Administrative Notes Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program Vol. 19, no. 02 GP 3.16/3-2:19/02 January 15, 1998 Cataloging Branch Update RECENT ADDITIONS TO STAFF We have recently hired two experienced catalogers, one for serials and one for monographs. Both catalogers are now being trained and both will be involved with cataloging electronic Government information products. At present, our staff includes sixteen catalogers. CATALOGING BROWSE ELECTRONIC TITLES We began cataloging Browse Electronic Titles (BET) soon after this application was established by the Depository Administration Branch (DAB) in June, 1996. To date, DAB personnel have posted approximately 2,300 BET entries. During December, 1997, a two-week moratorium on posting "New Additions" to the BET application was initiated to allow for an assessment of the impact that BET and its related resources have on cataloging workloads. Many of the BET entries are "group entries" that lead users to remotely accessible works associated with monographic series, multi-part sets, technical and research report groups, and resources related by topics. As a result, a one-to-one correspondence between a BET entry and a single cataloging record is more the exception than the rule. Our survey of BET and cataloging activities reveals the following: * Approximately 3,700 electronic works suitable for cataloging are associated with the approximately 2,300 BET entries posted to the web site. Approximately 3,000 of these titles are related to monographs and approximately 700 are related to serials. * Approximately 1,700, or nearly 46%, of these 3,700 works have been cataloged as of the last week of December, 1997. Approximately 1,350 records represent monographs and approximately 350 records represent serials. It appears that most of the approximately 2,000 works not yet cataloged may require original cataloging. Approximately 30 "New Additions" entries to BET are added each week. Many, but not all, of these entries are associated with multiple works. We are collecting data on the ratio of BET entries to cataloging workloads on a weekly basis and will report more information as it becomes available. Our objective is to catalog each week's "New Additions" BET application as soon as possible without compromising our cataloging of physical formats. TOTAL CATALOGING BACKLOG Approximately 7,600 pieces of work await processing. This work includes approximately 2,000 BET-related works and approximately 5,600 physical formats. Approximately 3,000 pieces of work associated with physical formats relate to serials. CATALOGING PRODUCTION DATA, FY 1997 More than 25,000 pieces of work were processed by the Branch during 1997. As in previous years, more than 90% of our cataloging is original. Our Fiscal Year 1997 (October 1, 1996 to September 30, 1997) CONSER report indicates that we provided CONSER level cataloging for 149 serials and authenticated 118 additional titles present in OCLC for a total of 267 records that were added to CONSER. We maintained 1,487 authenticated CONSER records during FY 1997. More than one third, or 596 of these transactions, were associated with electronic serials or with physical forms with electronic versions. Staff also created 57 series authority records for the NACO program and logged 81 NACO-related maintenance transactions during the fiscal year. PERSISTENT UNIVERSAL RESOURCE LOCATORS (PURLS) SERVICES We have downloaded, installed, and tested OCLC's PURLs software and look forward to OCLC's impending software upgrades that are scheduled for public release in 1998. In response to our requests, OCLC has agreed to upgrades that will allow server administrators to generate an accession number as a unique identifying component of each PURL. A PURLs link checking application for use in server environments is also anticipated. We hope to begin assigning PURLs to BET applications and to cataloging records associated with these applications as soon as possible after PURLs upgrades become available for public use. WEB EDITION OF THE CATALOG OF UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS The Catalog of United States Government Publications contains records produced from 1994 through the present. During this period, more than 94,000 records have been added to this application. More than 2,800 of these records contain URL data. Most URL data are associated with records for titles in physical formats with electronic versions, but an increasing number of records are being produced for electronic versions only. We will investigate modifying the record displays at the web site to display a user friendly labeled format in addition to the current MARC tagged display. Work on this enhancement was postponed pending progress on the PURLs application to assist us in maintaining records with linked URLs.