Chronicles the variety of means with which the novelist Michael Crichton has attempted to give his works the appearance of nonfiction. Specific and successful techniques utilized in "Eaters of the Dead" are noted, and the resulting erroneous classifications by the Library of Congress and subsequent catalogers are discussed. (Author)

The growth in the size of the Internet has resulted in much effort being spent on indexing its contents. The most popular solutions are created by automatic methods, and although offering impressive coverage, they are disappointing where precision of meaning is required. Alternative services created by human beings arrange and index resources…

This set of papers offers insights into some of the major developments in the field of classification and knowledge organization, and highlights many of the fundamental changes in views and theories which have taken place during the last 40 years. This document begins with a series of reminiscences from former delegates of the first International…

This examination of the OCLC serials control sub-system points to positive and negative aspects of the OCLC system as they relate to serials, and evaluates the system's serials cataloging capabilities. While this report assumes a knowledge of the basic operations of OCLC, it describes the system in general, its function in cataloging, and its…

Discusses intangible and tangible benefits of scheduling technical services staff to assist at the reference desk: improved library service resulting from technical-services staff expertise, greater flexibility for reference desk staffing, enhanced bibliographic records for titles in the reference collection resulting in improved retrieval, and a…

Proposes that the concept of "utility" be applied in catalog construction and authority control. An iterative authority control process allowing for movement of proper name headings from uncontrolled to controlled states, based on user feedback in conjunction with comprehensiveness, will provide a new approach for information retrieval.…

The integration of new technology in 500 Army libraries was studied to assess the feasibility of introducing automation techniques to army library technical processing activities, to examine and recommend appropriate systems and configurations for library automation, and to determine the costs of implementing the recommendations. The study…

Discusses knowledge organization tools in the context of seven challenges facing library classification systems. Highlights include revisions to the Dewey Decimal Classification, the Windows-based CD-ROM version of Dewey, support for machine-assisted classification, multilingual use of Dewey, use of Dewey as a general knowledge organization and…

Compares and contrasts two systems designed for library automation applications--NOTIS, which was developed in the United States, and DOBIS, which was developed in Europe. The differences in the systems are discussed in terms of the availability or absence of machine readable bibliographic sharing capacities in the countries of origin. (CLB)