[LM_NET] HIT: do you catalog websites? (compiled responses)

[Marcia Mardis <mmardis@FSU.EDU>]

Our sincerest thanks to the school library community in providing 32 responses to 
our posting asking you to share information about your website cataloging practices!

The compiled information is below and we found it really useful. If you have other 
thoughts you'd like to share on this topic or on digital resources in general, 
please contact Marcia Mardis at mmardis@fsu.edu

Thanks so much,
Marcia Mardis, PI, Digital Libraries to School Libraries (DL2SL) project 
Casey McLaughlin, lead programmer, DL2SL
Janice Newsum, doctoral student and most excellent DL2SL research assistant

---Original Posting
Hello school librarians (and apologies for cross postings)!

As you may have read in the current School Library Journal or the September 2009 
issue, at Florida State, we've been working on a tool that will help you catalog 
web resources (videos, websites, interactives) quickly and easily.

If you saw the L4L webinar on science resources a couple of weeks ago, you know 
that there are great resources out there and that we've made some progress on 
creating an easy-to-use tool that will help your users find web resources you've 
selected as easily as they find books you've selected.

To aid this process, we have some questions for you. 

1. What library catalog system do you use (e.g., Destiny, Alexandria)
2. Do you currently catalog websites and other web resources like videos, PDF 
documents, etc.?
--a. If yes, can you tell us how you do this? Listing the steps would be a great 
help.
--b. If no, can you tell us why not? What barriers are you experiencing (e.g., 
time, not sure how to, don't think it's relevant, etc.)
3. Do you buy MARC records for web resources from commercial sources or download 
them from another place? (Please tell us which source)?
4. Is there any other information you'd like us to know?

We know we're imposing on you at a very busy time of year, but really appreciate 
any feedback you take the time to give. Please just hit Reply and type your 
responses right into this message. Please be sure that the return address is 
mmardis@fsu.edu so that we don't blast the whole list with our thoughts!

--1. Email list source
AASLForum 26.7%
LM_NET 16.7%
IASL-LINK 26.7%
CASL-L 3.3%
tlc 26.7%

--2. What cataloging/circulation system do you use?
Destiny 51.6%
Athena 3.2%
Alexandria 9.7%
Mandarin 0.0%
Koha 0.0%
Other (please specify) 35.5%
1. Mandarin
2. Sirsi/Cynix Symphony
3. CARL transitioning to TLC Automation System
4. Concourse by Book Systems, Inc. However, we will be transitioning this summer to 
their web-based service called Atrium
5. Follett
6. Sagebrush InfoCentre
7. Circ+
8. Library Pro
9. Softlink-Oliver
10. Workflows
11. OPALS (open source)

--3. Do you catalog websites?
Yes 21.9%
No 78.1%

--4. If yes, can you tell us how    you do this? Listing the steps would be a great 
help.
1. There is a place within each catalog record to list URL addresses, websites, 
etc.     if they pertain to the item itself. I believe the new system we are 
switching to over the summer will more easily accommodate cataloging actual URL 
addresses, video clips, PDF documents and so forth from the Internet. In addition, 
the new program has a built-in interface with NetTrekker d.i. which we already 
subscribe to. This will make accessing their records much easier for our patrons.
2. enter URL in marc record 856 subfield u, in subfield y, type: click here to see
3. 1. Choose Add Title, Here you can choose the type of resource you are entering 
(book, video, web site....) 2. Then I manually add following MARC record     fields 
format (Let me know if you want screen shots of this process and I can get it for 
you)
4. I catalog my electronic resources and websites for purpose. Just last week I 
used the e-book format MARC to create an entry for Interactive Poetry. The record 
is a brief description of the idea of interactive poetry websites, the fact that I 
located all of these using the Gamequarium clearinghouse website to locate my 
sites, and then I simply added the URL as Added Entry.
5. We catalogue websites via a subscription service and download the marc records 
directly into our system. This way the records are searchable via keyword/     
subject heading etc. and alongside other resources with same subject heading. It is 
easy and efficient as records are maintained by LinksPlus.
6. Yes, all types. I've added records, for example for all the CQ Researcher 
reports and most of the volumes in the Adelaide University e-book collection. Both 
of those where available as downloads (CQR for a nominal fee, Adelaide for free). 
I've also added records for over 3500 periodicals from our EBSCO databases (AP 
Source--good records; MAS Ultra--bad records) which are available for free download 
from the vendor. I've also cataloged some 580 specific websites. I have also added 
catalog records for items (doc, pdf, ppt, etc.) on our school servers which we have 
produced. Basically all web sites are cataloged from scratch. Most are cataloged as 
books (language material) because computer file, as I understand it, only applies 
to specific types of digital material. I think this is a real issue because there 
is no template which applies to websites per se. When I come across a website which 
has long-term potential for reference use I print out the first page so I have a 
record--I have a huge pile of these which need attention!--I then use AACR2 rules 
to do the actual cataloging: title, author, responsible party, subject and other 
entries, and other information which can be easily ascertained.
7. We catalogue video's, DVD's and PDF's (only if they've been downloaded and 
printed).
8. I make it simple. Title, url, short description. I also give them a call number 
with the word INTERNET in it. I also give it a barcode.

--5. If no, can you tell us why not? What barriers are you experiencing (e.g., 
time, not sure how to, don't think it's relevant, etc.)
1. We would love to have the time to do this - I barely can put pathfinders or 
webquests together for individual assignments. This project would be key to helping 
keep high school students on track, save them time (although they think they're 
faster at getting info). The other issue besides time, is our catalog is only 
available in the library. Funding is a struggle to set aside enough to go live to 
the web. Grant funding has even been denied up to this point. But I'm still 
fighting.
2. No, except for ebooks we have subscribed to via Greenwood (now part of 
ABC-CLIO). I keep an extensive virtual library page with website links, so I don't 
feel the need to duplicate those listings in our catalog, especially as the website 
is accessible off-campus and the catalog is not.
3. We do NOT catalog websites or other web resources. To be honest, our students 
are just now beginning to use our catalog on a regular basis. I'm relatively new to 
this position and the use of the catalog was never promoted in the past. We also 
didn't have a dedicated look-up station until this year so that was another strike 
against catalog use. Also, we're still in the midst of getting students to see 
searching the Web as a true skill. Cataloging web resources would be a useless 
endeavor for use at this point in time. I can see where it might be more well 
received in a couple of years as our students' (and teachers') perceptions of the 
catalog and web evaluation get to where they need to be.
4. Had never thought of doing this before.
5. Time and not sure how to.
6. New to the job this year and it wasn't done previously so I would be starting 
from stratch. It is on my "hope to do" list but time is an issue and know-how an 
issue. Seen it done and its great. Believe Destiny has a system to make it easier 
to do but not sure on that and we don't have Destiny yet.
7. I'm already the answer to every need expressed in the building ... I have 
absolutely no time! I have, however, created ebibliographies for every unit in 
social studies, science, health, and family/consumer science which are posted on 
our Edline site for student/parent/teacher use.
8. I finished library school in 1972 long before MARC. When I finally returned to 
active librarianship in 1993, MARC records and electronic cataloguing were a 
foreign language. I still find it frustrating, confusing and time-consuming to 
catalog. I depend on the records that I purchase from vendors or download from 
Destiny resources.
9. No, time restraints--not just to do, but to maintain links and to screen links 
to make sure they are still OK. We do catalog eBooks which have URLs.
10. We do not catalog URL's at this time, but we do see a need for this in the 
future.
11. I am the only certified librarian in the district and I just do not [have] the 
time for one more project. However, I think that it is a wonderful idea!
12. No; time and not shure how to and students don't use catalog as much as I would 
like.
13. Our students have very limited access to computers at school and at home.
14. Websites are too fleeting; students often find them on their own; it is 
difficult to keep them up to date; we do not want dead links in our catalog
15. NO. I'VE NEVER EVEN CONSIDERED DOING IT, BUT WOULD LIKE TO FIND OUT HOW YOU ALL 
PROPOSE TO DO IT. IT SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT IDEA!
16. No reason but would like to begin now that we have moved to Destiny.
17. no time, worry about how quickly web resources change; I did it a few years ago 
via InfoCentre and it was a cumbersome process (which I can't remember right now), 
so I use the school web site (my teaching page) for posting links for students, 
and/or I tend to bookmark sites on Delicious
18. Not a lot. We've experimented with some student reviews of books, but no big 
efforts to catalog these things yet. Time mostly, but also because we have the Web 
Collection+ from Follett that adds them in the catalog for us.
19. I haven't catalogued databases or .pdfs etc because of their transitory nature. 
You know how frustrating it can be to recommend a wonderful site to your students, 
only to have them return saying the link is broken or the site is no longer 
available.
20. To tell you the truth, I have not really thought of it before. I've been more 
into social bookmarking tools. But the idea of cataloging them is very intriguing, 
and I will be very interested in your tool.
21. What a geat and timely email. I don't catalogue websites on a regular basis but 
feel that I should be doing this. The reasons I don't are that when I find a 
website I think is good, if I am not cataloguing at that time, then it just doesn't 
get done, or I forget about it because I didn't save it somewhere. Obviously I need 
to set up a word document or other storage system to store URL addresses until I am 
ready to catalogue.
22. our students are young (3-8 yrs old) and we haven't tried
23. Time is a huge factor as I'm TL 3 days a week with the equivalent of 2 of those 
day doing prep/teaching. The other 2 days I teach Gr. 6/7. Determining if it would 
be used is also a factor. I find pathfinders are rarely used on the library 
website. All our teachers have smart boards and tend to keep their favourites on 
their own computer. Even World Book Online doesn't get used often so cataloguing 
them would be very time consuming with undetermined benefits. With the little time 
available I look to make the biggest impact. Our library clerk does our cataloguing 
and we get her 15 days a year, so when she is at our school, there are many other 
priorities than cataloguing web resources.
24. Time and staffing constraints. Also we subscribe to Follett's WebPath Express 
as part of Destiny. They do all the work
25. Most of my links are on my library website under student links or teacher links 
in subject folders; however, I should put them in the catalog as a one stop 
searching place. And that way I could also convert them if I change systems. OPALS 
has a tab where I can list them by name, url, grade level, description and subject 
headings; however, I hesitate to

--6. Do you buy MARC records for web resources from commercial sources or download 
them from another place? (Please tell us which source)?
No 69.0%
Yes (please specify) 31.0%
1. Currently the only MSRC records I get commercially are from Follett. I'm 
considering the SmartMARC service by Alexandria but have not purchased it yet.
2. Buy from MARC Magician
3. We do purchase eBook records from Follett and GALE.
4. sometimes I buy them, sometimes I use the Z39.50 search built in to InfoCentre
5. usually when I purchase books I go ahead and buy the MARC records for them from 
the vendor where I buy the books - my favorite is Bound to Stay Bound. Other than 
that I manually add - I like to catalog - I know weird! 4. Is there any other 
information you'd like us to know?
6. We get ours as an additional piece of our automation system from Destiny/Follett.
7. The company we use is LinksPlus Marc at http://weblinksresearch.com/. For 
instructions see attached document.
8. we get MARC records with the books we order from Follett and when we get books 
from other sources we check A+ to see if they are there
9. From time to time I've found MARC records for websites, in academic catalogs for 
example, but because they are so hard to find I generally just catalog from scratch.

--7. Is there any other information you'd like us to know?
1. Thanks for the time you're putting into this project. Have you seen this 
already? http://www.deweybrowse.org/
2. No, though when they are available from a vendor I am using (e.g., Follett), I 
will pay extra to have the records done.
3. Don't have any for web resources but get many book MARC records from Follett 
when purchasing, get others from Library of Congress. #7 Love that you are doing 
this.
4. and no money for this anyway Part of the coteaching I do - and the instruction 
I'll give in rotation for 4th graders I'll be teaching next year - is search 
techniques and website evaluation. Giving exemplars in the ebibs and teaching the 
process give the kiddos tools to find materials on their own, so they are not left 
entirely in the lurch!
5. I depend on the records that I purchase from vendors with my book purchases or 
download from Destiny resources with occasional peeks at LOC. Non-print materials 
are especially mysterious and actually cataloging a web resource would be beyond my 
skills. I do have a few such records from TeachingBooks that identify their author 
interviews (free with subscription.) Destiny WebPath Express facilitates web 
searches and the general categories appear in the online catalog. Individual URLs 
are not catalogued.
6. Since Sept. 1, 2009 we have processed 15,634 items with either original or 
copycat cataloging. We also load approximately 150,000 vendor records each year. 
The cataloging staff consists of 1 professional and 3 cataloging technicians. I 
received my MLS from Florida State.
7. How wonderful to share your project news. We have central processing and 
cataloging. Keep us updated on your progress.
8. I use the MARC records that come with my books from the vendors, most offer them 
at no additional charge. I also download from the Library of Congress, I do very 
little original cataloging-again no time. I think ease of use will be the biggest 
factor in getting people to use your resource.
9. If you get easy step by step instructions, please include that in the post.
10. I think the many changes and adaptations librarians (and patrons) are 
experiencing are both exciting and frustrating. While I welcome anything that makes 
our jobs easier, and our careers more meaningful to our customers, many of these 
changes seem unnecessary, are time consuming, or have a significant learning curve. 
It is great the way technology keeps evolving, but I wonders too if we aren't 
chasing our tail sometimes to keep up with the latest product which will only be 
tossed in a couple of years for the "next bit thing," be it a new computer, 
projector, or storage device. Seems like an awful lot of waste in a time when we as 
a society are endeavoring to be more energy conscious and earthkind. (Just my .02 
worth).
11. No (to buy Marc records) use Z source for download.
12. I post links on our website, and I send out e-mails with links to the best 
sites. I'm still struggling to get some of our teachers to use the OPAC, instead of 
just e-mailing me or sending a student with a note asking things like "Do we have 
any videos on weather?"
13. We do collect some of the best websites on the Subject Resources papges of our 
library website.
14. I THINK I AND OTHERS WOULD LIKE TO HEAR WHAT YOU FIND OUT THOUGH. PLEASE POST!!!
15. Love to see what you develop!
16. Not sure if you need this or not - but my system subscribes to both Safari 
streaming video and United STreaming video - therefore when i opened the new school 
I did not purchase any videos - I have been working on connecting the OPAC and 
these resources as well.
17. Because of all of the problems that go with cataloging websites I just went 
ahead and created my own website- separate from the school (too many issues there 
that I don't even want to remember!) and there is a link on all lab computers as 
well as all middle school teacher computers at my school as well as the other two 
middle schools to my website. I will be working on it this summer to update and 
clear dead links - a never-ending process! This is my site 
http://librarianscorner.net/ where I have over 2,000 links currently with another 
500 waiting in a folder on my home computer to add! My projects pages under student 
are pathfinders that I have created for various teachers as well as templates for 
some of them for specific projects. A good example of this is the Civil War 
newspaper.
18. What a terrific utility this will be when you're done! Thanks very much for 
taking it on; I'm sure the whole community of users will find it an invaluable tool.
19. The Destiny system provides an easy template for basic cataloging. I use this 
most often. It is like filling in the blanks. I can use the MARC editor at any 
time, but rarely do I need it.
I never spend money buying MARC records. I find everything I need available through 
Destiny, other sources such as LOC or I do my own. My large district has a CORE 
team who acts as the administrators of Destiny. I am a CORE team member, and we 
received more training than other librarians. I am also motivated to use my catalog 
as a teaching tool. I am an innovative LMS who seeks out tools to meet my teaching 
needs and the needs of my students. It is terrific to take a class into a computer 
lab, tell them pull up the library catalog, search and they are at the website we 
need. I hate trying to lead students through the typing of a specific URL. I have 
read and learned cataloging techniques, but my practices are a bit on the renegade 
side.
20. Actually, since installing Alex, we have found that we can usually acquire the 
MARC information we need through the Alex search.
21. I really don't like tools like Follett's Web Path Express because they don't do 
what a MARC record does--there's a forced relationship between other materials and 
the online materials. Also I'm really behind cataloging websites I've "bookmarked" 
because it is such a time consuming task. I wish there were an easier way get to 
records of website already cataloged.
22. Our students use webcat to find resources, our e-books are catalogued, but no 
other web sources are. This is the first year e-books have been catalogued and to 
date they have not been used often. I think in time with more promotion and 
demonstration, it will become another resource students and teachers will use and 
hopefully appreciate.
23. I do have MARC records for all my e-books that also have the call number 
INTERNET and a barcode even though it doesn’t physically exist.


 


---
Marcia A. Mardis, Ed.D.
Assistant Professor
Associate Director, The PALM Center
College of Communication & Information
The Florida State University
mmardis@fsu.edu

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
  You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
  by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, you send a message to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER:
1) SIGNOFF LM_NET
2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL
4) SET LM_NET DIGEST

 * To contact an LM_NET Moderator:  LM_NET-request@listserv.syr.edu
 * LM_NET Help & Information: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/
 * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
 * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/join.html
 * LM_NET Supporters: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/category/links/el-announce/
 * LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/

--------------------------------------------------------------------