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Library's Card Catalog Leaps Into Cyberspace By JANE GOTTLIEB
The Library will achieve an important milestone this month when we complete retrospective conversion. Come again? you say. Retrospective what? Any relation to retrograde inversion, such as in the 12-tone system? Well, not exactly. Retrospective conversion—one of those library-specific terms that usually cause non-librarians to stare back blankly—refers to the important process of converting the information found on library catalog cards to computer form.
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| Jon Stroop, library cataloging assistant, pulling cards from the catalog for discard. On April 1, the library completed conversion of the catalog, which is now entirely available online through JUILCAT. (Photo by Lisa Yelon) |
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The computerization of library catalogs began in the late 1960s, when the Library of Congress and other library organizations developed standards for MARC cataloging, or machine-readable cataloging. The use of computerized catalog records in turn led to the development of large bibliographic databases such as O.C.L.C. (Online Computer Library Center) and R.L.I.N. (Research Libraries Information Network), which could be used by libraries for shared cataloging, interlibrary loan, and other types of resource sharing. These databases contain millions of bibliographic records representing the holdings of thousands of libraries worldwide—our "library without walls." Juilliard joined the O.C.L.C. database in 1989. From 1989 until the 1995 debut of JUILCAT, the Juilliard Library Online Catalog, our computer records existed invisibly in the O.C.L.C. database and on computer-produced catalog cards in the library. We maintained two separate card catalogs: one for pre-1989 holdings, and one for post-1989 holdings. On April 27, 1995, President Polisi presided over a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the computerized catalog system, which included all of the post-1989 holdings and the pre-1989 holdings we had converted to computer format. The April 2005 completion of retrospective conversion means that nearly all of our library holdings are accessible via JUILCAT; the card catalog may now be admired as a handsome piece of furniture, as it is no longer needed as a source of information.The differences between a card catalog environment and computerized catalog system are enormous. Today's library users, particularly those born after 1970, probably take computer catalogs for granted and can't imagine libraries without them. Prior to the development of computerized catalogs, the only way to learn about the holdings of a particular library was to call or visit the library and check its paper card catalog. Computer catalogs also include information on whether or not the item is checked out, and when it is due back. Computer catalogs enable us to identify items held by other libraries and request them via interlibrary loan. Even the ever-popular search engine Google has realized the advantages of partnering with libraries, and has recently announced several important initiatives to integrate information on library holdings into internet search sites. Through this system, when one searches Google or Yahoo for a book, score, or recording, in addition to other web references, the search engine will also bring up information on libraries that own the item.Anyone who has tried to organize a personal book or CD collection should have some appreciation for the complexity of library cataloging systems. Do you arrange your books by author, title, or subject? What do you do when more than one composer is represented on a CD recording? Cataloging librarians follow complex rules established by the Library of Congress to insure consistency and ease of access in all library systems. Without the diligence, intelligence, and care of cataloging librarians, access to materials in libraries would simply be impossible.The iconoclast author Nicholson Baker brought the intricacies of library retrospective conversion work to light in his controversial 1994 New Yorker article "Discards." In this tour-de-force on libraries of yesterday and today, Baker bemoans the so-called death of the card catalog, and says that card catalogs should not be dismissed or discarded so easily: "... The real reason to keep card catalogues is simply that they hold the irreplaceable intelligence of the librarians who worked on them." In my obviously biased view, that fact cannot be disputed. In the Juilliard library, the organizational skills and intelligence of generations of cataloging librarians (who currently are Alan Klein, Robert Sherrane, Jon Stroop, Patricia Thomson, and Brien Weiner) can be found in our sophisticated computer system. Please join us in celebrating these librarians, and our completion of retrospective conversion, on Tuesday, April 26, at 4 p.m. Refreshments will be served outside of the library.Jane Gottlieb is vice president for library and information resources.
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