Cataloguing Australia

Volume 23 No. 1 & 2: March - June 1997

From the editor

[editorial] Hua Min Yee

The Cataloguing Revolution

Jennifer Barry
Abstract ...Perhaps nothing else in the history of librarianship has affected the field so broadly and comprehensively as the rise of computers. In the short space of 30 years, information technology - the science of cataloguing, manipulating and retrieving information - has become one of the world's largest industries. In transforming the very medium of information, it has far-reaching implications for how we, as librarians, catalogue it...

Classification Schemes: Developments and Survival

Helen Pocock
Abstract ...The tool of classification will be used to illustrate how cataloguing tools and standards of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), the Library of Congress Classification (LCC), the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), the Bibliographic Classification (BC), and the Colon Classification (CC) will be discussed. It is important to look at the early theory and practice behind these major classification schemes to assess whether they have successfully adapted to meet the challenges imposed by a different world of knowledge, from that which existed when they began...

Cataloguing Internet Resources: the Evolution of the Dublin Core Metadata Set

Diane Rogers
Abstract In recent years, there has developed a view that electronic resources require the same level of cataloguing as the physical resources found in libraries, with the effect that a number of guidelines for cataloguing Internet resources have appeared. Traditional cataloguing concepts and practices can be applied to the electronic environment. However, as this kind of environment is a rapidly evolving one, formulating efficient means for handling electronic information is difficult and must be responsive to changes as they occur. One of the recent innovations attempting to catalogue Internet resources is a standard for resource description known as the Dublin Core metadata set...

Internet Resources: Issues of Access and Possible Solution

Lindy Neville
Abstract ...Cataloguing is currently in a state of flux. The transition from card catalogue to OPAC has made many of the elements of AACR2 redundant. The proliferation of network assessable remote resources has also challenged the traditional infrastructure of cataloguing. The Dublin Core Metadata Elements Set represents one response to the perceived need to organise the Internet world. In this essay I shall examine some of the incentives behind cataloguing on the Internet. Examination of the Dublin Core Metadata Elements Set, known simply as the 'Dublin Core', highlights an attempt to apply traditional cataloguing practices to new technologies. The practicalities of such a system will also be discussed.

Monash University Library Electronic Resources Directory: Extending the Library Catalogue to Access Electronic Resources

Lisa Smith
Abstract The Electronic Resources Directory of Monash University Library is a tool specifically designed for locating the electronic resources of the Library. As such, it both provides information about these resources as well as direct links to them where appropriate. Its coverage extends to those resources which are deemed to be "electronic" in format (excluding kits of which the electronic medium is only one part, eg a disc accompanying a book) and are catalogued by the Library. The Technical Services Division of the Library has been cataloguing a wide variety of electronic resources for some time, ranging from the by now customary CD-ROMs and diskettes, to online services, electronic journals and monographs, and, more recently, WWW sites. As catalogued resources, these items all qualify for inclusion in the Electronic Resources Directory of the Library. The nature of the Directory, then, is to act as a format-specific subset of the more comprehensive library catalogue, Sesame2 (PALS). It is intended, as described on the Monash Library Home Page, to be "the fast track to Monash Library's electronic resources".

Reviews

Foskett, AC. The Subject Approach to Information, 5th ed. London: Library Association, 1996. xv, 456pp, paperback. £39.95. ISBN 1856040488.
Johnson, Peggy (ed). New direction in technical services: Trends and sources (1993-1995). Chicago: American Library Association, 1997. Paperback. US$35.00 ($31.50 to ALA members). ISBN 0838907008.