Library Resources & ISSN 0024-2527 Technical Services January 2010 Volume 54, No. 1 Year of Cataloging Research Randy Roeder Name Authority Work Today Susan K. Burke and Jay Shorten Identifying Standard Practices in Research Library Book Conservation Liz Dube and Whitney Baker The Distributions of MARC Fields in Bibliographic Records Matthew Mayernik The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services 54 ❘ 1 Library Resources & Technical Services (ISSN 0024-2527) is published quarterly by the American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. It is the official publication of the Association Library Resources for Library Collections & Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association. Subscription price: to members of the Association & for Library Collections & Technical Services, Technical Services $27.50 per year, included in the membership dues; to nonmembers, $85 per year in U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and $95 per year in other foreign coun- ISSN 0024-2527 January 2010 Volume 54, No. 1 tries. Single copies, $25. Periodical postage paid at Chicago, IL, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Library Guest Editorial 2 Resources & Technical Services, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Business Manager: Charles Year of Cataloging Research Wilt, Executive Director, Association for Library Randy Roeder Collections & Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association. Send manuscripts to the Editorial Office: Peggy Johnson, Editor, Library Resources & Technical Services, University Articles of Minnesota Libraries, 499 Wilson Library, 309 19th Ave. So., Minneapolis, MN 55455; (612) 624- 2312; fax: (612) 626-9353; e-mail: m-john@umn Name Authority Work Today 4 .edu. Advertising: ALCTS, 50 E. Huron St., A Comparison of Types of Academic Libraries Chicago, IL 60611; 312-280-5038; fax: 312-280- Susan K. Burke and Jay Shorten 5032. ALA Production Services: Troy D. Linker, Chris Keech, Tim Clifford, and Justine Wells. Members: Address changes and inquiries should Identifying Standard Practices in Research Library be sent to Membership Department—Library Book Conservation 21 Resources & Technical Services, 50 E. Huron Whitney Baker and Liz Dube St., Chicago, IL 60611. Nonmember subscribers: Subscriptions, orders, changes of address, and inquiries should be sent to Library Resources The Distributions of MARC Fields in Bibliographic Records 40 & Technical Services, Subscription Department, A Power Law Analysis American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Matthew Mayernik Chicago, IL 60611; 1-800-545-2433; fax: (312) 944- 2641; [email protected]. Book Reviews 55 Library Resources & Technical Services is indexed in Library Literature, Library & Information Science Abstracts, Current Index to Journals in Education, Index to Advertisers 54 Science Citation Index, and Information Science Abstracts. Contents are listed in CALL (Current American—Library Literature). Its reviews are Cover art (“A Bough of Holly” by M. Ellen Edwards and John C. Staples) included in Book Review Digest, Book Review reprinted from Told in the Twilight, by F. E. Weatherly (London: Hildesheimer and Index, and Review of Reviews. Faulkner, 188?), courtesy of Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Instructions for authors appear on the Library Resources & Technical Services webpage at www .ala.org/alcts/lrts. Copies of books for review should be addressed to Edward Swanson, Book Review Editor, Library Resources & Technical Services, 1065 Portland Ave., Saint Paul, MN 55104; e-mail: [email protected]. ©2010 American Library Association All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be photo- copied for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other reprinting, photocopying, or translating, address requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. The paper used in this publication meets the mini- mum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. ∞ Publication in Library Resources & Technical Services does not imply official endorsement by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services nor by ALA, and the assumption of edito- Association for Library Collections & Technical Services rial responsibility is not to be construed as endorse- Visit LRTS online at www.ala.org/alcts/lrts. ment of the opinions expressed by the editor or For current news and reports on ALCTS activities, see the ALCTS Newsletter Online at individual contributors. www.ala.org/alcts/alcts_news. 2 LRTS 54(1) Year of Cataloging Research EDITORIAL BOARD Guest Editorial Editor and Chair Peggy Johnson A Year of Cataloging University of Minnesota Research Members Kristen Antelman, North Carolina Randy Roeder State University Stephen Bosch, University of Randy Roeder ([email protected]) is Head of Complex Cataloging, University of Iowa Arizona Libraries, Iowa City. Elise Calvi, Indiana Historical Library Resources and Technical Services is celebrating 2010 as the Year of Society Cataloging Research by publishing guest editorials and highlighting papers that Allyson Carlyle, University of advance this important initiative. Washington Mary Casserly, University at Albany vidence-based cataloging. The phrase has been popping up frequently Elisa Coghlan, University of Washington since the 2008 release of On the Record: Report of the Library of Congress E 1 Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control. While the historical Leslie Czechowski, University of record would indicate an unbroken string of cataloging research and publication Pittsburg Health Sciences Library going back at least a century, a general dissatisfaction with our efforts to date is Lewis Brian Day, Harvard palpable, and former apologists are increasingly becoming catalogers’ most vocif- University erous critics. In the middle of what increasingly feels like a tug-of-war stands the Dawn Hale, Johns Hopkins practitioner observing that for every librarian ready to add to a tradition built on University the likes of Charles A. Cutter and Seymour Lubetzky, there is another looking at October Ivins, Ivins eContent the same corpus reiterating Gertrude Stein’s classic observation that “there’s no Solutions there there.” Clearly, a fundamental reappraisal of the importance of the biblio- Edgar Jones, National University graphic work traditionally done by catalogers is taking place. Birdie McLennon, University of While the outcome of that reevaluation is anything but clear, the result is cer- Vermont Libraries tain to be less than ideal if the emerging consensus is one based on anecdote or Randy Roeder, University of Iowa built on inquiry into what has become a rapidly disappearing environment. The Carlen Ruschoff, University of authors of On the Record are unambiguous in their description of a field where Maryland research has lagged behind events and where the knowledge base provides woe- Sarah Simpson, Tulsa City–County fully inadequate support for making decisions certain to have a profound effect Library System on the future of libraries and the profession. Given the situation, it comes as no surprise that the Working Group’s use of the word “evidence” has become a de Elaine L. Westbooks, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries facto rallying cry for those seeking to revitalize research in information-seeking behavior and the value of bibliographic metadata. Keenly aware of the state of affairs and inspired by the Library of Congress Ex-Officio Members report, members of the American Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Implementation Task Group on the LCWGR Charles Wilt, Executive Director, (Library of Congress Working Group Report) are working to promote 2010 ALCTS as the Year of Cataloging Research. The effort is in the organizational stage, Mary Beth Weber, Rutgers and the list of tasks to be accomplished is long—working with the ALCTS University, Editor, ALCTS Programming Committee, trying to get American Library Association buy-in; Newsletter Online promoting the idea in such venues as the American Society for Information Edward Swanson, Minitex Library Science and Technology, the International Federation of Library Associations Information Network, and Institutions, and the International Society for Knowledge Organization; Book Review Editor, LRTS writing editorials; and creating buzz in general. A significant measure of the initiative’s success, however, will lie in the degree to which the Implementation 54(1) LRTS Editorial 3 Task Group is able to secure the involvement and support of if the importance of that catalog is diminishing over time. those outside the cataloging community. The geometrically Then, too, how important is it to continue to study the use of expanding network, with its proliferation of communication our bibliographic data within the framework of the MARC options, all but guarantees that much of the research that record when MARC is a legacy format and the long-term determines the future of bibliographic control will take existence of the unified bibliographic record is doubtful? place outside the library and that the reporting of it will take There may indeed be good reasons for doing this sort of place outside traditional venues. research,