The minutes and information about upcoming meetings are also
available on our web site at
http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~trendler/macdg.html
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Midwestern Art Cataloging Discussion Group
Notes for the 1st Meeting
Hosted by the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries
September 7, 2001
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The first meeting of the Midwestern Art Cataloging Discussion Group
convened at 10:40am on Friday September 7, 2001 at the Art Institute
of Chicago. Nearly twenty-five catalogers were in attendance.

1.  The first topic of discussion was the issue of electronic
resources and their relationship to the catalog. In particular, the
question of whether online resources should appear in records in the
catalog if they also appear in a separate online or electronic
resources page on a library's web site was discussed. The situation
of the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, which serves a variety of
audiences with different levels of access, was highlighted. On the
one hand the idea of the catalog as a record of all resources owned
or accessed by the library is attractive, but on the other hand the
reality of the complicated availability of some of these resources to
users makes such an approach difficult. Some suggestions for dealing
with different levels of access in bibliographic records included
explanatory notes, and citing the URL but making it inactive (for
cases in which only the reference staff may access a resource). It
was also suggested that BI sessions and sites could make users aware
of online resources instead of including records for these resources
in the catalog.

It was noted that the University of Chicago original or copy catalogs
many online resources, both fee-based web services and "free" web
sites chosen by selectors or requested by users. Aggregator databases
are the only exception to this policy, and in this case the library
is looking into purchasing bibliographic records from the vendors for
the parts of their aggregate products. For those sites with
restricted access notes are sometimes added to the bibliographic
records along the lines of "available to subscribing institutions
only."

2.  The changes in LCSH for art and architecture were discussed. A
quick overview of the changes prefaced progress reports. [For more
information on the changes themselves, see the instruction sheets
(http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/artcat.html), the  weekly lists on
the CPSO's web site beginning with Weekly List 05, Jan. 31, 2001
(http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/ ). For examples of the changes,
see Sherman Clarke's web site
(http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/9783/artcat/revshex.html)]
Most libraries have switched to the new format for new records, but
not all have begun changing headings on older records. Approaches to
the changes varied:  some had to make the changes to records on a
individual basis, some have library systems that can make global
changes, and some consortium members must wait for their consortia to
make the changes. It was noted that duplication of headings results
when using global change functions, but this was considered less
important than making the change to the new format.

3.  The relationship between visual resources and online catalogs was
discussed. The Northwestern University Art History Slide Library
catalog has been available online as a Voyager catalog for a year
now. The catalog is not integrated with the main library's catalog,
but the slide library's catalog is offered as a link from the main
library's page. In the future digital slides will be available in the
catalog, but access to these will be restricted. Since the catalog
has been made available more off-site and non-art history users have
used the collection, placing somewhat of a strain on the staff, but
these patrons tend to use different parts of the collection than the
art history department.

4.  The issue of image protection was raised. It was noted that the
Berkeley slide library restricts images by size--offering only a
thumbnail image. More often slide libraries watermark images or
restrict access to members of the institution. It was noted that
slide librarians try to work with copyright restrictions, but there
is not enough staff time to deal with rights in such a way as to make
the library's holdings available to all. As a result, there is a
great deal of repetition among holdings because images are not
accessible outside of each institution. The AMICO database and
similar projects may be the wave of the future, providing a basic
collection that is enhanced by images acquired for local demand.

5.  MARC for images was discussed. The Northwestern University Art
History Slide Library has mapped MARC to the VRA core tags. Columbia
College is beginning a project to map their old format to MARC and
convert their database. Clean up of the newly mapped and converted
records will be a significant part of the project.  Columbia will
also be converting from a local thesaurus to LCSH for their image
collection. Northwestern University has been successful in using LCSH
for images although occasionally fudging with LCSH to create more
appropriate headings of their images.

6.  The question of an all digital image collection was brought up.
Most felt there was a long way to go before this becomes a reality.
The cost, technical limitations, the need for electronic classrooms,
and traditional methods of teaching art history were cited as factors
against digital image only collections. The portability of slides and
projectors and the fact that slides were used in spaces outside the
art history classroom were also mentioned. On the other hand, some
have found that a push for digital images has come from within art
history departments where multiple users often compete for the same
images.


The next meeting of the MAC discussion group is tentatively scheduled
for December at Columbia College.

Notes by Amy Trendler.
9/17/01
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-----------------------------
Amy E. Trendler
Catalog/Reference Librarian
Ryerson and Burnham Libraries
Art Institute of Chicago
(312)443-3600 ext. 3-7343
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