Mission Possible: The University of Hong Kong Libraries strategies in processing hundred thousands o

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Mission Possible The University of Hong Kong
Libraries strategies in processing hundred
thousands of e-Chinese materials

• Connie Lam
• University of Hong Kong Libraries
• OCLC CJK annual meeting April 4, 2008, Atlanta

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Outline

• The E-Chinese Collection in HKU
• Cataloguing approach
• Difficulties encountered
• Our solutions
• Lesson we learnt
• The Challenges

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The e-Chinese Collection

• Major acquisitions
• 1998 Sikuquanshu (????)
• 1999 China Journal Net (China Academic Journal)
• 2000 China Core Newspapers Database
• China Doctors Masters Dissertations
• 2003 Apabi e-book
• 2005 SuperStar Digital Library

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The e-Chinese Collection

• e-journals 11,967
• e-news 941
• e-books 400,000
• e-theses 624,300

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Cataloguing approach

• Catalog what?
• Purchased e-resources.
• Free e-resources selected by subject librarians

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Cataloguing approach

• Catalog at database level once access is set up
• Cataloging at individual level only if
• Title list is provided by vendor
• Individual title has full text access
• Separate record approach every format for a
  title has its own record
• Single record approach same title from different
  vendors has only one record

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Cataloguing approach

• Why catalog?
• Provide one stop search for users
• Assist discovery and access to users
• Increases the visibility of the resources
• Promote access to the resources

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Problems encountered in cataloguing e-journals

• Insufficient information
• When we started our cataloguing project of CJN
  (CAJ) titles in 2000, we only had the title list
  in print format provided by vendor.
• The title list has title and issuing body. No
  ISSN, no information on title relationship, no
  coverage details.

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Problems encountered in cataloguing e-journals

• We started the cataloguing work with titles we
  have printed records.
• We relied on references tools to obtain
  information on other titles.
• We checked full text images to verify changes in
  titles.
• There were only around 3,500 titles in the
  package.
• We spent around 2 years to have them finished.

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Problems encountered in cataloguing e-journals

• We requested the vendor to provide detail
  information in excel file, including
• Title
• Title in English, if any.
• ISSN
• Frequency
• Publisher
• We access the OPAC of National Library of China
  and CALIS to obtain more information on the
  titles.

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Problems encountered in cataloguing e-journals

• With more information in hand, we are able to
  speed up our cataloguing work.
• The latest excel file we received, has
  information on coverage and former titles per our
  request.

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Problems encountered in cataloguing e-journals

• But
• Information accuracy is still a problem.
• Difficult to trace title changes.
• Coverage information not clear.
• Verify the information by checking other catalogs
  and full text images online is time consuming.
• Difficult to keep the catalog up-to date as no
  regular updating information provided.

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Problems encountered in cataloguing e-books

• Vendor provided Marc records
• Problem with the Chinese scripts.
• Not follow AACR2.
• Improper tag used, incorrect indicators used.
• Not follow LC Pinyin guidelines.
• Not follow LC name authorities.
• No subject headings.
• Multi-records for multi-volume set
• Multi-records for serials titles.

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Problems encountered in cataloguing e-books

• Our action
• Communicate with vendor for desired standard
• Provide advice to enhance the records
• Provide example records to vendor
• Why vendor unable to fulfill our requirements
• Records are created by the metadata in database
• Problems cannot be solved by using program
• Problems cannot be tackled in batch

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Problems encountered in cataloguing e-books

• We decide
• Request vendor to provide title list with the
  following data in excel file
• Author
• Title
• Publisher
• ISBN
• Direct url
• Control number
• Create records ourselves

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Our strategy

• Handle titles we have print records first.
• We estimated that 20-30 of the titles have print
  records in HKUL catalog.
• Based on the title list, we develop computer
  programs
• To search ISBN or title of print records in HKUL
  catalog.
• To generate records based on the print records.
• To add the urls and the control numbers to
  records.
• To Global update function of Innopac to add
  constant data of the e-version to the records.

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Problems encountered in cataloguing e-book

• Search titles by program ? Fail
• Simply rely on title is not reliable.
• A lot of titles in the file have errors.
• Same title sometimes has duplicate entries due to
• Different punctuation used
• Simplified/Traditional characters
• Different space used
• We tried one batch and found that too much effort
  required for the clean up.

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Problems encountered in cataloguing e-book

• Search ISBN by program ? Fail
• The matching rate is much lower than our
  estimation
• Some publishers use same ISBN
• For different titles.
• For same title, but different editions
• We used ISBN program to process 3 batches and
  have to re-check every title in these batches to
  ensure the records are correct.

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Problems encountered in cataloguing e-book

• We also find that the vendor provided title list
  contains
• Incorrect metadata
• ISBN
• Author
• Title
• Edition
• Publisher
• Series
• Duplicated entries

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Our solutions

• We realize that
• Manually search for matching records is the only
  solution.
• We can generate some revenue by uploading records
  to OCLC which helps to cover some of the costs.
• We expand the search to other libraries via Z39.5
• We set up a small project team for cataloguing of
  Chinese e-books.

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Our solutions

• Division of labor
• We analyze the job and divide the task into
  small pieces.
• Members of the newly set up team are mainly
  responsible for searching. No editing is
  required.
• Minimal training is required.
• Efficiency
• High productivity

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Our workflow

• Analyze excel file to locate serial titles,
  collectanea and have them excluded from searching
  list.
• Serial titles cataloged by traditional
  cataloging.
• Based on the searching list to locate e-records
  in HKUL catalog.
• If yes, add the url to the existing e-record

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Our workflow

• Use Z39.5 to search selected libraries, including
  HKUL.
• Identify fully cataloged records ? Save the
  record suppress the record ? Put the record no.
  in the excel file.
• Use program to add the urls and the control
  numbers to the records.
• Use Global update function of Innopac to add
  constant data of the e-version to the records.

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A typical worksheet after searching
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Our workflow

• Create review file for the records
• Pass the file to experience catalogers for quick
  review, mainly to identify out-dated cataloguing
  practice, human errors unable to be tackled by
  batch update, local notes in the note field.
• Release the records and upload to OCLC
• Create simple records for titles without matching
  records, i.e. descriptive cataloging authority
  control, but no subject heading, no call number.
• Simple records also reviewed by experienced
  catalogers and upload to OCLC.

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E-Chinese resources we cataloged

• e-journals 11,967 titles no backlog
• e-news 941 titles no backlog
• e-books 108,974 titles backlog Apabi,
  SuperStar
• e-theses 1,025 titles not yet start the
  cataloguing project for CDMD

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We contributed
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Goal 1 One stop search
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Goal 2 Assist resources discovery

• Titles in collectanea which are not searchable in
  the database, can be located by searching HKUL
  catalog.
• More precise title information in HKUL catalog
  than the database, it helps users to locate the
  resources easily.

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Goal 3 Resources visibility

• We are told that our students search the web, but
  not the catalog. By uploading the records to
  OCLC and with Open WorldCat, our users can
  identify the e-books by using Google, Yahoo
• Our collection becomes more visible.

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Lessons learnt

• Program can help to do some procedures but manual
  checking is still very important.
• Cataloging is a labor intensive job. There is no
  magic.
• Communication with vendor is the most important
  task. Accurate metadata is extremely important
  for fast processing.

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The challenges

• Quality control the speed of searching and
  matching is faster than review.
• The process of searching and matching is a
  repetitive and boring task, how to help staff
  maintain high accuracy and efficiency?
• Training of inexperience staff

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What can be done?

• Urge vendor to provide unique control number for
  individual title in the database, which can is
  very useful in sharing cataloguing.
• Work with vendor for detail and precise metadata.
  

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• Thank You!
• csllam_at_hkucc.hku.hk