Library of Congress. Response to On the record : report of the Library of
Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control / Deanna B.
Marcum. - 2008.
The following is intended as a straightforward brief summary of the response.
The Library of Congress has accepted the recommendations of its Working Group
on the Future of Bibliographic Control. The library will continue to provide
high quality cataloguing but considers that it must invest more in new
developments if it is to retain an important position.
The efficiency of cataloguing operations should be increased by: greater
cooperation with foreign libraries and with non-library organizations,
acceptance of slight variations in records that this will involve, addressing
problems regarding the sharing of data, research into user
needs, increasing distribution of responsibility for the creation of
bibliographic records and authority data.
Access to special collections should be increased by: concentrating in the
first place on breadth rather than depth of coverage, agreement on practicable
standards, making catalogue records for these materials as available as those
for any others, research into user needs, sharing records.
Our technology should be made ready for the future by: developing a new system
to take the place of MARC, coordinating standards, using Web based standards,
subjecting new proposals for standards including RDA to cost-benefit analysis
and testing, consulting with engineers and reference librarians.
Our library cataloguing community should be made ready for the future by:
linking catalogue records to added value material such as that provided by
commercial agencies, examining FRBR, experimenting with new ways of using LCSH
and providing greater correlation between it and the principal classification
schemes, encouraging the development of computational analysis and indexing.
The library profession should be strengthened by: defining the value of
cataloguing in terms of costs and benefits, encouraging research, promoting
education including college courses distance learning and a continuing
education programme.
Philip Davis
Redditch
England
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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