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I read Lori's posting about the RLG-OCLC merger with interest. Since you may not have read the message she refers to (it was posted to the RLG Art and Architecture list serve), it is included below. She makes some very good points about the homogenization of cataloging copy (though there are still some libraries that include special tracings for subject areas which are their signature collections). I was writing in large part from the standpoint of a rare book library, which doesn't do ILL (so we don't participate in SHARES), but where copy-specific data is crucial to research. If the only way to search for the names of binders, former owners, etc. is through Z39.50 links, this will be a very great loss, so we are hoping they can come up with some clever way to enable the indexing of this type of information within the union catalog. Re the fate of SCIPIO, it's my impression that this database would not be dumped into WorldCAt, but into First Search, along with ESTC and the HPB. (But since ESTC is going to be made available free of charge soon on the British Library, it may not even make it into First Search). Liz O'Keefe Elizabeth O'Keefe Director of Collection Information Systems The Morgan Library & Museum 225 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016-3405 TEL: 212 590-0380 NET: [log in to unmask] Visit CORSAIR, the Library's comprehensive collections catalog, now on the web at http://corsair.themorgan.org >>> Elizabeth O'Keefe 5/15/2006 4:48 PM >>> Dear Fellow Art and Architecture Librarians: As you can imagine, the RLG-OCLC merger has been a hot topic in many libraries since we returned from AAG. Several of us were trying to sort out what makes the RLIN database a superlative research resource both for librarians and for scholars. We came up with a few points that I thought I'd submit to the list in hope of stimulating discussion about what we are most concerned about losing if RLIN merges with WorldCat. 1) Local data. This can be copy-specific (i.e. applying only to your copy of the item, such as details of the binding, annotations, provenance, or information about the condition of the item) or it can be the type of information that not all cataloging agencies supply but which is none the less useful, such as enhanced tables of contents, or citations of standard bibliographies, or extra information about the illustrative material or the text or whatever (for example, listing in a note all the venues of an exhibition, a practice not followed by all libraries). Both types of local data are transparent within the RLIN record structure; we suspect that access within WorldCat would at best be supplied through hyperlinks from WorldCat into the individual library's OPACs. 2) Access via indexing to local data. One of the big pluses of the RLIN record structure was the fact that when you searched for a name or a subject heading or a genre, you found all the records for an item in a cluster, even if the heading appeared on only one record in the cluster. This meant that everybody benefited from the liberal indexing practices of even one library that owned a copy of the book. For example, the Morgan (and most rare book libraries) always trace the publishers and printers of rare books--so that even if your library doesn't, you could retrieve a record for the title by searching for the printer. Or some libraries make a practice of tracing illustrators, which offers enhanced access for all libraries that own copies of the same works. This of course goes double for copy specific data: for example, names of binders, former owners, annotators, or genre terms that are copy specific (e.g. annotations, presentation copies, foredge paintings, binding types). A search for e.g. Jean Grolier would call up all the records where Grolier was traced as a binder. It's hard to imagine how it would be possible to preserve this indexing capacity within OCLC, which would be a tremendous loss to our users (and ourselves!). I'm wondering if any one else out there has heard anything that would explain how this functionality could be retained, given the structure of OCLC. I'm also curious about the take of OCLC libraries on this issue: do you have work-arounds or ways of bringing out or searching local data within the current set up in OCLC? Liz O'Keefe Elizabeth O'Keefe Director of Collection Information Systems The Morgan Library & Museum 225 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016-3405 TEL: 212 590-0380 NET: [log in to unmask] Visit CORSAIR, the Library's comprehensive collections catalog, now on the web at http://corsair.themorgan.org __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send 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 (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]