Developed at the beginning of the decade to serve as a union catalog for identifying the holdings in all University of California (UC) libraries, the MELVYL online catalog as of October 1989 contained 10 million holdings for over 5 million monographic titles of print and nonprint materials, and more than 1.2 million periodicals holdings which…

This third module, in a three module program, begins with a discussion of basic reference sources such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, atlases, and periodical indexes. It then describes the uses of special Alaska resources such as Alaska Almanac, Alaska Blue Book, Milepost, Education Directory, AULS (Alaska Union List of Serials), and…

Through descriptions of widely available and helpful sources to find answers about North American Indians, this article highlights some basic library sources such as reference books, reference librarians, electronic indexes, on-line databases, and periodic indexes. In finding books owned by the library about North American Indians, the use of the…

Describes the use of MultiLIS, a fully bilingual integrated library-management software package, at Laurentian University. The authority control module is explained, its potential as a control system for multilingual or multithesaurus controlled vocabularies is considered, and an evaluation of the MultiLIS authority module is presented with…

The virtual Canadian union catalog (vCuc) project is a project among Canadian libraries to use Z39.50 (an information protocol standard) for searching distributed individual library catalogs and union catalogs. This paper summarizes the major technical, vendor, bibliographic data, and administrative issues that must be resolved before the…

Explores methods and costs of the retrospective conversion process, i.e., converting card catalog records into machine readable form to create an automated catalog. Data conversion standards, methods, search strategy, databases, verification and editing, costs, and products of conversion are noted. Thirty-two references are cited. (EJS)

Describes online catalog research being conducted in Europe in the areas of interaction and interface design, subject access, functional improvement through the application of information retrieval techniques, and library networks. Three operational online catalogs, not available outside Europe, are discussed. (30 references) (CLB)

This paper focuses on cataloging and classification, which are the most time consuming of library operations, requiring highly trained staff and involving considerable expense, to provide an overview of the concepts and considerations for centralized cataloging and interlibrary loans. Centralized cataloging is defined as a cooperative arrangement…

Describes an information retrieval system developed at Bell Laboratories to create and maintain a variety of different but interrelated databases, and to provide controlled access to these databases. The components discussed include the interfaces, indexing rules, display languages, response time, and updating procedures of the system. (6 notes…

This guide was developed to support Internet access to library catalogs at the University of Georgia (UGA). Since the UGA Libraries can only connect to the Internet using TELNET 3270 emulation, this guide is restricted to library systems which support that protocol. Section 1 of the guide presents the commands that are needed to gain access to the…

Three separate articles describe the online union catalog developed and implemented at the University of California to enhance public access. Planning for library automation, development and production of the database, access points to the catalog, the patron interface, standardizing input data, and merging records are discussed. References are…

Noting that telecommunications technology is making it possible to search library catalogs around the nation and the world via a modem and a personal computer, this paper highlights some of the reasons why a researcher would wish to search library catalogs through the Internet, which is a network of networks with connections to nearly 1,000…

Developed from presentations given at a 3-day invitational meeting of 31 leading online catalog designers from both public and private sectors in North America, these papers provide information about online catalogs--their present form, their use, and the questions that need to be considered in their future refinement. All of the papers in this…

Through a single computerized system, the Libraries Information Access System provides interactive, integrated access to a range of information functions in support of services meeting both academic needs (bibliographic access for research, instructional support) and administrative needs (processing, inventory control, communications, record…

Describes the online catalog in a university library, including the database, the database index, user instruction, the command language and search capabilities, functions of various commands, statistics generated to monitor system use, and hardware for both public access and staff use. (CHC)