ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


J u ly /A u g u s t 1 9 9 7 /  4 6 3

Lazerow  research on catalo g in g  needs
Ed. note: Here is a brief report on research 

funded by ACRL’s 1996 Samuel Lazerow Fel­
lowship Award.

How useful are data in catalog records? 
Thanks to the Samuel Lazerow Fellowship 
Award, we investigated the value graduate 
students at the University of Florida (UF) place 
on different parts of the bibliographic record. 
In January 1997 we sent a survey to a ran­
dom sample of UF graduate students asking 
them to respond to statements about the use­
fulness o f parts o f catalog records for all types 
of library materials and the usefulness of in­
formation describing Internet resources. The 
survey was com pleted by 453 students.

Preliminary analysis of average responses 
shows strong levels of agreem ent with the 
usefulness of primary author/editor and title 
in catalog records. They disagreed with the 
usefulness of information about illustrations 
and physical size. They also indicated agree­
ment with the usefulness of additional au­
th o rs/editors, place o f publication, publisher, 
d ate o f p u blication, pagination, co n ten ts 
notes, summary n o te /abstract, references, in­
dex, series title, assigned subject terms, re­
lated works, and standard numbers.

Regarding Internet resources, they strongly 
agreed with the usefulness of primary author/ 
editor/creator, title, Internet address, and sum­
mary n o te /abstract. They also agreed with the 
usefulness of additional authors/editors, place 
o f publication/origin, publisher/distributor/ 
corporate sponsor, date of creation/publica­

Both titles may be ordered from ACRL by
calling (800) 545-2433, press 7, or fax an order
to (312) 836-9958.

N e w  York Public Library main 
reading room closes
Beginning July 14, the Main Reading Room of
the New York Public Library will be closed to
the public through February 1999 for structural
repairs and upgrades in service and technol­
ogy. Interim spaces will be m ade available b e­
ginning July 15 so that service to the public
can continue. The interim reading room will
be located in Gottesman Hall; the Public Cata­
log Room and reference materials will move to
room 121; and com puter access, online refer­

 
 

 
 
 

 
 

 

tion, date of most recent update, designation 
of edition/version/issue, size of file, graphics, 
recom m ended software for access/dow nload­
ing, system requirements, note on level of in­
formation provided, frequency of issue/revi- 
sion, access limits, assigned subject terms, 
related works, and standard numbers.

We also solicited responses to general state­
ments regarding their use of the library’s re­
sources and Internet access. Our students vary 
considerably in their areas of study and in their 
responses to our questions. Average responses 
indicate agreement that the catalog and library 
indexes are useful, and that it is useful that 
materials on each subject are shelved together 
and authors are indexed with cross references. 
There w as agreem ent that Internet access has 
becom e a significant m ethod to obtain infor­
mation needed in their studies and that it is 
useful to have Internet resources listed and 
linkable through the library catalog. However, 
the students disagreed that the library has as­
sisted them in using information through the 
Internet and that they have used Internet re­
sources they found out about through the li­
brary catalog.

We plan to publish a fuller report of this 
research and feel that this study has increased 
out understanding of what some of our users 
want from the library catalog. We hope it will 
lead to definitive research toward optimizing 
description o f all types of information for all 
users.—Jim m ie Lundgren a n d  Betsy Simpson, 
University o f  Florida

ences, and databases will be in rooms 119 and 
120. Details about the interim spaces are avail­
able at http://w w w .nypl.org/adm in/pro/press/ 
releases.html.

Cornell and Iceland to create Icelandic 
Digital Library
Cornell University Library is starting a three- 
year project with the National and University 
Library o f Iceland to create the Icelandic Na­
tional Digital Library, a first-of-its-kind electronic 
repository with selected materials from Cornell’s 
Fiske Icelandic Collection, the National and Uni­
versity Library of Iceland, and Iceland’s Árni 
Magnússon Institute. The project is m ade pos­
sible by a $600,000 grant from the Andrew W.

http://www.nypl.org/admin/pro/press/