A National Library System:The goal of a single union catalogAdvantages and disadvantages

Sigrún HauksdóttirBack to Basics and Flying into the FutureReykjavík, February 2007

NATIONAL

SYSTEM

Some facts on Gegnir

•http://www.gegnir.is/F

•Gegnir is the union catalog for Icelandic Libraries

•All partipacing libraries catalogue into Gegnir

•One union catalog – One library system

Gegnir – input but no output

Library

Library Library

Library

Library

Gegnir

Statistics

•Bibliographic records: 900.000

•Items: 3.700.000

•Circulation / year 2.600.000

•Borrowers: 120.000

•Libraries: 200

System and standards

•Library system: Aleph500 version 16.2

•MARC standard: MARC21

•Character set:

UTF-8

•Communication protocol: Z39.50

The situation 1997

• Two obsolete union catalogs:

• Gegnir

•National and University Library and most of the other universities

•National bibliography and various union catalogs

• Fengur

•Reykjavík City Library

•Hospitals and 90 other libraries in the public and sector

Scenario

• The union catalogs, Gegnir and Fengur, contained 2/3 of the library usage

• Other systems were:

oMikroMarc

oMetrabók

oBókver

oEmbla

Mission

To select a library system for all Icelandic libraries, including university-, public-, school and research libraries. The guideline is to connect all Icelandic libraries so their databases will appear uniformed or as one database from the user’s point of view.

Goals and Objectives

• To increase proficiency in administration and management of the libraries

• To have one national Union catalog

• To eliminate multiplications of tasks within the libraries both regarding to cataloging and patron information

• To grant all Icelanders access to individual library collections or all collections of Icelandic libraries as unity

Demographics (2003)

Population 307.000

Libraries 300

Universities 8

Students in universities 17.000

Elementary schools 192

Students in elementary schools 44.000

Secondary Schools 43

Students in secondary schools 26.000

Types of libraries

•Types of libraries/library branches in the system:Public libraries: 54Primary schools: 96Universities and National Library: 18Government libraries: 12Research libraries: 8Secondary schools: 11Associations: 2

Structure – National Library System

Authority dataBibliographic

database

Holdings data

Administrativeunits

Library Library Library

Items Items Items ItemsItemsItems

ADMsPublic libraries in greater Reykjavik

area

Elementary schools in greater Reykjavik

area

Secondary schools in greater Reykjavik

area

Western part of Iceland and the Vestfjords

Northern part of Iceland

Eastern part of Iceland

Reykjanes and southern part of

Iceland

Various special libraries

The National and University library

Govermental libraries

Library of University of

Education

Other university libraries

Consortium of Icelandic Libraries

•Responsible for managing the library system

•Cooperative company jointly owned by state and municipalities

The telephone directory

Icelandic name tradition

•Icelandic personal names are sorted by:

•First name (given name)

•Last name (patronymic/surname)

•Middel name (second given name)

Example

•Alexander Alfreðsson

•Alexander Jóhannesson

•Alexander A. Jónsson

•Alexander Alfreð Jónsson

•Alexander B. Jónsson

MARC?

•MARC21

•One subfield $$a is allocated to personal names

•It was not possible to accomidate the sorting requirement within one subfield

•The reasult was utilizing two extra subfields, $$1 and $$7

Example of a record

000526788 FMT L GRLDR L 00664nab^^2200217^^^45^^008 L 961206s1987^^^^ic^^^^^^^^^^^^000^^^ice^^039 L $$ac$$bxx$$c11004 L $$aGuðmundur$$7Andri$$1Thorsson$$d195724510 L $$aLífsgleðin á grunnplaninu :$$bGuðmundur Andri Thorsson og Páll Valsson ræða við Einar Má Guðmundsson.260 L $$c1987300 L $$bMyndir60044 L $$aEinar$$7Már$$1Guðmundsson$$d19547004 L $$aPáll$$1Valsson$$d19607004 L $$aEinar$$7Már$$1Guðmundsson$$d195479230 L $$aTeningur

A listing of Icelandic names

Six years of installation...

Installation and data conversion

•Long process - 6 years

•Three phases

•Conversion from various formats to MARC 21

•The libraries were converted by library systems.

•Size of bibliographic data desided which system should be converted first

The organizational committee as well as three MARC specialists

Conversion challenges

•Different cataloging practice

•Old Gegnir – each volume and new printings cataloged

•Fengur – one bibliographic record for each publication

•Merging the two main databases

•Dublicate records

A tired conversion team, Polish, English and Icelandic members

The self destruction of the bibliographic database

•Punctuation disappering from the bibliographic database

•Malfunction in the Authority Control

•Rebuilding:

•Bibliographic database

•Authority database

The advantages is common cataloging

Libraries with cataloging permission or no...

Libraries withoutcatalogers

Cataloging libraries

The disadvantages of one bibliographic database are:

•The problem and the challenge of the one bibliographic database is quality control

•Diverse libraries and patrons

•Common cataloging practice

•One administration

Division of responsibilities

DataIcelandic Libraries

SystemConsortium of Icel....

Management of the bibliographic database

•Management team

•Cataloging council

•Informal specialist team

Management team

•Systems Manager •Conversion and technical aspects

•The editor of the Gegnir•Quality control

•Teaching catalogers

•Cataloger's Manual.

•The editor of the Authority database •Icelandic subject headings

•Icelandic thesaurus

Cataloging council

•The Cataloging council is the legislative body of the bibliographic database. It´s goal is to:

•Create or agree on cataloging rules and desite if there is a disagrement

•Create and manage Icelandic subject headings

•Assigning cataloging permissions Withdrawing cataloging permissions when needed

The Cataloging council,first meeting

Cataloging permission

•To have a university degree in Librarianship.

•To attend a three day course in cataloging in Aleph.

•Basic prerequisite in cataloging terminology and the MARC format

Why is every other librarian cataloging?

•½ of the librarians have permission to catalog

•Single librarian libraries

•Status symbol

•Job opportunities

•40.000 new records per year and 160 catalogers (250 records)

•No cataloging service

Comparasion between British Library and Icelandic Libraries

Libraries Cataloged records / year

Catalogers

British Library

350.000 170

Icelandic Libraries

40.000 160

Icelandic

The future

•Increase efficiency in cataloging

•Copy cataloging

•OCLC WordCat

•Z39.50 connection to other union catalogs

•Increase quality of the database

•Authority work

•Icelandic subject headings

Sneak preview of Icelandic

Gefðu, að móðurmálið mitt,minn Jesú, þess ég beiði,frá allri villu klárt og kvitt,krossins orð þitt út breiðium landið hér, til heiðurs þér,helzt mun það blessun valda,meðan þín náð lætur vort láðlýði og byggðum halda.

Hallgrímur Pétursson, 1614-1674