This paper traces library instructional programs available to graduate students in academic institutions in North America from the late 1950s to the present. Three chronological perspectives provide the framework for this analysis. The first includes programs from 1958 to 1989 that offered traditional bibliographic instruction of print resources…

This study examines what the public search for in the catalogue of the State Library of Victoria (SLV). As well as indicating the type of content being accessed, this gives an indication of what catalogue users expect of the State Library collection. A content analysis was undertaken of a random, stratified sample of 4,000 search queries typed in…

At the end of 2007, SirsiDynix introduced the first version of Symphony, its new flagship Integrated Library System (ILS). This article begins with a look at the evolution of Symphony, user reactions to Symphony, and Symphony's design and functionality. The authors, along with a team of librarians from various functional areas, have completed…

This paper presents a comparative evaluation of Google Scholar and 11 other bibliographic databases (Academic Search Elite, AgeLine, ArticleFirst, EconLit, GEOBASE, MEDLINE, PAIS International, POPLINE, Social Sciences Abstracts, Social Sciences Citation Index, and SocINDEX), focusing on search performance within the multidisciplinary field of…

Despite lower attendance than in the past and blustery, cold weather, the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in Denver in January offered lots of news from industry vendors and lots of opportunities to discuss important issues and trends. In this report, the author highlights some of the most important product announcements with a…

The first in a series of annual cumulations, this 1980 dictionary catalog provides a single alphabetical listing of monographs published by New York State and cataloged by the state library during the year. Produced from OCLC machine readable records, the catalog lists citations in traditional dictionary catalog order; i.e., authors, titles,…

The report deals with one basic question: what does a large research library do when its catalog shows signs of serious deterioration? The catalog under consideration in this report was the Main Public Catalog of The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library. The catalog has nine million cards, some of which date back to 1857. A 1965…

An economical method of producing copy for Xeroxing from the National Union Catalog was developed at Arizona State University. This method is described and compared with the Polaroid technique and the system developed jointly by Indiana University and Antioch College. (Author/NH)

The survey examines three commercial services which reproduce on microfiche the catalog card output of the Library of Congress. Two services which index the National Union Catalog (NUC) and the Title II depository cards by LC card number are also described. (Author/NH)

Reviews the history of the National Union Catalog and the publication of the Pre-1956 Imprints. The roles of the ALA and Mansell Publishing in the completion of what is probably the last large-scale nonautomated bibliographic project, editorial problems, and the role of automation in future projects are discussed. (JL)

Recommends that librarians locally develop mini-union catalogs to provide for increased access to library materials and to facilitate interlibrary loan. Practical instruction is provided for the preparation of such catalogs. (RAA)

Describes a study that examined the effect of adding retrospective conversion holdings to OCLC on the number of interlibrary loan requests received, and determined the added costs or benefits of the project. Findings discussed include the impact of the library's use of OCLC and the effect of types of materials cataloged on interlibrary loan…

Describes an analysis of duplicate records in OCLC's Online Union Catalog. General and bibliographic characteristics of duplicate records are described; and reasons for duplicate records are discussed, including input errors, omission of relevant information, and differences in the interpretation of existing information. (five references) (LRW)

Discusses special problems that the symbols for sharps and flats in music notation present for the retrieval of music materials in online catalogs, and describes the results of a survey of vendors of online systems that was conducted to determine how vendors deal with this notation. (nine references) (LRW)

Discusses methods of browsing in online public access catalogs (OPACs) and describes one method that uses information pertaining to the physical description of books from MARC records to simulate images of books on a library shelf. Electronic browsing through MARC is discussed, and methods of enhancing OPACs are reviewed. (51 references) (LRW)