Summit Catalog Committee
Recommendations for
Council, May 2006
Summary
The following are
recommendations for action by the Summit Catalog Committee for the 06-07
year. These recommendations stem from
work and discussion by Committee members and working groups over the 05-06
academic year as well as surveys. See
the SCC web page for background information, particularly the survey results
at: http://www.orbiscascade.org/staffhome/SCC_surveys_06spring-votes.htm.
In general the
recommendations fall into three major categories:
1improving
database quality
2integration
and linking with the wider web environment or "mobilizing resources"
3developing
a new & improved information discovery environment for Summit
Given the scope and number
of recommendations, the Committee realizes that it may indeed take more than a
year to complete all of them. Because a
“new and improved discovery environment” is such an overarching goal that may
eventually supersede some of our other recommendations, we recommend forming a
working group to address this immediately.
This group will be charged with usability testing of the Summit Catalog
to determine desirable new features as well as evaluation of options for “next
generation” library catalogs. The
Committee will also move simultaneously to address the recommendations that
fall into the database quality and linking categories, giving attention to the
most urgent and least time intensive recommendations first.
To further guide Council in
evaluating these recommendations for action, we have also included an indicator
(low, medium, high) of the projected time commitment required for each action
by Alliance
staff and Alliance
members.
Recommended actions related to major
tasks for 05-06
Electronic resources
- Work for less record duplication for electronic
resources in Summit
by pursuing the use of a special 001 field for ERM brief records, ISSN
matching for journal bib records, and developing standards for using the
001 field for e-book records. (this
bundles together the ER Working Group’s first three recommendations) 1 Alliance staff:
medium; Alliance
members [primarily
for those using related products]:
medium
- Request an INN-Reach enhancement for a “link
resolver router” that would direct patrons to their local link resolver
from Summit
records (this would allow patrons to identify their library’s electronic
holdings for a journal easily).
2 Alliance staff: low [low impact to make request, medium to implement]; Alliance
members: low
- Conduct usability testing on Summit to: evaluate how patrons navigate
journal holdings information, discover how patrons are using Summit (as their
primary or secondary catalog?), and generally to identify areas where
improvement is needed. (this bundles
together the ER Working Group’s fifth and sixth recommendations on the
survey) 3 Alliance
staff: low; Alliance
members: high
FRBR
(No actions recommended: ongoing monitoring of FRBR and related products
is part of SCC’s basic charge)
Search Engines
- Add a Summit
link to OCLC Open WorldCat2
Alliance
staff: low; Alliance
members: low
- Create a Summit
link within Google Scholar. (Discussions
are currently underway with Google for this). 2 Alliance staff: medium [medium to high]; Alliance
members: medium [impact on members generally: none; some impact on one
or two member library staff investigating and facilitating discussions
with GS]
- Provide recommendations and education to member
libraries regarding linking to and optimizing links from Open Worldcat,
OpenURL resolvers and new search engine services. 2 Alliance staff: medium; Alliance members: medium
New topics to address for 06-07
- Review record policies governing the way that
bibliographic records are contributed to Summit in order to improve record
quality and reduce duplicates1
Alliance staff: medium; Alliance members: medium
- Work toward “next generation” functionality for Summit including a
redesigned Summit
interface and richer data for Summit
records including book jackets and TOC data. Usability testing of the current Summit catalog would
be part of the process of moving to a “next generation” Summit catalog. (this
bundles together the second-fourth proposed topics on the survey) 3 Alliance
staff: high; Alliance
members: high
- Make Summit data
available for harvesting by member libraries for analysis and local
projects2 Alliance staff: high; Alliance members: low
- Develop ways to identify Summit member holdings on bibliographic
records in OCLC to aid in cataloging and acquisitions and reduce duplicate
records in Summit.1 Alliance staff:
medium; Alliance
members: medium