Cataloguing / Indexing – the prime bibliographic control function of a library is undergoing many changes in its form, organization and purpose due to the impact of ICTs and Web. The catalogues made available through the Web OPAC provide access to resources both within and outside the library. Therefore, it is important to create and organize the documents very efficiently. The Web OPAC also called as, online library catalogue, libraries web catalogue, etc. is the web version of traditional catalogue on the network. Traditionally, the AngloAmerican Cataloguing Rules (AACR), Classified Catalogue Code (CCC), and other cataloguing standards and codes in practice provides guidance on how best to ensure that records are managed, archived and made available for retrieval; keeping in mind the local parameters for the libraries. The cataloguer requires special professional skill and experience in order to organize the materials. Since the Web OPAC reflects the quality of library services, it is important to catalogue the materials in a standardized manner in the online environment.
Since the Web OPAC of many libraries and online bibliographic databases, enables options for search and download of bibliographic records in machine-readable form freely, together with online information retrieval; these record(s) can be used for local library materials. Those libraries that have network access and have automated the tasks, can import the tagged records (raw bibliographic data) for identical local records. The bibliographic records gathered from the sources can be imported into library database by downloading in a file using the software features either directly or indirectly. This will simplify decision-making, reduce human errors, costs and time associated with cataloguing, and the records can be created in a standardized way. If required, imported bibliographic data may be modified according to the local practices regarding the choice and form of main and added entries. This article presents automatic bibliographic record(s) capturing techniques, from collections of Web OPAC; and online bibliographic databases, such as Google Scholar, Windows Live Academic, Scitation etc., for the local library collections by using LibSys 4(Release 5.0) - integrated commercial library automation software. Bibliographic record formats For libraries, MARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloguing) is the standard format for storage and exchange of bibliographic records and related information in machine-readable form, along with other different
RAJENDIRAN P, PARIHAR Y S & DESHPANDE A U: AUTOMATED BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD CAPTURING
Figure 1— Sample input file - MARC format (Book)
Figure 2— Sample input file - Tag format (journal article)
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Figure 3— LibSys data import function & definition of options
formats such as Common Communication Format (CCF), ONIX - the International book industry standards etc., that are in use. All MARC standards conform to ISO 2709:1996 Information and documentation — Format for Information Exchange1. The Web OPAC of leading libraries have enabled the export option to download the records in MARC format, along with other bibliographic formats. The bibliographic data relating to articles are mostly available in tagged format such as RefWorks, RefMan, EndNote, BibTex, etc. These online catalogues and databases provides number of predefined format options, and the content of each predefined format varies, depending on the type of database. As the bibliographic element is different for books, conference proceedings, reports, thesis, dissertation, atlas, and other documents the tagging also varies according to the type. Sources of bibliographic records on exchange format The premier sources of bibliographic records for books and other materials are Web OPAC of national, university and other academic and special libraries. The Library of Congress online catalogue2 is one such catalogue, which contains approximately 14 million records representing books, serials, computer files, manuscripts, cartographic materials, music, sound recordings, and visual materials3. The Copac is another online union catalogue, giving free access to the merged online
catalogues of members of the Consortium of Research Libraries (CURL). There are over 31 million records on Copac representing the merged holdings of 27 CURL member institutions. This includes the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the National Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru4. The Copac has enabled the export option to download the bibliographic records in tagged format. For indexing articles or creating the institutional repository / author self-achieves, the bibliographic data relating to articles of journals, proceedings, and other publications can also be downloaded from the online bibliographic databases such as Google Scholar, Windows Academic Live etc. in tagged format. Such few identified Web OPAC and online bibliographic databases that provide machine-readable/tagged records, and have export facilities are listed in the Appendix-1. The WorldCat (Beta) provided by Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) on behalf of its member libraries for about 1.3 billion items in 10,000 libraries worldwide5, may also be used for finding and locating the library that offer MARC format records. Method of capturing bibliographic records The documents collected or selected for purchase for the library were first searched on the Web OPAC. The elements such as author, title, International Standard
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Figure 4 — Import structure definition of input file (for book)
Figure 5— Import structure definition of input file (for journal article)
Book Number (ISBN), series, publisher and other elements are the criterion, for checking the documents. As the ISBN is unique to each item, the ISBN is mostly used for exact search. If an identical record is found from any one of the sources, those record(s) are selected and exported to a file by selecting appropriate
bibliographic format that has support filter in the local automation software. The records can be exported one at a time or group of flagged records for multiple documents. Depending on the type of document, all similar typed document records searched were exported to a file, say for all book(s) only records, one single file,
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all conference proceeding records, a different file, and likewise. LibSys has no option to import records directly into database, and hence records are downloaded and saved in a file in the client machine. Those library automation software tools that have provision to import records directly into a database need not export/save the records in a file. Importing to local database using LibSys Those downloaded record(s) kept in a file are brought into the local server’s appropriate directory / path as per the instructions of the LibSys software as an input file6. In LibSys, it is ‘work file’ path to which the input files are brought in by using the file transfer method. Figure 1 (MARC) and Figure 2(Tagged) are the data details of sample input file to be imported. The LibSys has facilities for both data import and export filter that support machine-readable / tagged format records such as, in MARC, ISO-2709, DIALOG, etc., also has separate module for acquisition, cataloguing and articles indexing. Depending on the purpose of bibliographic record (i.e. acquisition, cataloguing, articles indexing) the concerned module were used for importing records from the input file(s). On selection of ‘data import’ function in LibSys, the system asks for the following information before activating the data import process. They are, input data file, types of input file, and types of document, record structure file, update option, duplicate check, and location of input file. Figure 3 demonstrates definitions of various options in Libsys. As the record structure varies from document to document, the ‘record structure file’ that is Field Definition Table (FDT) was defined in a file for each type of document, that is for books, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations, articles, etc. individually. By default, the system saves the ‘record structure file’ during the first record import in the same ‘work file’ path with file extension ‘*. imp’. These files can be used for later data import. Figure 4 shows the ‘record structure file’ defined for a book record in MARC format; and Figure 5 shows the ‘record structure file’ defined for a journal article in tagged format. After defining the required fields, ‘data import’ function was executed and the data was imported into local database. Those imported individual records were modified
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according to the local practice regarding choice and form of main and added entries etc. Benefits Various benefits of adopting this methods are: 1. It reduces the manual keying, leading to creation of error-free catalogue records created. 2. Large number of documents can be catalogued in a short span of time. 3. Minimum professional skills are sufficient to catalogue the documents in a standard manner. 4. The time of cataloguer and in some case that of the classifier is saved. 5. As the records can be downloaded freely, the method is cost effective. 6. Records for institutional repository/achieves are also captured very easily. Conclusion Importing bibliographic records from the Web OPAC and online bibliographic databases helps the libraries to catalogue the documents in a standardized way. It reduces typing errors, costs and time involved for cataloguing. The cataloguer only requires minimal professional skills, to manage the records according to local variations. If the classification scheme used by the source library (libraries offer bibliographic record in machine-readable or tagged format) and the local library are the same, it also saves the time of classifying the documents. For creating institutional repository or author self-archiving, the bibliographic records relating to publications can also be captured very easily by this method. If leading Indian libraries, also offer/enable bibliographic data export provision with the online library catalogue, it will be of great use for many libraries at national level in order to catalogue the local and regional publications. References 1.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
The British Library Bibliographic Standards Development. Exchange Formats. http://www.bl.uk/services/bibliographic/ exchange.html Library of Congress Online Catalog. Scope of the Catalog. http://catalog.loc.gov/help/contents.htm COPAC. Introduction. http://copac.ac.uk/about/#intro What is WorldCat? OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. http://worldcat.org/ LibSys User’s Guide, Cataloguing System, 1998, 81-89.
RAJENDIRAN P, PARIHAR Y S & DESHPANDE A U: AUTOMATED BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD CAPTURING
Appendix – 1 – Sources of Bibliographic Record in Machine-Readable / Tagged Format
Library Online
Catalogue/Union catalogue
Source Name
Web Address/URL
Library and Archives Canada Cambridge University Library CLIO - Columbia University Libraries Online Catalog COPAC - Consortium of Research Libraries (CURL) Union Catalogue Cornell University Library Gateway Flinders University Library Leeds University Library Library of Congress Online Catalogs MIT Libraries’ Catalog National Agricultural Library Catalog Northwestern University Library National Library of Medicine - Library Catalogs & Services Purdue West Lafayette Libraries Catalog Titles UB Karlsruhe Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog KVK English University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Catalog University of London - Senate House Library Yale University Library
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/amicus/index-e.html http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/ http://copac.ac.uk/ http://www.library.cornell.edu/ http://www.lib.flinders.edu.au/ http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/ http://catalog.loc.gov/ http://library.mit.edu/ http://agricola.nal.usda.gov/ http://nucat.library.northwestern.edu/ http://www.nlm.nih.gov/libserv.html https://www1.lib.purdue.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/hylib/en/kvk.html http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ http://www.ull.ac.uk/ http://www.library.yale.edu/
Online Databases / Search Engines Google Scholar(Beta) IngentaConnect Infotrieve NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service Scirus - for Scientific Information Scitation Windows Live Academic Home Page
http://scholar.google.com/ http://www.ingentaconnect.com/ http://www4.infotrieve.com/search/databases/newsearch.asp http://adsabs.harvard.edu/ads_abstracts.html http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/ http://scitation.aip.org/ http://academic.live.com/
CORRIGENDUM Figure 1b and Figure 2 on pages 115 and 116 of the June 2007 (Vol. 54, No. 2) issue was erroneously interchanged. The error is regretted. Editor
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