LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Here, as promised, are the responses to my query about cd-rom cataloging
products, specifically Precision One.
The short version is that most folks like it!
Thanks to all,
Shelley
complete replies follow:
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Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 22:28:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: PAUL VENANCIO <PAULVO@ids.net>
The Alliance family of CDs does still work for folks who have the
Cardmaster program--and not Follett's Circ or Circ/Cat Plus. This still
does include many folks. We own a copy of Precision
One--purchased after we used the Alliance CD products to try to continue
to clean up misses. We did find many matches of old stuff (our purchase
pre-dated the Follett Vintage disk) but had some serious reservations
about the quality of data. Subject headings are sparse/mixed/inconsistent.
Frequently the 082 tag has been stripped. They did this, I am told, to
save space on the disk. Finally, one gets spoiled by Alliance's many, many
records with annotations (520) which are critical for good Boolean
searching. It is another tool to consider--and I am not sorry we purchased
it. Quality, however, is only fair.
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From: "Rosemary T. Matthews" <rmatthew@norfolk.vak12ed.edu>
Date: Fri, 27 May 94 10:31:42 EDT
We have been using Precision One for three years now and I
think it is just great!!! Most of our retrospective conversion
was accomplished using it and we have completed 50 schools.
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From: "Sharon Murray" <SMURRAY@DOVER.k12.ar.us>
Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 09:25:51 CST
We used Persision One two years ago to do our retroconversion when we
automated with Winnebago. We have a very knowledgeable Winnebago rep,
Alan Dillard, who was familiar with this product. He gave us hints
about how to use it to best interface with his Winnebago product, so
we didn't run into any problems. It was cost effective. I haven't
used any other product like it, so I can't compare, but I would
recommend it if you have to do your own MARC records.
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From: "Sandra L. Parks" <sparks@vdoe386.vak12ed.edu>
Date: Fri, 27 May 94 9:40:15 EDT
I haven't used Brodarts Precision One for 3 years, but when I
did, it was the worst product and the worst catalaging I have
ever seen.
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Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 21:51:06 -0500 (CDT)
From: Sarah Peckham <speckham@bluejay.creighton.edu>
I just converted my high school collection this year with
Precision. I decimated the 14,000 books by about 40 % before I began
and with Precision I had about 95% hit rate. With one old staaffer
typing about 4 hours a day and me working about an hour on problem
sources we completed the project in about 3 months. It was fast, easy
and Much less painfull than I anticipated. Good luck.
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Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 21:11:16 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Marianne Haase, Librarian" <HAASE_M@HCCA.OECN.OHIO.GOV>
As to your question regarding Precision One/ We have been
using it for just over year, at the suggestion of a friend
who did her entire retro using it (a Catholic HS). We
purchased it to retro our elementaries (lots of old stuff
along with the new) and ended up using it for our new books
(7-12) as well, plus some books which did not come back
full MARC from Winnebago. It has been wonderful -- easy to
download, good records overall, and easy to load into
Winnebago. I do a lot of checking along the way and always
look closely at subjects, class #'s, the main tags and
enter lots of 520's --- very seldom any problems. We get
the quarterly and would get the monthly if we could, however,
usually are ok with the quarterly. It is just the $
that prevent us ...
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Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 18:12:55 -0500
From: Bob Gaines <gaines@tenet.edu>
We use Precision One for recon in our public libraries and for current
MARC AV records for our system media collection. It's primitive compared
to BiblioFile (which is our primary source of records), but it's easy to
use and we are satisfied with the hit rate (which would obviously be
different from a school's). I like it.
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Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 17:17:35 -0500 (CDT)
From: Sandy Scroggs <sandyscr@tenet.edu>
I used Precision One about a year ago and disliked it intensively.
Possibly it has improved since then. You can't selectively print.
The system crashed on me three or four times. You must make deletions to
the record first time you see it and save the record. If you try to
delete tags from the saved database it crashes pretty fast if you make a
lot of corrections etc.
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Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 17:19:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: KBW_INGLIS@MEC.OHIO.GOV
I love Precision One. We asked for only *hits* from Winnebago, and we
were
able to match more than two thirds of our 1500 non-hits against P One. I
used
the update disks that came with my purchase to do all cataloging for the
two
years that preceded full automation, and I used that same disc to do
videos,
filmstrips, transparencies, audiocassettes, etc., (though not so many of
the
latter items). A hit rate of 95% on the filmstrip sets we decided to
retain
after severe weeding astounded me. I did have to change some cassettes to
records and vice versa, but all the major producers' products were
represented.
It also allows you to do original cataloging by giving the option of a
blank
workform. True, you need some MARC experience to use it, but they have an
excellent guide. The only problem we had was learning what modifications
we
needed to make to have our Winnebago system accept the records...but that
was a
unique problem to us. If you buy it, contact me again and I will answer
other
questions. Only one warning: some publishers' names are preceded by
double
dilineators (e.g. $$) and those can really screw up the records when they
are
imported. Alas, that is one thing we did learn too late. But - I love it
anyway.
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Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 17:07:36 -0400
From: Kari Inglis <KBW_INGLIS@MEC.OHIO.GOV>
I couldn't resist putting in a plug for Precision One from Brodart. We
just
converted our aging sound filmstrips after severe weeding. Our hit rate
using
their update/AV disc was 95%. EAV, Guidance Associates, Center for the
Humanities were all very well represented. We even found a surprising
number
of transparency sets from another publisher. We have had somewhat less
success
with videos, but I think that is more because of difficulties finding the
right
*handle* for searchg. What really surprised me about P-One was that after
Winnebago returned our original conversion, for which we had requested
hits
only, we matched over two thirds of our no hits against Brodart's
records. It
is easy to use and we have been very pleased.
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Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 15:26:10 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Target --> CD-ROM MARC products
We used Precision ONe for our recon of 8500 titles. Volunteer moms did
the
work. The entire process took 4 months (about 10 hours/week of volunteer
help...about 5 hours of me loading/cleaning records) We had a 96% hit
rate
although *sometimes* they pulled the wrong record. We were loading into
Columbia. There were a few problems such as stray commas at the end of
fields and the general slowness of cd rom. Also when the upgrade came
out,
cd roms needed to be attached (it installed from there rather than the
drive) and I could not longer use the new version to do original
cataloging
. We no longer receive the monthly updates, but I still use it to do
original cataloging. I feel it is really effective for the price. One of
my friends is using BiblioFile and has had problems; when you consider
BibFile's cost that is appalling! We are a 6-12 school. Our 200's were
probably the least "hit upon" which makes sense. We have alot and P-One
is
public school based. I'd go the P-One route again. Just make sure that
you put the accession# somewhere in the record if you are not doing the
recon yourself. We no longer use accession #, just the rsn that is
assigned by Columbia, but it was useful in the recon to see which
shelflist
the moms looked when they pulled the record (due to the pulling problems
they had in about 75 records).
------------------------------------------------------------------Date:
Thu, 26 May 94 15:04:55 EDT
From: Liz <EHERRICK%ERIE@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
yes I am using it and love it. Our BOCES is also going to use it. I find
it
fvery user friendly. I have had very good luck with hits for my books. I
can't
say the same about my AV hits although it is supposed to have them.
end of replies
_____________________________
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shelley Lochhead, Librarian ____/| 603-746-4167 x230
Hopkinton High School \ o.O| S_Lochhead@mentor.unh.edu
297 Park Avenue =(_)= AppleLink: ALOT32
Contoocook, NH 03229 U Mentor: S_Lochhead
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