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U.S. federal documents cataloging project

The recommendations of the Federal Documents Task Force (FedForce) cleared the way for the integration of SuDoc classed depository materials into the regular workstream, beginning early in 1999. While current receipts actually began entering the DRA Marion database at that time, including some with serial holdings dating well back into the past, it was not until February 2000 that the loading of retrospective holdings was completed and application of smart barcodes to monographs commenced. Guided by Gail Cooke and Kathy Brignole, a number of students participated in phases I and II, most of which was completed by the time funding for these phases ran out in 2002.

Priorities for retrospective cataloging activity

The retrospective creation of a machine-readable catalog with holdings information for over a million federal depository volumes is a huge task likely to take a decade or more to complete. The FedForce Project considered only the most recent 24 years of these materials, some 375,000 titles for which cataloging has been completed by the U.S. Government Printing Office since 1976. In the first two phases, we verified and/or created holdings and applied smart barcodes for print monographs, including many bound with other titles in their series, and for serials. In many cases the GPO records reflected a format we did not own. In some cases our profile showed us as owning print when in fact we received microform, while in others we were shown as holding microform when in fact we own the print. The former condition resulted in microform holdings being identified in the catalog while the latter awaits a later phase of this project.

To ensure that all interested parties know the order in which these materials are being handled and can interpret the catalog accordingly, the following priorities have been agreed upon by the Heads of Cataloging and Acquisitions and the Documents Librarian from Research and Information Services. Materials will be worked on in the following order:

1. Phase I: Monographs 1976+ (completed 2002)

   These were assigned a high priority due to the fact that the records loaded into Marion had smart barcodes which were not physically present on the volumes themselves. Without the barcodes, Circ would have had to create on-the-fly item records to enable a patron to use the title and the catalog would have reflected a non-existent second copy as being "ON THE SHELF". There are still a few records remaining to be completed, for which we have not been able to locate the material within our collection.

2. Phase II: Currently received serials (largely completed in 2002)

   The smart barcoding project created a single volume in the catalog for all serials published after 1976. We decided early on to handle these as received and to retrospectively enter holdings when titles were encountered. Where titles were superseded, we went back and entered holdings for the earlier title as well. Over the course of the project, most currently received titles were encountered and their holdings updated in the catalog, with the most frequent serials handled first. Remaining to be done are serial titles which had ceased prior to 1976.

3. Phase III: Electronic resources (partially completed)

   There is considerable overlap between this category and that preceding it above, since many electronic resources are also currently received periodicals. A decision was made by the Documents Coordinator to order Marcive records for ALL documents available via the Web, regardless of our selection criteria. These have been loaded into the OPAC, though in cases where we own the print version the electronic may not yet be searchable by format. It also appears that there may have been a hiatus in loading records covering the years 2001-2002.

   An additional area still needing attention is CD-ROMs housed in the GIS and documents CD-ROM cabinets in RISD. While post-1999 arrivals should have been cataloged on receipt, earlier titles likely were missed.

4. Phase IV: Retrospective serial holdings (pending)

   This will be a big job, especially since many of these will predate the 1976 GPO load by a significant margin, necessitating adding great quantities of holdings to the records. Our understanding is that GPO has records for titles that were still ongoing in 1976, even if they had started publication in 1876, so a lot of energy will go into identifying these titles and adding holdings. This will likely be done as part of an inventory based on the local SuDocs shelflist.

5. Phase V: Microforms (pending)

   These may turn out to be the most difficult to identify, as there is no format-specific shelflist for these and their MARC iteration is generally a print record with additional 074s with "(MF)" after the SuDoc number. These will probably have to be done as a special project of their own, starting with the actual fiche or film as source data. Marcive was asked to create separate holdings (in addition to print holdings) for any titles with 074 (MF), but only after this omission was noted in the first load (e.g., after 40,000 records had already been loaded).

6. Phase VI: Maps (pending)

   These too will have to be identified through reports, since no smart barcodes have been generated, no shelf list exists locally, and RISD asked for access at the sheet level for large sets. This could be a formidable undertaking.

7. Phase VII: Reference Collection titles

   Much of the Reference federal document collection was removed to the 2nd floor as part of the preparations for construction in the East Wing of D.H. Hill in late 2004. This included the entire REF-CENSUS and much of the REF-LAW collection. Those titles will now be considered as Cataloging reaches the affected agency as part of the general pre-1976 retrospective conversion.

8. Pre 1976 publications not captured above (all pre-1976 monographs)

   This will be a separate project with more money attached to it for accomplishing this goal. We may be able to purchase these records through one of the utilities as several libraries, including the CIC group, are working on retrospective conversion projects by individual agencies.