Online Cataloguing Systems

There is a greater need for precision and typographical accuracy in catalogue in records as opposed to acquisitions records, so the ability to perform editing on-line and see the results of the editing action immediately is helpful. The development of cataloguing systems has roughly followed the development of acquisition systems, and this holds true in the progress from off-line to on-line systems. In the case of cataloguing systems, however, the end products are normally produced off-line in a "batch" mode–that is, all at one time, rather than as the data are entered–and only the functions of inputting data and searching the data files are performed on-line and in ‘real time’. With rare exceptions, this tends to be true whether the products are catalogue cards, book catalogs, or both. On-line cataloguing systems use routinely for production of catalogue cards. This book is a ready reference to the history of on-line Cataloguing Systems and gives practical, essential data on technical support systems, online public access catalogues, information retrieval systems, interlibrary lending bibliographic utilities, automation in reference and much more.