The minutes and information about upcoming meetings are also available on our web site at http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~trendler/macdg.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Midwestern Art Cataloging Discussion Group Notes for the 1st Meeting Hosted by the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries September 7, 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 -- ----------------------------- Amy E. Trendler Catalog/Reference Librarian Ryerson and Burnham Libraries Art Institute of Chicago (312)443-3600 ext. 3-7343 [log in to unmask] __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] Administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]