ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ February 1998 / 83 C o l l e g e & R e s e a r c h L i b r a r i e s When systems fail Does your library have a back-up plan? by Stephen W a lk e r I t is said that information is power, butw h a t h a p p e n s to a library w h e n th e p o w e r fails? How is a reference librarian to h a n d le c lie n ts ’ q u e s t i o n s w h e n the o n lin e system g o e s d o w n u n e x p e c t e d l y a n d the c a rd catalog has b e e n a b a n d o n e d ? T h e r e s h o u l d b e b a c k u p s t r a t e g i e s th a t a ll o w th e library to c o n t i n u e its d i r e c t i n g f u n c ­ tio n . In my ex p eri­ ence, t e m p o r a r y disruptions of the online system or of th e electrical system have b een c a u s e d b y o l d e q u i p m e n t , n e w e q u i p m e n t , storms, cables b e ­ ing a c c id e n t a l ly cut, and a squir­ rel s h o r tin g o u t the p o w e r lines. P rovided a li­ b r a r y c a n s t ill h a n d l e clients d u r i n g s u c h an i n c o n v e ­ n i e n c e — for e x a m p l e , if t h e r e ’s e n o u g h light— th e n th e follow ing n o n - e l e c t r o n i c p a tc h e s su g g es t t e m p o r a r y strategies for locating materials. This p r e v e n ts a library from b e c o m i n g d e a d in the water, w h e t h e r for five m in u te s o r five hours. A lthough th e m e a s u r e s are b a s e d o n the p r e m is e that a library has an LC sys­ tem , D e w e y lib r a r ie s c o u l d a ls o a d a p t s o m e o f the ideas. When the pow er fails … 1) If the old, out-of-date card catalog is avail­ able, unfreeze it. Finding new material by author or title is impossible unless the work sought is a reprint or later edition, then the catalog might have the call n u m b e r for the original or an earlier edition. However, look­ ing under a subject will give an idea of what range of call n u m ­ bers to browse. 2) M a n y l i ­ braries have cus­ tomized bibliog­ r a p h i e s o r h e l p s h e e t s o f t h e i r h o l d i n g s , t y p i ­ c a ll y a r r a n g i n g th em by subject or th e m e , with c a ll n u m b e r s . During e m e r g e n ­ c i e s l i b r a r i a n s s h o u l d i m p r e s s them into service. 3) Be familiar with keystone bibliographies and catalogs that contain call numbers. The m a m m o th Guide to Reference Books (11th e d itio n , 1996) gives the LC call n u m b e r for each of its entries, which are arranged by subject categories; a title and author index is in back. For a work not confined to reference titles, Books f o r College Libraries (3rd e d itio n , 1988) is useful. Volumes are arranged by b ro a d subject categories, such as “H um ani­ ties,” a n d then the arrangement of the titles Stephen Walker is cataloger and reference librarian at Central MArohua eht tuobt issouri State University; e-mail: walker@libserv.cmsu.edu mailto:walker@libserv.cmsu.edu 84 / C&RL News ■ February 1998 is by LC call number, though a Dew ey num­ ber is also given as part o f the citation. Since BCL is like the LC schedules illus­ trated, an ability to reaso n ab ly navigate through the schedules adds usefulness to this title. Even for one unfamiliar with the schedules, its separate volume o f author and title indexes can be valuable for subject a c­ cess if one knows a specific book that deals with the same subject that the client is se e k ­ ing. It is up to the librarian to determ ine whether the possibility o f a pow er failure m akes it w orthw hile to exp end the time turning BCL or som ething similar into the library’s own union list by marking its co n ­ tents against the library’s holdings. 4) Likewise, m ake stack landmarks out o f judiciously chosen, heavily-used reference sources. This is easiest in the case o f m ega­ multivolume sets because o f their m onum en­ tal visibility. 5) Small collections can act as schedules to larger collections. A library’s ready refer­ en ce collection could represent all the ma­ jor subjects, such as business and literature. Titles could be added with this secondary use in mind. 6) Take the client in pursuit o f a subject to L ib ra ry o f C ongress Subject H ea d in g s and see if the subject has a call number, or if a related subject has one. At Rider College, the online catalog was down for an entire semester, and “the method chosen most fre­ quently by students for locating books was by checking for the LC call num ber in the LCSH volum es.”1 This probably should be expected, for the volumes offer a simple and brute means o f finding books. 7) Keep a copy o f the LC C lassification O utline as handy as a flashlight and be a c­ quainted with its general organization. Un­ fo r tu n a te ly , it h a s n o k ey w o rd in d e x . Supplem ent the O utline with a graphical li­ brary map locating the more significant clas­ sification letters and their subjects. This could be either a poster or a handout. 8) Even for those who have followed the O utline to the stacks, browsing for a sp e­ cific subject am ong books can be a chal­ lenge, but it is occasionally possible to cheat. For exam ple, large chunks o f English (PR), American (PS), and other literatures are or­ ganized within ch ro n olo g ical ranges (for exam ple, the nineteenth century), then the authors are by alphabetical order. Knowing an author’s nationality and century could eventually bring a dedicated brow ser to the appropriate num ber without reference to a catalog. The size o f the collection would affect the outcom e. Have a back-up plan ready Downtime in an online catalog should be rare. For example, at the Ward Edwards Library in January 1997 downtime was 0 percent; Feb­ ruary .33 percent; and March 1.19 percent. This covered 24 hours daily, so the catalog could have been down when the library building was closed, thereby making this a non-prob­ lem for every o n e except dial-in users. From November 1 to April 25, the library has been open 2,025 hours, during which time the sys­ tem has been down six times, for a total of two hours and twenty-eight minutes, leaving an uptime o f 99-88 percent.2 Despite such reassuring figures, reference librarians should be Luddite enough to never depend solely on an online catalog. They should have a basic understanding o f their library’s classification sch em e and be a c ­ q u a in te d w ith the w h e re a b o u ts o f key b o o k s, w hich are not only im portant in them selves, but are fingerposts for brow s­ ing. There should always be a backup plan. Notes 1. Jo h n Buschm an, Kathryn Holden, and Dorothy Warner, “Coping without a catalog for a sem ester,” C&RL News 57, (April 1996): 223. 2. Figures from Information Services, Cen­ tral Missouri State University. (Know thyself cont. from page 81) keep their library books too long and act possessive when asked to return them; who take library books along on out-of-town e x ­ cursions; who refer students to the library for things that aren’t there; who seldom use the expensive index bought just for them; and who freak out when they find out ILL will take a w eek or more to fill a request. In any case, a little self exam ination can pro­ vide insights to the experience o f other re­ searchers and help you as a librarian experi­ en ce the library with the innocence that zen teachers call “beginner’s mind.”