Feature Articles
MARC International (p.181-186)
RICHARD E. COWARD
The cooperative development of the Library of Congress MARC II Project and the British National Bibliography MARC II Project is described and presented as the forerunner of an international MARC network. Emphasis is placed on the necessity for a standard MARC record for international exchange and for acceptance of international standards of cataloging.
Management Planning for Library Systems Development (p.187-217)
FRED L. BELLOMY
This paper deals with the application to library systems development programs of planning techniques which long ago proved their usefulness in business, military, and aerospace developments. The significant features of PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique), WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), planning diagrams, statements of work, cost/time estimates, schedules, manpower loading, and cost phasing are related through an example to the management requirements of a major systems development program at a large university library. The practical aspects of planning are treated in preference to the more theoretical.
An Analysis of Cost Factors in Maintaining and Updating Card Catalogs (p.218-241)
J. L. DOLBY AND V. J. FORSYTH
This study enumerates and compares costs of manual and computerized catalogs. The difficulties of making comparative cost studies are examined. The report concentrates on the problems of cost element definition and on the reporting of as many comparable sources as possible. Results of cost studies are presented in the form of tables that show comparative costs of cataloging, card processing, conversion, and manual and computerized processing. There are also tables on card catalog costs. Conclusions are that the costs of manual and automated methods are essentially the same for short entries, and that there is a substantial economic advantage for automated methods in full entries.
MARC Program Research and Development: A Progress Report (p.242-265)
HENRIETTE D. AVRAM, ALAN S. CROSBY, JERRY G. PENNINGTON, JOHN C. RATHER, LUCIA J. RATHER, AND ARLENE WHITMER
A description of some of the research and development activities at the Library of Congress to expand the capabilities of the MARC System. Gives details of the MARC processing format used by the Library and then describes programming work in three areas: 1) automatic tagging of data elements by format recognition programs; 2) file analysis by a statistical program called GENESIS; and 3) information retrieval using the MARC Retriever.
Performance of Ruecking's Word-Compression Method When Applied to Machine Retrieval from a Library Catalog (p.266-271)
BEN-AMI LIPETZ, PETER STANGL, AND KATHRYN F. TAYLOR
F. H. Ruecking's word-compression algorithm for retrieval of bibliographic data from computer stores was tested for performance in matching user-supplied, unedited bibliographic data to the bibliographic data contained in a library catalog. The algorithm was tested by manual simulation, using data derived from 126 case studies of successful manual searches of the card catalog at Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University. The algorithm achieved 70% recall in comparison to conventional searching. Its acceptability as a substitute for conventional catalog searching methods is questioned unless recall performance can be improved, either by use of the algorithm alone or in combination with other algorithms.