Making the most of our libraries

Foreword and Acknowledgements

Acronyms, initialisms and abbreviations used in the report

PROLOGUE by Barry Bloomfield and Bernard Naylor

1.0 RETROSPECTIVE CONVERSION IN THE UK: SCALE OF THE TASK, THE ISSUES, OPPORTUNITY AND NEED FOR A NATIONAL STRATEGY

1.1 Background

1.2 Scale of the task

1.2.1 Higher education libraries

1.2.2 Public libraries

1.2.3 All other libraries

1.2.4 Costs

1.3 Issues

1.4 The opportunity and the need for a national strategy

2.0 RETROSPECTIVE CONVERSION: INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

2.1 IFLA

2.2 United States

2.2.1 Streit Report's findings

2.3 Europe

2.3.1 Plan of Action for Libraries in the EC

2.3.2 Council of Europe's Working Party on Retrospective Cataloguing

3.0 RETROSPECTIVE CONVERSION OF LIBRARY CATALOGUES IN INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UK

3.1 Summary of the FIGIT study

3.1.1 Main quantitative results

3.1.2 Conclusions

3.1.3 Recommendations

3.1.4 A national programme

3.2 Background to the study

3.2.1 The wider research community

3.2.2 Humanities research collections

3.2.3 Higher education Non-Formula Funding of Special Collections in the Humanities

3.2.4 Chris Hunt's paper to the Libraries Review

3.2.5 Reasons for retrospective conversion - local benefits

3.2.6 Reasons for retrospective conversion - resource sharing

3.2.7 Should all records be converted?

3.3 The study

3.3.1 General approach

3.3.2 Material covered in the quantitative survey

3.3.3 Defining what has to be counted

3.3.4 Overlap between stocks

3.3.5 Costs

3.3.6 Tackling retrospective conversion

4.0 CATALOGUES OF OTHER UK LIBRARIES: THE BLRIC STUDY

4.1 Background to the BLRIC study

4.2 Aim and objectives of the project proposal

4.3 Initiatives relevant to the study

4.3.1 Public Libraries and EARL

4.3.2 Cathedral Libraries Project

4.3.3 National Trust Libraries

4.4 Seminar on the BLRIC study

4.5 Conduct of the study

4.5.1 Project Advisory Group

4.5.2 Population of libraries and the sectors included

4.5.3 Material covered by the study

4.5.4 'Special' collections and 'local' collections

4.5.5 The questionnaire: its design

4.5.6 The questionnaire: its completion

5.0 RESULTS

6.0 CONCLUSIONS

6.1 Records awaiting conversion

6.1.1 Overall scale of the task

6.1.2 Special collections

6.1.3 Local history/studies collections in public libraries

6.2 Lack of attention to standards

6.2.1 Upgrading of existing machine readable records

6.2.2 Sources/creation of bibliographic records

6.2.3 Bibliographic formats and levels of bibliographic description

6.3 Published guidelines not used

6.4 Different forms of catalogue to be converted

6.5 Availability of resources for retrospective conversion

6.6 Costs and definitions

6.7 Provision of access

6.7.1 To collections

6.7.2 To records

6.8 Non-print items and never catalogued items

7.0 REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Appendix A - Report of the seminar held at The British Academy on 8th May 1996

Appendix B - Libraries responding to the BLRIC survey

Appendix C - Copy of questionnaire used in the BLRIC survey

Appendix D - Sample page of list(s) which can be produced of 'special collections

ANNEXE 1 - Retrospective conversion of library catalogues in UK institutions of higher education: a quantitative analysis undertaken on behalf of the Follett Implementation Group on IT, Russell Sweeney and Steven Prowse. March 1995.

ANNEXE 2 - Retrospective conversion of library catalogues in institutions of higher education in the United Kingdom. Report on a focused consultation group and a survey of opinions. Prepared by Information Management Associates. May 1995.

Making the most of our libraries

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