Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory, Vol. 12, pp. 407-410, 1988 0364~6408/88 $3.00 + .OO Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright 0 1989 Pergamon Press plc

CENTER FOR RESEARCH LIBRARIES

BIBLIOGRAPHIC ACCESS TO THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH LIBRARIES’ COLLECTIONS

VIRGINIA BOUCHER

Head, Interlibrary Cooperation

University of Colorado at Boulder

Boulder. CO 80309-0184

In using the Center for Research Libraries’ collections, the interlibrary loan librarian has an opportunity to make use of all the searching skills acquired in the daily work of finding materials for interlibrary loan users. The sleuth-like qualities are just as important here as they are in any bibliographic verification and location work. Keeping in mind a general knowledge of the collections and learning to use some important tools are the keys to success.

The first thing to recognize is that parts of the collections are cataloged, and therefore under bibliographic control, and parts of them are not cataloged at all. Finding items in the collections is not as difficult as might be expected because there is a Handbook of 165 pages to help the borrower in obtaining materials, whether they be cataloged or uncataloged.

The Handbook contains general descriptions of all the Center’s collections. It outlines the scope of the various collection categories. The Table of Contents lists three kinds of entries: countries, such as Japan and Yugoslavia; types of material, such as dissertations and newspapers; and subjects, such as labor and music. There is an index to further aid the user. The description of a particular collection generally has a comment about bibliographic access.

UNCATALOGED MATERIALS

Ask for Any Title in Scope Some of the most important collections at the Center are not cataloged and asking for any

title in scope applies when requesting materials. These materials are arranged on the shelf by author, or some other reasonable method, so that individual titles can be retrieved readily. Dissertations completed outside of the United States and Canada and state documents of the United States are two examples of important categories of materials which are not cataloged. Titles may simply be requested without actually knowing that the Center holds the item in question.

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Published Bibliographies There are a number of collections for which published bibliographies exist, and these bib-

liographies are often found in a research library’s reference collection. Some examples are as follows:

Evans, Charles. American bibliography; a chronological dictionary of all books, pamphlets and periodical publications printed in the United States of American from the genesis of printing in 1639, down to and including the year 1800. New York: Peter Smith, 1949- 1962. 15 v.

Goldsmith, Valentine Fermande. Short-title catalogue of French Books 1601-1700 in the Library of the British Museum. Folkstone, England: Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1969-1972.

Peale, Charles Willson. The collected papers of Charles Willson Peale and his family; a guide and index to the microfiche edition. Prepared for the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; edited by Lillian B. Miller. Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus Microform, 1980.

Cataloging for individual titles found in microform collections described in published bibliog- raphies is not done at present. Looking at the published bibliography is the way to determine what the Center has, within the limits of the microform project.

Published Guides For some of the collections, published guides are available but might not be found in a siz-

able reference collection. An example of this would be the microfiche edition of “Decorative arts trade catalogs from the Winterthur Museum” which is described in Trade catalogues at Winterthur: a guide to the literature of merchandising, 1750 to 1980, compiled by E. Richard McKinstry (New York, Garland Publishing, 1984). The Center will loan this guide to a mem- ber library so that the library user can identify which particular microfiche are required.

Center Guides to Collections For some categories of materials the Center has a pamphlet or has actually made a guide

to the collection. For example, the “Statistical publications: British government publications containing statistics, 1801-1965,” which is a microfilm edition of statistical serials issued by various government agencies, has a contents list which is available from the Center on request.

Two other sources can be consulted. “Guides to Collections at CRL” is a helpful listing which can be found in the Center’s Manual of Interlibrary Loan Policies and Procedures (Chi- cago: Center for Research Libraries, 1987). Two sections of the Handbook, “Microform and Reprint Collections” and “Microform Collections Based on Published Bibliographies” are use- ful in identifying and ascertaining the bibliographic control of microform projects which the Center holds or is acquiring.

Another useful group of materials is the Center’s individually published checklists and col- lection descriptions. These are listed below:

Doeppers, Daniel F. A Checklist of Southeast Asian newspapers and other research mate- rials in microform held by the Center for Research Libraries. Bibliographic series no. 1. Madison, Wis.: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin, 1984.

Bibliographic Access to CRL’s Collection 409

Center for Research Libraries. Foreign newspaper microfilm program. 1987.

Center for Research Libraries. British and Irish materials. 1987.

Center for Research Libraries. East Asian materials. 1986.

Center for Research Libraries. East Asian serials currently received at the Center for Research Libraries. 1984.

Center for Research Libraries. Latin American and Caribbean research material available in microform from the Latin American Microform Project and the Center for Research Libraries. May 1988.

Ignashev, Sergie P. Soviet serials currently received at the Center for Research Libraries; a checklist. 2nd ed. 1985.

Ignashev, Sergei P. Soviet serials in translation held by the Center for Research Libraries. 1983.

CATALOGED MATERIALS

The Center has long cataloged certain of its materials, and bibliographic access to these materials is readily available. Cataloging records have been reported regularly to these appro- priate bibliographic projects:

National Union Catalog

New Serial Titles

Newspapers in Microform

National Register of Microform Masters

United States Newspaper Program National Union List

When searching these bibliographies, the Center’s symbol will appear for the titles held. In July 1982, the Center had its card catalog filmed, and it was distributed in 229 micro-

fiche. This microfiche Catalog contains all the cataloging through July 16, 1982, approxi- mately 400,000 cards, in a dictionary arrangement, including all main and added entries and cross references. Online cataloging began in November 1981 using OCLC. A Catalog, Sup- plement of 41 microfiche was issued in 1986, which contains all online cataloging since November 1981. One more supplement is expected in Spring 1989. These Catalogs contain the most complete access to the cataloged collections, keeping in mind the Catalog, Supple- ment publication data of 1986.

Retrospective conversion has been underway since 1983. Virtually all the serials and newspapers are now available online through OCLC. Holdings records for these materials have been put into two union lists on OCLC: CRIU (the Center’s own union list) and SILO (Serials of Illinois Libraries Online). Holdings for U.S. newspapers are also in the OCLC union list NEPU (the United States Newspaper Program). Other retrospective conversion is based on working through the Center’s card catalog alphabetically. The letter “L” has been reached, and work continues. Two categories of materials not being put into OCLC at present are older monographic microform records and non-Romanized Slavic records.

The Center’s OCLC archival tapes have been added to the RLIN database, and new tapes are added regularly.

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Tape loading is available for member libraries’ online catalogs. There are 115,000 machine- readable records of retrospective conversion activity and of current cataloging. These Cen- ter records can be acquired for a member library’s online catalog at what it costs to dupli- cate the tapes. The Center’s records can also be added to a member library’s own OCLC archival tape at what it costs to add records to a tape. Five libraries have added the Center’s tapes to their online catalogs, and several more libraries are in the process of doing so. For those libraries, use of the Center’s collections has increased because the bibliographic infor- mation is available to the library user.

Access to the varied collections of the Center for Research Libraries can be gained in a number of ways. The OCLC and RLIN online union catalogs can be searched. The Center’s Handbook can be consulted for access information including the note that the title appears in the Center’s Catalog, the recommendation to ask for any title in scope, references to pub- lished bibliographies, and comments about guides which can be borrowed. A purchase request may also be an option. New developments can be tracked in the Center’s newsletter, Focus on the Center for Research Libraries. Finally, when the interlibrary loan librarian has been diligent in the pursuit of a particular item which remains elusive, questions can be asked of the friendly folks at the Center for Research Libraries.