This paper is based on the results of the study of the Work Group of Bibliographic Standards for the Greek union catalog, the first stage of Greek academic library union catalog development. The first section lists the objectives of the union catalog. The state of the art of Greek academic libraries is discussed in the second section. The lack of uniformity is identified as the main difficulty in setting up the union catalog. The next section addresses implementation models, and the fourth section describes two implementation phases (i.e., formation/homogeneity of the primary database and function/updating of the union catalog). Specifications required for the union catalog system are summarized in the fifth section, including records format, quality control of records, multiple records identification, and the data model. The sixth section considers standardization, including bibliographic standards, authorization of names and subjects, holdings information, and interlibrary loan. The importance of education and training of library staff is noted in the seventh section, followed by a section that discusses the administration scheme. The ninth section outlines project phases. A concluding section lists expected project results. (Contains 26 references.) (MES) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. *
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY al_lbrant-TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) (I) following brief analysis: A U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GREEK UNION CATALOG Katsirikou, Anthi Technical University of Crete, University Campus, 73136 Chania, Greece )ap/anthi.html Introduction This presentation is based on the results of the study of the Work Group of Bibliographic standards for the Greek Union catalog. This is a project financed by the European Union which aims among others to the electronic networking of Greek Academic Libraries and to the establishment of infrastructure for the implementation of the Union catalog in Greece. The study which is the first stage of the Union catalog development, was entrusted by the Project Steering Board consisting of the representatives of all participating libraries.
The study was introduced to the same Board and was passed. The work group decided that it was necessary to be advised by experts, so they had meetings with 3 persons, one from Europe and two from USA, who are experienced to the Union Catalogs setting up and implementation. 1. The objectives of the Union catalog The union catalog, at the early stage is the result of group efforts on cataloguing of many different organizations. At the following stage Union catalog provide users with the ability to perform consistent searching of records from multiple institutions in the sense that these records are indexed consistently. The goals of the union catalog are: Cataloguing most cost effectively, Increase the supply of quality records, both bibliographic and authority ones, Develop and maintain mutually acceptable standards, Increase the access and sharing of the bibliographic and authority databases of the participant libraries, Development of an interlibrary loan with real access to the collection material and document delivery system, Development of joint collections, printed and mainly, electronic ones, Links to document suppliers and electronic journals, Use of shared resources, Ongoing discussion, planning and programming among participant libraries, The production of the National Bibliography in electronic form. In a few words, the union catalog is a shared bibliographic database of all items in Greek libraries and their location, and it was to be a common network linking all libraries to one another, offering shared functions for interlending services, shared cataloguing and access to foreign databases. 2. The state of the art of Greek Academic Libraries The current state of Greek Academic Libraries shows some oddities which can be summed up in the 1 of 8 Lack of a coordinating body and cooperation mechanisms. So there aren’t collective common decisions for the implementation of common accepted standards. National Library is not able up to the moment to undertake the substantial leading role in the Libraries community. Variety of automated systems. The automation of the libraries was accomplished relatively with great delay of these of European Union countries and was the result of individual efforts. As a 2 WU COPY AVAILABLE 10/28/99 1:47 PM Katsirikou Paper consequence, the chosen library softwares have different potentials, use different MARC formats and supports either all or a part of an online system modules. Cataloguing rules.
The general standard used for cataloguing is the Anglo American Cataloguing Rules”. The level of the implementation and the rules interpretation doesn’t appear any consistency, since it has not been agreed or dictated by a national decision making committee. . The use of standards related to bibliographic records is neither spread nor standardized. The Bibliographic records of non-greek material are purchased by foreign organizations. The cataloguing of greek material is accomplished individually by each library. Uniformity problems cause the main difficulty to the setting up the union calalog. These problems are listed below: The interpretation of cataloguing rules and the using sources, The level and the quality of cataloguing, The lack of standardization on holdings entries, The language of the field of notes for non-greek material, The use of names, corporate bodies and geographical terms. . Authority records: subjects and names Subjects The Academic libraries had to face the subject analysis of material without authoritative greek schedules. As a result we have the following formation: o Foreign language material: Language of subject Analysis: English: Source,Library of Congress Subject Headings. o Foreign language material: Language of subject Analysis: Greek: Source, National library and individual translation of the Library of Congress Subject Headings. o Greek language material: Language of subject Analysis: Greek: Source, National library and individual translation of the Library of Congress Subject Headings. o Greek language material: Language of subject Analysis: English: Source,Library of Congress Subject Headings. o Greek language material: Language of subject Analalysis: English and Greek: Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings, National library and individual translation of the Library of Congress Subject Headings. Names The name authority files of Library of Congress are used mainly for the authorization of foreign language names. For the greek names there is a variety of sources that are used, since the authority files of the National library are deficient and they can’t be crossed with bibliographic records. o MARC Format.
Two MARC formats are used: UNIMARC ?a? USMARC. Due to recent technological evolutions, this difficulty can be overleapt. o Collaborations and networks. Since early sixties the greek library community has seeked forms of collaboration and the creation of the ptinted union catalog. Due of the lack of coordinator and funds, these goals were never achieved. Nevertheless, the following evolutions are noticeable: 1. The union catalogue of periodicals which is established by the National Documentation Centre, is an official form of collaboration for the interlibrary loan. 2. A network of archaeological libraries is in progress. 3. Implementation models A Union catalog is presented to its users as a high-quality management information access system. This means that the system should meet standards for reasonably rapid and predictable response time, high availability and reliability, and good communication about outages; and the user should expect its behavior to be highly repeatable from session to session. There are two options of the organization of the catalog: the central and distributed one. The above referred situation of the Greek libraries persuades us to lean towards the central administration scheme because it offers: stable collection, basic, centrally managed tools for cataloguing, 3 2 of 8 10/28/99 1:47 PM Katsirikou Paper possibilities for off-line pre-processing of records during loading of data, consistent index generation, . single search engine with dependable mapping of search keys to indexes, high level of repeatability, . central control of quality and performance. 1 Two basic models of implementation can be applied for the creation of a union catalogue: 1. Master Union Catalog. The participating institutions catalogue their material to the central database and then load to the local databases the new or modified records. 2. Slave Union Catalog. The participating institutions catalogue their material at first locally and then load the new or modified records to the central database. It is obvious that the appropriate model for Greek union catalogue is the Slave one, but the administrative system of the union catalogue could at the same time play the role of the master union catalogue in order to support smaller libraries without local automated systems. 4. Implementation phases In order to be achieved the functi
