AMES CATALOGING/METADATA PRIORITIES for FY2011
I. TERMINOLOGY
Backlog – current uncataloged collections. May be located in 14E-210, in library units, or LSA
Digital – content that is hosted, served, and curated locally
Electronic – content that is hosted remotely
Local cataloging – cataloging work performed by a member of the MIT Libraries’ staff
Outsourcing – cataloging work performed by a vendor or contractor, whether on-site or remote
Piggy-backing – practice of using a single Barton record to represent both print and electronic copies of a title
Record sets – groups of MARC records packaged and distributed in conjunction with a specific e-resource package
Vendor-supplied records – MARC cataloging records obtained as a group from a vendor or a publisher
The Wall – current physical cataloging work supply, located in 14E-210
II. OVERVIEW OF CATALOGING PRIORITIES
URGENT PRIORITY – do these as quickly as possible
- Items acquired for class use / reserves – Priority 1, takes precedence over everything else
- Items purchased in response to reader request
- Tangible, electronic, or digital items in conjunction with a high-priority project (examples: digital projects, storage or moves, cancellations)
- Other rush items
HIGH PRIORITY
- E-content for which we pay (e-books, e-journals, proceedings)
- MIT-created or Institute-specific content
- MIT Press publications
- Purchased physical items
- Gift items accepted in conjunction with established gift relationships, listed on the Gifts Acceptance Policy (http://libstaff.mit.edu/colserv/gifts/procedures.html)
- E-titles that we used to receive in print and that are now free and e-only.
- Other gift items published within the last five years
LOW PRIORITY –do these only as time permits
- New free scholarly e-titles
- Gift items published six or more years ago
- Current uncataloged backlogs, all physical formats.
III. CATALOG LOCALLY OR OUTSOURCE?
CATALOG LOCALLY – listed in descending order of urgency
- Items acquired for class use / reserves – Priority 1, takes precedence over everything else
- Items purchased in response to reader request
- Other rush items
- MIT-created or Institute-specific content – in addition to MIT Publications Cataloger, deploy other staff here as appropriate before assigning to lower priority work
- MIT Press publications
- E-titles that we used to receive in print and that are now free and e-only
- Items which are not suitable for shipping (examples: unique or rare, extremely costly, or fragile materials)
- Gift items published six or more years ago
- Uncataloged backlogs, all physical formats. These are the lowest priority, and will only be cataloged as time permits.
In addition to the above, we will also perform catalog/collections maintenance tasks locally. This includes making corrections to Barton and DSpace records for MIT theses, and processing second copies, deletions, replacements, corrections, added volumes, and serials maintenance tasks. Priority is determined by the above criteria. (An exception may be made for complex maintenance of large e-packages; these may be outsourced if we lack the resources to catalog them locally in a timely manner.)
Finally, loading of vendor-supplied records is always done locally.
OUTSOURCE
- Tangible or electronic resources requiring language expertise not locally available
- Music scores and sound recordings
CATALOG LOCALLY OR OUTSOURCE – (assumes no MIT content, since all MIT content is cataloged locally) listed in descending order of urgency
- Tangible, electronic, or digital items in conjunction with a high-priority project (examples: digital projects, storage or moves, cancellations) unless already included in a higher priority category described above.
- If we are able to provide service within the required timeframe, these items will be cataloged locally
- If we are not able to provide service within the desired timeframe, cataloging of these items will be outsourced.
- E-content for which we pay (e-books, e-journals, proceedings)
- Catalog locally: one-offs (single e-book orders); continuing resources requiring piggy-backing; e-book packages for which record sets or other automated processes are available for acquiring catalog records
- Outsource: music (digitized scores or audio files); large current backlogs (one-time); large e-packages which are e-only and for which no record sets are available.
- Purchased physical items or gifts
- Purchased physical items, gifts accepted in the context of established gift relationships, and gift items published within the last five years are triaged and put on The Wall, where they await local cataloger attention
- Items not cataloged within two months of being added to The Wall will be outsourced.
NOT TO BE CATALOGED THIS YEAR
- Current uncataloged collections or serial runs, all formats – unless covered in any of the categories listed above, these will be addressed as special projects, if/when special funding and/or staffing become available
- Free non-scholarly content
TO BE DETERMINED
We need guidance in setting a policy regarding freely available scholarly electronic content. We would like to receive guidelines from Millicent’s group for this category, to ensure that we all share an understanding of how requests are to be prioritized and that all of us share a vision of how the MIT Libraries should approach this potentially huge area. Until these guidelines exist, our policy will be:
- We will continue to catalog serials, including monographic series, which we used to receive in print, and that are now free and e-only.
- All other requests for free e-titles will be cataloged locally, as time permits; these will be considered low priority.
At this time we are waiting for the recommendations of two groups: the Digital Objects Subgroup and the maps discussion group. We will amend these priorities to reflect these recommendations if they are accepted during the course of the year.
ON-SITE CATALOGING SERVICE AT THE LSA
AMES staff will continue to provide on-site service at LSA in conjunction with high priority projects: storage moves, problem-solving, or requests from selectors involving collections too large to be accommodated in 14E-210. The appropriate level of staffing is presently under discussion between AMES and IDLA staff. Routine, ongoing cataloging of the DDC collection is not planned for this year.
