If you attended one of the NLS Regional conferences (or just checked out the slide deck), you already know we are considering offering a Cataloging Service. But what's involved, and how will it work? To get there, let's start with a look at what Keystone is already doing for your catalog.
Current Catalog Enhancements:
Every MARC Records file posted by NLS is then reviewed by Mitake here at Keystone, before being posted for download here. That review, and accompanying corrections as needed, covers:
- Language code
- Subtitle formatting
- Series in non-English languages
- Remove publisher imprints from series (ex: Penguin Classics; Pocketbook)
- Audience Notes (typos & inconsistencies in 521/546, ex: split “Contains Sex & Strong Language” into two headings)
- Diacritics clean-up
- Annotation (combine tags so Audience Notes are included after standard annotation)
- Check for subjects with “stories” vs “fiction” (ex: combine “Mystery & Detective Stories” and “Mystery & Detective Fiction”)
- Ensure 082 & 072 exist
- Validate & normalize MARC
Additionally, we generate a query set of titles included in each Talking Book Topics (TBT) issue, pull the MARC record for the TBT monograph record if not included in one of the batch files, and pull MARC records on demand for Titles needed to load BARD transactions. For Keystone-hosted customers, we also load all MARC records, including both the regular batch files and any on-demand titles.
For a one-time setup charge, we can provide subject mapping and series mapping services, which involve combing through your headings to match them up with the ones generally included in certain MARC tags of the NLS records, and creating the filters and heading data to ensure the NLS headings load automatically from the MARC to the BibRec.
Like everyone, the rapid increase in the number of new titles has made it harder and harder for us to keep up the current level of cataloging. For example, as part of ongoing Series maintenance, we're adding 50-100 new Series headings a month to each Series customer--way more than we anticipated when initiating the Series maintenance service and offered upkeep of new headings at no change after the initial set-up fee. The absolute last thing we want is to offer less right when you need more, but Katharina spent nearly an entire week this month on just Series maintenance (and she’s faster at it than any of the rest of us). While we will absolutely honor no maintenance charge for the first year, at renewal, ongoing support of new series headings will need to become a charged service for us to continue offering it.
Proposed Cataloging Service
To make our cataloging service more sustainable, we're looking to start with some structural changes.
Instead of working with the batch MARC Records files which come out twice a month (or so) from NLS, we will instead pull in the titles as they become available with a PICS API integration. This should give us a steady flow of Titles to review, rather than a twice-monthly blast from a firehose.
The other big change will be where we make the record updates. Rather than changing those files into everyone's separate database, and then having to do a bunch of maintenance in each of those databases, we plan to set up a centralized cataloging database. We will then do any cleanup and corrections to the titles there. Once the title is ready, we will then push it into the subscribing customer databases via a batch program. This will occur routinely overnight for standard new files, but can also be done immediately to push out a freshly reviewed on-demand back catalog title.
Because we know everyone's patron base, staff and institutional preferences, and service approach is unique, subscribers will still have some options. You can choose whether you want to import the full record "our way" from the central database, if you want to exclude one or more specific MARC tags (ex – if you want to maintain your own series, you can get the rest of the record without the series tag). Or if you only want to overlay specific tags onto the NLS original (ex – if you chose not to get the full cataloging service but want to buy into Series maintenance), we can overlay that one MARC tag onto the original title as it comes from NLS).
Planned additional review & correction before pushing titles to subscriber databases:
- Narrator
- Alt length
- Pub year (print publication)
- Alt pub year (recording year)
- Fiction/non-fiction checkmark
- Reading level
- Headings merges for typos / alt forms / etc
- Sequel heading
- Addition & removal of "Current TBT Issue" heading
So what will it cost?
While we would love to just offer this to everyone, it is going to be a major time commitment. However, by distributing the cost of this staff time across customers, we hope to keep the charge well below what it would cost your library to hire even a part time cataloger.
As we finish developing this service, and the situation with the incoming records changes, these estimates are subject to change. Set-up fees may apply and will depend on the level of subject mapping and / or series set-up needed to make your database compatible with the centralized records. Please contact customer support for a full quote for your library.
- Series Service: one-time set-up fee + $200/month ongoing at renewal
- Basic Cataloging Service (no series): $250/month*
- All-in: $400 /month*
*Initial set-up charge may be needed if subject mapping and series setup are not already been done.
