THIS FILE REPRESENTS THE RESULTS OF AN INFORMAL SURVEY ABOUT OUTSOURCING CATALOGING ON MLA-L BY SUZANNE RISLEY. IT HAS NOT BEEN SUBJECT TO EDITORIAL SCRUTNIY. --MLA CLEARINGHOUSE. Content-Type: text/plain; name="MLA_Survey_ASCII"; charset="us-ascii" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="MLA_Survey_ASCII" 1. Are you considering outsourcing at this time for scores, sound recordings, and/or video? Is this for retrospective work or for current acquisitions? Who are the vendors under consideration? In response to your recent note, no we haven't chosen a cataloging vendor yet... The University of Alberta Library is investigating contracting out most of its cataloging, including printed music and sound recordings. I suspect we'll be consulting with your outfit. I'll be reading postings to mla-1 with interest. ---Michael May University of Alberta Library I am very much interested in hearing results of your outsourcing query. My administrators are both urging me to consider outsourcing for music materials and I'm cringing. ---Alice M Lasota We recently contracted with OCLC to retrocon our 33 1/3 sound recordings (about 5,000 of them). They will *NOT*, however, do any original cataloging. Their original cataloging for music sound recordings and scores is abysmal, as they have none of the authority controls and reference sources that are necessary for this job. Professional Media Services Company, in Gardena, CA is supposed to be really good in this aspect, but they are also very expensive. One of their services, however, is as a recordings supplier including cataloging service as part of the price (still expensive). ---Betty Woerner Reed College My institution is considering outsourcing to Professional Media Services for current acquisitions. This is a move instigated...as a move to save money. My feeling is we already have an excellent cataloging staff and the materials show up pretty quickly on OCLC. ---Judy Weidow University of Texas at Austin The idea of outsourcing for score cataloging was just mentioned by a library administrator as an idea that had been brought up by Stanford University at a meeting of UC Collection's Administrators. ---Susan Bower Music Librarian University of California, Santa Barbara We are not seriously considering outsourcing at this time...although... some thoughts are given to it at the back or maybe even the front of the minds of some of the library administrators. ---Jeannette Thompson Tulane University ...I am most interested in the results of your survey...We received approximately 5000 phonodiscs as 2 separate gifts and these have been in storage for several years now because we haven't had the staff to process them...The only way we'll ever get them into our catalog is if we outsource the cataloging of them. I am just looking for a vendor...Our decision to consider outsourcing was a mutual decision between our chief librarian and myself, prompted by several new courses in performance which will be offered by our music dept. next year. ---Carolyn Pawley We are going to begin outsourcing retrospectively scores. We asked for price quotes from OCLC Techpro and Amigos. ---Shelby Harken No! ---Olsont Ralph A consortium of college libraries is presently searching for an agency to catalog video titles which are collectively acquired by the consortium. The catalog records will be placed in a central database from which members can draw records to be downloaded into local databases (an edited, etc. at will). ---Penny Swanson Don't know for sure we'll be outsourcing, but the suggestion has been made, and I attended the first of a series of committee meetings to address the issue of ways of getting records into our NOTIS system. If I were a gambler, I'd bet that for the collection we need to address (gift LPs) we could do well at least for the intermediate term, agreeing to forego authority checks on the OCLC copy we're pretty sure is out there for most of it, switch to an accession call numbering system, and throw some well-trained students or volunteers at the problem. ---Joe Scott ...we are still in the "thinking about it" stage. ---Judy A. Weidow Yes, videos and CDs. Vendor under consideration is OCLC Techpro. ---Kit Herlihy ...only PMSC and OCLC's TechLib came forth as vendors. We went so far as to solicit some sample records on diskette from PMSC, which service is used by our County Library for media cataloging by the way. The records seemed to be of reasonable quality to catalogers here, but I was told by the Director that I could proceed no further with the idea until I had some hard information on in-house costs...no one would give me that in-house...Another problem seems to be the OCLC upload... ---Mary Kay Humboldt State University 2. Did you at one time consider outsourcing for scores, sound recordings, and/or video? Was this for retrospective work or for current acquisitions? Who were the vendors under consideration? What made you decide against outsourcing? ...why would administrators want to consider outsourcing the very things that don't generally have a decent copy on the utilities. ---Neil R. Hughes Music Cataloger University of Georgia Libraries We investigated outsourcing about 2 years ago when it seemed to be an option to use instead of replacing our music cataloger who had resigned. I persuaded the administration that outsourcing in lieu of a cataloger was not a good option-it would have cost us more than the cataloger's salary and it didn't offer us a means for maintaining our own database. The head of our cat. dept. now thinks that outsourcing is a good option only if you are dealing with large enough quantities of straight-forward materials (i.e.books) so that the cost-per-title comes in reasonably low. ---Linda Blotner Yes. For retrospective work. We used Amigos for an initial portion of our recon...We used OCLC for the rest of our recon, minus problems they couldn't handle, and a few types of medium--mainly av, microforms & theses, I think...We just used EKI for the remainder of our recon-- the problems and the aforementioned media. ---Jeannette Thompson We have never considered outsourcing in the past. ---Shelby Harken Yes, for retrospective, but it was too expensive. We considered TechPro and Amigos. (It is probably just as expensive for us to do it, but we are moving ahead slowly with the project.) ---Olsont Ralph Yes, videos and CDs. Both for retrospective and current acquisitions. Vendor under consideration was Professional Media Services Corp...Reason for deciding against outsourcing- CSU San Marcos used Professional Media Services Corp. ---Kit Herlihy Retrospective conversion for MARC records was done on a major portion of our database as we moved to more sophisticated automation system. While most monographic materials had a high accuracy rate, audiovisual materials were frequently incorrectly matched. The vendor's system representative became aware of the many complexities involved when dealing with a/v materials and had confided that he personally would like to discourage such ventures. For the matching process, a wider number of criteria is required than was found necessary in monographic matching. ---Ella-Fay Zalezsak 3. Are you currently outsourcing cataloging for scores, sound recordings, and/or video? Who is your vendor? Does this vendor also function as a materials supplier? How satisfied are you with the service in terms of cost, quality of cataloging, and customer relations in general? ...We've been sending 100 scores to Techpro approx. once a month (although they are behind again) since last Fall, and the results have not been entirely satisfactory. I end up spending a good deal of time going over the records, correcting and replacing originals they put in OCLC, etc. But we are being pushed to do more outsourcing (and not just cataloging by library administration...) ---Laurie Eagleson Music Cataloger University of Arizona I felt that I was somewhat caught in the middle of OCLC's learning experience. The project cataloger who is...not a music cataloger seemed to have been caught off guard when I started sending rather extensive feedback on her work. She (tactfully) referred to me as being more "particular" than those associated with her other projects. What I truly believe is that in the past, most of the music they cataloged was for libraries that had no music specialist, and therefore, would not be aware of the cataloging problems. The originals she creates for us are now being revised by another cataloger in their section with "music background" but I still find problems with uniform titles, etc. And I refuse to send them any more Russian scores. The few they did were a total disaster--I can do better myself. ---Laurie Eagleson I don't know exactly who is working on our stuff. So far I have been pretty satisfied with the CD cataloging, though I haven't done any systematic work on it. Authority control looks to be good, and most records have ample added entries. Those that don't have full analytics at least have contents notes. Turnaround time has been MUCH faster than it was in our own shop, so I have little to complain about so far. ---Martin Jenkins Music Library Coordinator Humanities Team Leader We contracted with OCLC's TechPro to catalog several hundred rare music scores this fiscal year, and were very satisfied with the results. ---Dr. William Miller Director of Libraries and Learning Resources Florida Atlantic University We are very satisfied with the quality of work that OCLC did. We had written our specs for matching and editing, and they seemed to adhere to them very closely. They contacted us fairly frequently when they encountered major problems; and they tagged individual problems significantly. They did not have volume/copy holdings work done by them. Our authority work was done later (& is still being done by Blackwell North America--a type of outsourcing). --Jeannette Thompson Yes we are currently cataloging for music CDs. We may also send some LPs and some videos in the future. Our vendor is BCR (Bibliographic Center for Research) out of Denver-they are our OCLC network office... We are satisfied with both cost and quality. We rejected another bid because it was higher in cost and lower in quality. We did not want to lower our quality (we can hit the produce key in-house cheaper than sending it out) and wanted analytic entries on all classical recordings and contents notes on the other items... ---Cecilia Knight Grinnell College We are not currently outsourcing. ---Shelby Harken Yes. Sound recordings and videos. We use Professional Media Services, Inc. We buy materials as well as cataloging. The cost (until the recent rise) seemed reasonable. A letter dated May 26, 1994 announced an increase to $7.40 for audio/video cataloging. We will be rethinking cost effectiveness of purchasing cataloging records. A discount on some materials may offset the cost of cataloging records. The quality of cataloging is as good as what can be found on OCLC. Cataloging can be customized to a library's need for a charge. After a trial period and some revising we have found the records to be satisfactory. Customer relations are fine. ---Thelma Diercks, Head Monographs Department University of Hawaii Library Retrospective conversion. We contracted recon of our LC-classed scores and many of our LP sound recordings out to OCLC Techpro in early 1993. It took them about 3 months to complete 12,377 scores (@$3.38 per title) and 5344 recordings (@$3.15 per title, plus an additional 152 original inputs @$7.00 per title since we had gone over our contracted allotment of original inputs). We did not ask that existing records have headings checked in the online LCAF, since at the time, our OCLC tapes were being pulled and sent to an authority vendor for processing. So most OCLC records were basically accepted as is, with only our local information added. But in many cases, the OCLC records were better than what was on our cards. Obviously, there is cleanup to be done, but overall, I was quite satisfied with the service and the speed at which this project was completed... New cataloging: Currently outsourcing scores (approx. 100 per month) from our National Flute Association backlog (our music library is their depository)...Our vendor is OCLC Techpro (not a materials supplier). They were the only vendor we investigated at the time. The quality of their work is basically not up to the standards of most music libraries. Problem: At times, the "careless" error rate has been rather high. These errors include such things as forgetting to write call numbers on the scores, leaving a local heading on the original master records input into OCLC, qualifying the subject heading Septet with 8 instruments, etc. Of greater concern are the content errors in uniform titles, classification and subject headings. I have attempted to work with the project cataloger on particular patterns of errors, especially in uniform titles, but with limited success. I fear that the background and understanding of music cataloging are just not always there. It is my understanding that Techpro hires catalogers to do everything, not to specialize in any format/subject, and that their music cataloging experience is limited to whatever they encounter in other Techpro projects they work on. Also, Techpro does not have access to music reference tools, such as New Grove, thematic indexes, etc., that are often needed in order to identify the music and assign appropriate uniform titles. ---Laurie Eagleson CSU San Marcos did and stopped...Vendor is Professional Media Services Corp...Also functions as supplier...cost of cataloging was fine... quality of cataloging was fine, and customer relations in general customer relations for acquisitions was slow, repetitive, awful. It took forever to get titles. Costs for new titles were higher than ordering directly. ---Kit Herlihy We are currently outsourcing the cataloging of CDs...This came about from the top, i.e. the cataloging dept. itself...Vendor is PMS Corp. Vendor does not function as a materials supplier yet...but they do sell the CDs with cataloging, at a slightly cheaper price for the cataloging when you buy the CD from them. However, I found their prices much higher for the CD than I could get from my regular supplier, so that even with a slightly lower price for the cataloging if you buy the CD from them, it was cheaper to buy the CD elsewhere and go with PMS Corp. with the cataloging, even at the higher price for the cataloging....The cataloging is good, and they seem anxious to please, fixing minor problems with the next batch they have done. ---George K. Huber We are currently outsourcing cataloging for ALL new acquisitions at Wright State (with the exception of archival materials and theses, I believe). The vendor is OCLC Techpro, in Dublin, OH. They are not a materials supplier. I think we have generally been pleased with the quality of the cataloging. I know I have been thrilled with the music cataloging, simply because before OCLC took it over, it wasn't being done...I have not systematically examined the copy coming from OCLC, but spot checking has revealed no howling deficiencies. I have so far seen only copy-cataloging; I have not yet spotted an OCLC original. Added entries have been adequate for sound recordings, and I have only changed one or two call numbers... We are certainly realizing tremendous savings, in the neighborhood of 1/4 of a million bucks...I can't speak too directly to the customer relations issue, but I have heard no loud complaints from our head of Bibliographic Control. ---M. Jenkins Will evaluate the whole process once our first batch of CDs returns from PMSC. ---Marge Travaline Rowan College Music Library Back when it was called "preprocessing," "ready cat" or other such terms, three different libraries I was head of Tech. Services of tried remote cataloging of library materials. The results were quite uniform. In the first case, the Director of a multi-County system hated to spend money on Tech. Services and instructed me to order pre-cataloged books from Baker and Taylor. After three or four months, even he realized the quality of the cataloging was not up to par and cancelled the experiment. Two years later, the Director of the city library I worked for wanted to do the same type thing with a vendor...I did warn him that my previous experience was not a positive one, but he was determined to "cut costs." We ordered books, videos, & LPs from this vendor and the results were nearly identical. We recataloged nearly half of the items and the work flow was severely disrupted. This experiment lasted a little longer but was eventually cancelled. The last case was a retro-conversion project for the academic library I presently work for. Fortunately, I arrived after the project had been implemented...Again, the results were poor and hundreds (if not thousands) of hours were spent correcting errors of all types. We finished the retro-conversion in-house with far fewer errors per 100 items (approx. 3)...Maybe quality control is better now than then and maybe the quality of the assembly line catalogers is better, but I would not bet the farm on it. If you have to try it, proceed slowly & cautiously. ---Ron Balko Director, Instructional Media Svces. Music Librarian Reference Librarian Concordia College, Moorhead We have been using PMSC for 4 years, and are generally satisfied. After the initial 6 months, when we refined our profile several times, our expectations have been met (my experience is with video only). We spend about $300,000 annually on video, and about 70% is spent on outside vendors. PMSC has the lion's share of this. We keep about 25% for must-order-direct items. PMSC is as accurate as our in-house staff on cataloging/processing, and we use OCLC level cataloging. The important factor for me and our patrons is that we have no backlog. Things arrive shelf-ready, and we wand barcodes to link to the database. Cases are labeled, videos are labeled, barcoded, and 3-M targeted, all have individual branch address stickers applied. Processing charges can be negotiated based on size of annual orders, which can make outside processing more cost- effective that it might seem. We, like others, would prefer a faster turn-around time on our orders. Each library can specify life-of-order, so that money encumbered on cancelled items can be recommitted to other titles before the end of the budget year. Each library considering the use of an outside cataloger/processor needs to determine what the length of backlog is internally. The gap between when PMSC delivers a shelf-ready item may not be significantly different than the direct ordered item which takes 3 to 6 weeks to wend its way in-house. We also contracted with PMSC to provide "reopening day" collections for our 4 hurricane-damaged branches. PMSC did selection and processing, based on genre profiles that we provided. All items were added copies for the branches (since the insurance money specified replacement items). PMSC delivered high-quality collections according to criteria, on budget, and ahead of schedule. OCLC does not do acquisitions for libraries. We do provide customized cataloging and physical processing services for all types of material, through our TechPro service, but we do not supply the items...We're doing lots of music cataloging--CD's audio cassettes, scores, sheet music, LP's, whatever a library has. We do physical processing for many of the libraries we catalog for. For non-print items, we can generally catalog using photocopied information. Since the service is so customized, the pricing is as well. We ask that the library complete a price quote form and return it to us with samples so that we can provide a detailed cost proposal for the project. Projects can be short-term or long-term, depending on what the library needs. We can do copy cataloging, original cat., or both... ---Marcia Stout, C.E.O. We do both in-house on direct purchases and receive copy cataloging from some vendors. Application of the rules vary considerable and without internal policies the database would become very messy. Questions arise to the fullness of a record for one sound recording compared to another. Interpretation of what is a series on a/v material and what is just a subject category designation does cause some problems. While USMARC establishes some standards for information, vendors have local application of these standards. One supplier insists on placing all series in 490 regardless and provides no authority control on name. In-house, we derive copy from LC and A/V Access from Bibliophile. There again one can see a lot of variations. Quality of the records can also be influenced by the training of the individual creating the record. A library in B.C. was looking for a vendor to outsource level 3 a/v. I still don't know if they were successful in their search. However, when discussing the possibility of getting this contract with a vendor building his client base by taking on outsourced cataloging, the vendor said THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED BECAUSE THE COST WOULD BE TOO HIGH TO BE PROFITABLE. A case in point was an academic institution whose internal policies drove the cost up to over $50.00 Cdn to catalog the audiovisual work. ---Ella-Fay Zalezsak In a nutshell, I think PMSC is perfectly prepared to provide quality cataloging, and as detailed as you would like it. What they have found, I think, is that academic libraries demand consistently higher quality and much greater detail than public libraries--which is the sector they have been serving for the most part since the company formed ca. 12 years ago. They are realizing they cannot maintain the one base cost with which they have been operating. I have found myself in the middle of this realization and their subsequent reaction. It feels like crisis management from my end, rather than a thoughtful process which takes into consideration the importance of maintaining a good customer relations. ---Suzanne Risley Music Librarian Trinity College 4. Was the move to investigate outsourcing self-motivated, or was it prompted by a request from above? We are embarking on the adventure of outsourcing with our first shipment of CD inserts to Professional Media Service in Gardena, California. Their reputation for quality work and reasonable prices was communicated to me by various colleagues...References for OCLC Techpro cataloging of scores were not encouraging. An in-house cataloger really is valuable for so much of the total process, even when outsourcing is used to any extent. ---Marjorie Travaline Music Branch Library Rowan College of NJ The investigation of outsourcing was self-motivated. I have previous experience with contract cataloging with OCLC for language materials in which there is no local expertise. I have also worked with contracts for items that we could not keep up with and could not train for in a cost effective manner. ---Cecilia Knight The library administration asked me to investigate outsourcing. ---Shelby Harken Self-motivated ---Olsont Ralph Both ---Thelma Diercks For recon, I advised that music be contracted out, since we simply did not have the staff to do it in-house...For new cataloging, outsourcing is being promoted more and more by our library administration...And to answer Neil Hughes' question as to why library administrators would consider outsourcing materials that are difficult to begin with, I would have to say that quality doesn't appear to be a great concern to some of them. ---Laurie Eagleson ...It was tech. services decision to (outsource), and they felt it was worth the money, but of course if the cost has gone up dramatically, maybe they will be rethinking it. ---George K. Huber, Music Librarian Swarthmore College Self-motivated ---Kit Herlihy The move to outsource came at least from our library director, and he may have had pressure from higher up. ---M. Jenkins As the vendor offered acquisitions in more formats, they also provided corresponding cataloging copy. However, the quality of the records do not reflect extensive training being provided to vendor's staff in charge of the function as many errors are being caught locally by all levels of staff. ---Ella-Fay Zalezsak 5. What specifically were the factors/situations that prompted the investigation into out sourcing? time/#of staff (95%); money (1%). Our library administration wanted to have the bulk of our collection online when our online system first came up... My thoughts: I think that quality of records on shared cataloging databases is a serious consideration, especially when we know that music records are longer and have more fields than book records, and are thus more statistically more prone to error. Use of these records without knowledgeable human intervention should be seriously considered. But I also think that catalogers, including myself, are feeling personally/professionally threatened. Outsourcing seems to imply the removal of an in-house job--although it might just be a means of making up for lack of in-house staff numbers...All said, I am personally very positive about outsourcing for retrospective conversion. ---Jeannette Thompson We gradually fell behind as the result of automating and learning all of the new versions of everything over the past 5 years...I found that I was doing everything on a Rush basis-which is not at all efficient and does not allow a batch work flow to create efficiencies so I was falling further behind. My opinion on contract cataloging: It can work-you have to be careful to make sure it fits your work flow so that it doesn't create problems for the people receiving it-change it as many times as you need to so that your local people are happy with it...The increased volume is going to impact the people adding the records to the local database, handling cards...verifying the records and the labels, tattle-taping etc. It will also impact the people responsible for the stacks areas affected and may lead to shifting projects. Be very specific about your authority requirements and get back to your vendor quickly about problems...Demand credits for poor cataloging. I don't think that it replaces cataloging in-house... Cecilia Knight The motivating factors was that a Music major with a Masters who we had working for us as a library associate I level (low paid) left. We ended up with a backlog of scores from very generous faculty and donors. We have 5300 of them and in our test we found 50% require original cataloging. My concerns revolve around quality and accuracy. My former music cataloger often found errors in records in OCLC particularly in the call numbers and subject headings, often for the wrong type of music. ---Shelby Harken The music department gave their collection of 2000 scores to the library. It appears that people are interested in this type of service for two reasons-to eliminate backlogs and to lend ongoing support to their cataloging efforts. I would be interested in hearing people's thoughts regarding the validity of this on both fronts. I think it can be useful for either. We plan to outsource a few foreign language items. ---Olsont Ralph The high cost of original cataloging by an "in-house" cataloger was a major factor. Cutting down on the number of items requiring original cataloging would save funds. Professional Media announced that it was working on a connection with our automation vendor (CARL). Direct access for ordering and receiving cataloging records is a definite plus. A couple of copy catalogers are close to retirement. Replacing them will be very difficult. Exploring outsourcing seems wise to do now as we may need it increasingly in the future...A concern we have is the length of delivery time. Some amount of time must be added, if both material and cataloging are purchased, to allow for the cataloging. Much of what we have purchased apparently did not already have a record in the Professional Media database. If the item is not "RUSH" this is not a problem. ---Thelma Diercks ...general lack, in some institutions of trained staff or time to do the cataloging themselves to a standard desired by the group...our main concern is for quality and consistency of output... In many ways we are looking for better records than any but a very few of us can afford to provide with present resources (staff/time). ---Penny Swanson ..."Institutional downsizing" hasn't been a factor so far. However, in our restructuring of the library, cataloging did lose overall manpower, either from vacant lines that were lost or from some of people's hours being assigned to other duties in other parts of the library. "Cataloging downsizing" would be a more appropriate term here, and I think it will continue. ---Laurie Eagleson ...lack of staff time and expertise. I am very interested in outsourcing the cataloging of scores and slides as well. ---Kit Herlihy Backlog and inability to keep up with current accessions. ---George K. Huber As far as I know, the factors were: elimination of backlogs and financial savings which could be redirected into materials and services...Yes there were (staff reductions). We eliminated 10 classified staff ("civil service") positions and one professional position. The professional took early retirement and will not be replaced. Most of the classified staff were moved to other positions within the libraries...This was not done to meet a mandated staff reductions. ---M. Jenkins Those who have outsourced AV to us, e.g. the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo's collection of video cassettes and CDs, did so because there simply was not enough time available for existing staff to do them. ---J. McRee Elrod Director, Special Libraries Cataloging I am unable to answer that because I am not sure of how derived copy cataloging from vendors was originally initiated here. As far as backlogs are concerned, we rarely are severely congested in backlogs. This is partially due to a philosophy of constantly looking at the way we do things and where we could change to increase cost-efficiency while maintaining and improving quality. A lot of background history into the service quality, staffing, recognized importance of database integrity in an institution also seem to be variables that play a role in whether a function is outsourced or not. ---Ella-Fay Zalezsak Comments: ...I do believe that "outsourcing" has all the lasting qualities of 12-inch, wide wale, fluorescent green corduroy trousers, given its versatility and usefulness when applied to the majority libraries and their diverse local use groups' needs. Outsourcing, as a panacea for cost control, should generally be confined to a library's vending machine. ---Neil R. Hughes Music Cataloger University of Georgia Libraries Most of my concerns are fairly minor. I am concerned about the lack of shelf-listing, simply taking cutter numbers from what is in the copy...I am concerned about possibly getting less than full analytics...I am more concerned about what I might find in OCLC's original cataloging, since from what I understand they do not have much in the way of resources for original authority work on site. ---M. Jenkins In response to your MLA-L notice on "outsourcing" for music cataloging, I would like to suggest that the issue of institutional downsizing--i.e. staff reduction--be explicitly addressed in your queries. ---Phyllis Jones Recordings Cataloger Conservatory Library The idea of outsourcing seemed like a great solution to get better quality into our cataloging, frankly, in the sense of sufficient analytics which we could specify. In a place like this where we cannot really develop an expertise like music cataloging to a full-flowered level, why not depend on the specialists? The rough cost figures indicated that the PMSC records could be obtained for 1/3 or less the cost of the in- house work, incidentally... ---May Kay ...why would administrators want to consider outsourcing the very things that don't generally have a decent copy on the utilities? ---Neil R. Hughes Music Cataloger University of Georgia Libraries ...I predict that if "outsourcing" becomes fashionable it will help to destroy shared, cooperative cataloging. It reminds me of the sixties, when libraries wanted the Library of Congress to do all of the cataloging for the nation. Then came along OCLC and we all proved that we could get more done by cooperating. Now it looks like libraries want OCLC to do all of the cataloging. I guess we'll find out soon enough if it comes to pass. ---A. Ralph Papakhian Indiana University How's outsourcing different from contracting with OCLC to do a recon project for example? There wouldn't be any difference at all except that some directors are talking about getting rid of ALL in-house catalogers. Did you ever get your local catalogers to tweak the system a bit to provide an extra tracing or two? Did you ever have them do something nice like create a "fake" subject heading so patrons could find things like current newspapers? Are you willing to bundle up archival material and send it off site to be cataloged? Who's going to be there to handle database cleanup projects? Personally, I HATE cataloging. Therefore, I LOVE catalogers. I like having some of them around. What about all you music catalogers out there? Do you think you are providing your institutions with extra-added value by responding to local needs? ---Ilene Frank, Reference Dept. Tampa Campus Library Why don't we call it (outsourcing) outhouse cataloging! ---Nyal Z. Williams I manage technical services at Miami University Libraries (Miami). Miami in Oxford, Ohio participates in several cooperative endeavors with Wright State University (WSU) in Dayton, Ohio. As a consequence of our cooperation I became aware early on that WSU intended to outsource the cataloging of their current acquisitions and I quickly found myself evaluating this option for Miami...In some circumstances outsourcing cataloging is an effective option. I think that choosing to outsource cataloging under those circumstances is a good decision. Knowing the situation at WSU, outsourcing cataloging for all their current acquisitions was a good decision for WSU. Outsourcing cataloging for all of the current acquisitions at Miami would not be a good decision. However, Miami does have uncataloged collections and certain current acquisitions which could be more efficiently cataloged by an outside agency. Miami will probably contract with OCLC for some of this cataloging...Outsourcing is not a panacea for the high cost of cataloging library holdings. There are many variables which must be identified and analyzed before a fair and honest comparison can be made between cataloging in-house and outsourcing...For example ask questions like: Will we get more (quantity) for our cataloging dollar if we outsource? Will we get better (quality) cataloging if we outsource? If the quality of the outsource record is satisfactory, what will it cost us to produce that quality of record in-house? When we add the costs of administration and the costs of the tasks which are not outsourced to the cost of outsourcing is the total less than the current cost in-house? Which is faster, in-house or outsource? If a significant number of libraries outsource cataloging, will the outside source be able to sustain their delivery times? What information must we have to objectively verify these opinions?... ---Dale Hague Head, Technical Services Miami University Libraries --========================_3690312==_--