ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 5 6 2 / C&RL News development. “T he survey provides evidence o f an intelligent, professionally com m itted group o f m em bers,” com m ented Susan Stussy, director of libraries at St. N orbert College and a m em ber of ACRL’s M em bership C om m ittee, which directed staff to work on the quintennial survey. Betsy Hine, monograph cataloger at Indiana State University, who also serves on the M em ber­ ship C om m ittee, noted “It seems to me that what ACRL does now ranks quite high . . . the m em ber­ ship seems fairly happy with what ACRL is doing.., Response(s) reflect a very pragmatically oriented group.” As ACRL carries on its regular planning process and as individual com m ittees plan activities over the next years, this survey will provide a helpful guide to m em bers’ opinions. ■ ■ Curriculum materials in online catalogs Developed by the EBSS Curriculum Materials in the Online Catalog ad hoc Subcommittee* Rolland H. McGiverin, Chair Standardized cataloging fo r curriculum centers. This paper is to assist curriculum librarians, systems personnel, and catalogers who have responsibility for preparing curriculum m ate­ rials for inclusion in online catalogs in academic libraries. Curriculum materials in this docum ent are defined as materials traditionally found in cu r­ riculum centers, e.g., curriculum guides, elem en­ tary and secondary textbooks, instructional media, and juvenile literature. This docum ent will give an overview o f the history o f cataloging curriculum materials and identify cataloging issues which are unique to curriculum materials to facilitate the inclusion o f these materials in online catalogs. Historical background In the early decades o f this century, curriculum laboratories or centers were developed at various colleges of education to study, improve, revise, and produce elem entary and secondary school curric­ ula. As th eir products and programs becam e im- * E ditor’s Note: This is a jo in t subcommittee o f the E B SS Problems o f Access and Control o f Education Materials Committee and the E B SS Curriculum Materials Committee. Its members are as follows: Rolland H. McGiverin (chair), Indiana State Uni­ versity; Joan Berman, H um boldt State University; Doris Brookshier, Central Missouri State Univer­ sity; Lawrence Marble, Temple University; Vir­ ginia Nordstrom, Queens College; and Ilene Rock- man (chair o f the E B SS Problems o f Access and C urriculum M aterials Com mittees), California Polytechnic State University. The authors extended their appreciation to Allison Kaplan, University o f Delaware, and Kathleen McGowan, University o f Rochester, f o r their assistance in the preparation o f this document. June 1990 / 563 portant com ponents in teacher training programs, the role of these laboratories and centers evolved to include the acquisition, organization, and manage­ ment of teaching materials. Nevertheless, the ori­ gin of these centers provides some perspective on the individuality, idiosyncratic organizational style and procedural diversification of many curriculum centers. By the late 1960s, institutional responsibil­ ity for these curriculum centers had often moved from the colleges, schools, and departm ents of education to the academic library. With this shift in sponsorship, service em phases veered away from the creation and developm ent of curricula to the issues of collection development; the functions of acquisitions, cataloging, management, and circula­ tion; and instruction in collection use.1 However, even in this setting, the technologi­ cally efficient m ethods of contem porary academic libraries usually bypassed curriculum collections. Like many specialized materials, curriculum m ate­ rials have not received an equal measure o f atten­ tion in the developm ent of national cataloging and classification standards. Various factors may ac­ count for this: 1) the physical separation o f the center from the main library; 2) the omission of the center’s purpose from the mission statem ent of the library; 3) differences in orientation and philoso­ phy betw een the cen ter and the library; 4) the center’s lack o f access to bibliographic tools and equipment; 5) the perception that the materials are ephemeral; 6) the library’s lack o f understanding of the special nature o f curriculum materials; 7) con­ fusion over the definition of curriculum materials; and 8) the low priority given to cataloging “special materials” due to the lack of cataloging staff. The absence of national standards for the cataloging of curriculum m aterials2 has fostered th e develop­ ment o f num erous local systems which has further isolated curriculum materials from the main flow of bibliographic access in the academic library. Online catalogs and bibliographic utilities As a result of th e introduction o f online public access catalogs (OPACs), cataloging practices for ’For an excellent review o f the history of curricu­ lum materials centers, see Alice S. Clark, Managing Curriculum Materials in the Academic Library (M etuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1982). 2The cataloging standards issue has been raised by the RTSD/CCS Cataloging o f C hildren’s M ate­ rials C om m ittee, “Guidelines for Standardized Cataloging o f C hildren’s M aterials,” Top o f the News, Fall 1983, pp. 49-55. F or this com m ittee’s most recent efforts, see Cataloging Correctly f o r Kids: A n Intro d u ctio n to the Tools (Chicago: American Library Association, 1989). curriculum materials have em erged as a particu­ larly salient area of concern for the curriculum librarian. The failure to include these materials in OPACs leads to user frustration, underutilization o f materials, and the perpetuation o f labor inten­ sive and expensive practices for the selection, cata­ loging, and circulation of curriculum materials.3 However, the lack of standardized m ethods for the cataloging and classification of curriculum m ateri­ als often results in the exclusion of these materials from OPACs. A recent study analyzing representa­ tion o f these materials in the OCLC database con­ cludes that there has been an appreciable increase in the last decade in the availability of usable rec­ ords for curriculum materials.4 The MARC record The following MARC fields are im portant to consider when preparing for the inclusion of cu r­ riculum materials in OPACs or bibliographic utili­ ties. If the cataloging is com pleted outside of the curriculum center, early consultation with the cu r­ riculum librarian will be necessary. 050,082,090,092,099 (call number fields) Although both the Dewey (D D C) and Library of Congress (LC) classification systems have been used for classifying curriculum materials, the lack o f guidance for cataloging curriculum materials has encouraged many centers to either modify D D C or LC or to create th eir own classification systems. Some centers even use different schemes for dif­ fe re n t types o f m aterials. N evertheless, such unique classification systems can be accommo­ dated by using the 099 field. It should be noted that Dewey call num bers are incom plete in the 082/092 fields of the MARC record and must be com pleted by the library using the record. If the 099 field is routinely used for curriculum materials, attention must be given to the sequence o f the call num ber fields selected for processing tapes for an online catalog. lxx (main entry) and 245 (title) T here are no unusual problem s in these fields regarding description. Curriculum librarians gen­ erally p refer to catalog textbook sets as sets rather 3Carole F. Wilson, Mary M. Finley, and Alice S. Clark, “Cataloging Practices and Resource Sharing o f Curriculum Collections in Academic Libraries,” Journal o f Library Adm inistration 6 (W inter 1985/ 86): 81-88. 4Jack Kranz, “Cataloging of Curriculum M ateri­ als on OCLC: A Perspective,” Cataloging & Classi­ fication Quarterly 8, no.2 (1988): 15-28. 5 6 4 / C&RL News than as individual titles. Care should be taken to differentiate sets from series. 250 (edit’on statement) Textbook sets typically include both student and teacher editions of the main text and workbooks. Some centers acquire the com plete set, whereas other centers may acquire only the teacher edition. T here is a philosophical question as to w hether a teacher edition constitutes a tru e edition statem ent or is a vital p art o f a set. Local practice will dictate w hether the teacher edition is noted here or in the 300 field. 300 (collation) This field is w here all the various parts o f a set will be recorded, usually using subfield “e ”. 4xx/8xx (series information) Series is an essential access point for curriculum materials and m ust be traced. Attention, authors! College & Research Libraries News wel­ comes manuscripts subm itted on diskette or via ALANET. The C& RL News ALANET num ber is ALA0306. If you can upload it, I can down­ load it, because ALANET translates text into pure ASCII files. If you don’t have ALANET or you prefer to send a diskette, make sure it is form atted for MS-DOS; either 5.25-inch or 3.5-inch diskettes can be accepted. W e u s e Xywrite III + for word processing, but we translate files from other major programs. W hen subm itting a diskette with a file created by another word processing program, it is best to also include an ASCII text file. Always send a p ap er copy of your m anuscript along with the diskette, just in case we cannot read your file. If you can n either send a diskette nor trans­ mit via ALANET, subm it th ree p ap er copies in a standard typeface such as C ourier or Pica. Please avoid sending proportional or oversize typefaces. Do not fax articles unless you are requested to. Q ueries are not required. If you need clarifi­ cation on the appropriateness o f your topic, please call rather than write. Submit all materials to George M. E berhart, Editor, C& RL News, ACRL/ALA, 50 E. H uron St., Chicago, IL 60611; (312) 280-2511.— GME. 5xx (notes fields) Notes give useful descriptive information that cannot be accom m odated in the rest of the biblio­ graphic description. M ultiple as well as lengthy notes are ordinarily used for curriculum materials and care m ust be given in deciding which fields will be used routinely. Typical notes include plot sum ­ mary (especially for children’s literature), titles of parts of sets (contents note), intended audience (grade level), reading level, and state adoption. The online catalog selected m ust be able to accept not only multiple notes b u t lengthy ones as well. Al­ though the order o f notes is prescribed by AACR2, order o f display of notes fields in an online system is of particular concern for curriculum centers. If the contents note cannot be indexed in the online catalog th en the titles o f parts of sets should be given title added entries (7xx). 6xx (subject added entries) F requently the curriculum materials collection is governed by a different subject authority than the library’s main collection, e.g., the curriculum col­ lection may use Sears, Library of Congress Chil­ d re n ’s Subject Headings, or nonstandard headings while the main collection uses Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). O f major concern in im plem enting an online system will be how the vendor of choice accepts and maintains multiple subject heading authorities and w hether patron searching can be lim ited by collection. This will inevitably be an area w here careful decisions will need to be made. 7xx (author and title added entries) Access by publisher and corporate author is essential for patrons of curriculum collections. It is also im portant to provide access to the titles of parts of sets listed in a 5xx contents note. Recommendations 1. Curriculum materials should be accessible in OPACs either in a separate catalog or as part of a union catalog. 2. Bibliographic records should be placed on a bibliographic utility. W hen appropriate, the main entry should be for the set, and should contain information for the parts o f that set, the grade and reading levels, and the D D C or LC call num ber. 3. Curriculum librarians should consider the adoption o f standardized classification and subject heading systems. 4. Curriculum librarians should be actively in­ volved in issues and decisions relating to the p rep a­ ration and inclusion of curriculum materials in OPACs. June 1 9 9 0 /5 6 5 Conclusion The growth of OPACs highlights the need for standardized curriculum cataloging procedures. The cost effectiveness o f placing curriculum m ate­ rials in OPACs is closely associated with the availa­ bility and quality of records in the bibliographic utilities. The rising rate of m em ber-input records in OCLC indicates the increasing com m itm ent of curriculum centers to shared cataloging and rein­ forces the need for standardizing curriculum cata­ loging procedures. T he ease o f transferring records from biblio­ graphic utilities to OPACs provides further motiva­ tion for the establishm ent of such standardization. C ooperative sharing o f b ibliographic records through national utilities provides the opportunity to enhance access to curriculum materials collec­ tions. ■ ■ Special collections in the Southeast By James B. Lloyd Special Collections Librarian University o f Tennessee, Knoxville and William B. Eigelsbach Senior Library Assistant University o f Tennessee, Knoxville A special report on special collections. This survey of mid-sized academic libraries in the southeast came about in response to a specific administrative need—the perhaps uni­ versal desire for more staff. O ne way to prove our need was to prove that we had fewer people p e r­ forming the same functions than other repositories of comparable size. Since it did not seem appropri­ ate to ask colleagues to fill out another survey to meet such an im m ediate and personal need, we surveyed by phone. And we limited ourselves to mid-sized academic libraries in the southeast, since that is our environm ent, purposely om itting places like the University of Virginia because they are so much larger, and going no farther west than Arkan­ sas. As might be expected, we had some difficulty in interpreting our statistics, and sometimes were forced to call back for clarification. T here seem to have been several reasons for this. F o r one thing the faculty, paraprofessional, clerical staffing struc­ tu re which we use here does not exactly match classifications used elsewhere. F o r another, the fig­ ures themselves may be deceiving. Staff may be dedicated to non-visible functions, i.e., functions which we did not survey, such as microfilming or staffing an isolated public service point. T he size of a repository sometimes proved difficult to com ­ pare, since conversion formulas betw een items and feet differed so widely that we were forced to make some adjustm ents on our own. And sometimes even the volume count for rare books may be unreliable. In our case, we have a second collection o f some 100,000 volumes which, though not rare books is part o f Special Collections. If we had chosen to count these volumes, we would have appeared much larger than we really are.