The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) received a year's grant from the Council on Library Resources to design and develop a library network for the 17 western states. Major activities of the first quarter included: (1) hiring a systems analyst, cost study investigator, research assistant, and secretary, and selecting a…

This report examines the feasibility of developing a Colorado statewide union data base to support cataloging, acquisitions, and interlibrary loan functions. It concludes that any data base developed should focus on providing location information for the state's library materials to support patron access to available resources. The title location…

Described are existing components that could be linked together to form a Western Bibliographic Network or could provide products and services for Network members. The components reviewed are: (1) state library agencies, research libraries, state and multistate library networks, and other regional organizations in the 17-state western region and…

The objective of the project was to develop an inexpensive and effective technique for matching records in multiple fields in order to build a union catalog containing only one representation of a given book. The Information Retrieval Research Lab (IRRL) developed a prototype system called IUCS (IRRL Union Catalog System) by testing various…

This study explored the feasibility of scanning the OCLC Online Union Catalog (OLUC) to create subject heading validation files. Concluded that automatically generated subject heading files were practical and that such files could be used to verify subject heading strings constructed by catalogers, update subject headings in catalog maintenance,…

To study the format, content, and rationale of public catalogs used at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) libraries, a questionnaire was sent to each of the campus libraries. The data collected included information on: 1) number of volumes in the library's collection; 2) number of drawers in its catalog; 3) physical arrangement of…

This study to determine the hardware and computing facility costs of establishing and operating a British Columbia Library Network (BCLN) for current members of the B. C. Union Catalogue used empirical data regarding their performance of the DOBIS system and estimates of workload, and compared those data with the costs of obtaining current…

Reports on a survey measuring the performance of a merging algorithm used to generate the now-defunct ULM (Union List of Monographs) file for ALEPH, Israel's research library network. Discusses automatic detection and merging of duplicate bibliographic records, problems created by lack of a standard for Hebrew spelling, and methods for measuring…

Question Master (QM) is a decision-support system automating some more routine, fact-type reference questions encountered by guiding librarians through a set of clarifying questions before recommending appropriate print or electronic resource from WorldCat, the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) Online Union Catalog. This study found that the…

Describes the Hawaii Department of Education's School Library Network Project and its approach to retrospective conversion for more than 200 school library media centers using a combination of 3 methods: in-house, full data entry; in-house, partial data entry; and full vendor contract. It is noted that a combination of these methods provides the…

Alternative approaches to the building of monographic bibliography files for an on-line data management system using minicomputers at the University of Minnesota Libraries' Twin Cities Campus center are described. Secondary and primary sources of the Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) II records are considered--including Blackwell-North America,…

Presents results of the second annual survey of the Canadian microcomputer-based school library system marketplace. Highlights include use of the MARC standard for cataloging; integrated, modular systems; problems with the questionnaire used; geographic distribution; union catalogues; bilingual capabilities; Canadian installations and sales…

The development of a mathematical model of the Illinois Library and Information Network (ILLINET) is described. Based on queueing network theory, the model predicts the probability of a request being satisfied, the average time from the initiation of a request to the receipt of the desired resources, the costs, and the processing loads. Using a…

This brief task force report looks at the current manual union catalog based in the New Hampshire State Library, and recommends the institution of a computer output microform (COM) system, and the eventual creation of an online statewide union catalog. An executive summary provides a listing of 15 specific recommendations based on a 1981 needs…

A practical system for producing a union catalog of titles in the collections of the Library of Congress Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (DBPH), its regional network, and related agencies from a machine-readable data base is presented. The DBPH organization and operations and the associated regional library network are analyzed.…