The Effective Use of e-Mail Lists and Other Projects to Improve Bibliographic Data Quality Cataloguing and Indexing Group Annual Conference Sheffield,

The Effective Use of e-Mail Lists

and Other Projects to Improve

Bibliographic Data Quality

Ian Fairclough ifairclo @gmu.edu

Jeffrey Beall’s Dirty Database Test

American Libraries Volume 22 Number 3

(March 1991) page 197


Beall emphasizes that this “test” is not scientific in nature


1. Febuary _______2. Guatamala _______ 3. Misssion _______ 4. Goverment _______5. Fransisco _______


6. Conditons _______ 7. Recieve _______ 8. Wensday _______ 9. Seperate _______ 10. Grammer _______

Typographical Errors in Library Databases

Key article:Ballard, Terry (2008) 'Systematic Identification of

Typographical Errors in Library Catalogs', Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 46: 1, 27 — 33

Key web site:Typographical Errors in Library Databaseshttp://www.terryballard.org/typos/typoscomplete.html

LibTyposAlphabeticalPlus

• Aamer*• Aand• Aassis*• Aasso*• Aaway• Abandonded


• Abbrevat*• Ablert*• Abnd*• Abnormalitit*• Abobe• Abode Acroba


• … and approximately 8,000 more• Compiled by Tina Gunther from

activity on the LibTypos-L discussion group.

• To join our effort, Please go to http://groups.google.com/group/libtypos and sign up.

http://groups.google.com/group/libtypos?hl=en

http://groups.google.com/group/libtypos?hl=en

TYPO OF THE DAY FOR LIBRARIANS

http://librarytypos.blogspot.com/

Also posted to AUTOCAT (without graphics)

SAMPLE TYPO OF THE DAY POST

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011Buget* (for Budget*)

Contributed by Carol Reid, New York State Library

SAMPLE TYPO OF THE DAY POST"Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, think I'll

go eat worms..." goes the dispirited children's ditty, and while worms aren't bugs, exactly, most people hold exactly the same morose viewpoint when it comes to eating them. Although, if you're on a budget, bugs just might fill the bill. Many insects, in fact, are not only edible, but highly nutritious, and commonly consumed throughout the world.

SAMPLE TYPO OF THE DAY POST

Differential Grasshoppers, copulating, by Eric R. Eaton, Oct. 10, 2010, from

Wikimedia Commons

Conclusion of Ballard’s 2008 Article

• In the first 24 days of October, 2006, the web page experienced more than 1,800 hits, averaging 77 per day.

• Visitors came from the United States and 39 other countries, representing every continent except Antarctica.

• The work that began 15 years ago has established itself as a permanent effort in the library world.

Listserv® Lists for Error Reporting

• DEWEYERROR• LCCERROR• PERSNAME-L• SERIES-LNOTE: DEWEYERROR and LCCERROR

do not have the suffix -L

DEWEYERROR

Started October 27, 2004 Subscriptions to:LISTSERV @LISTSERV.KENT.EDUSUBSCRIBE DEWEYERROR

<forename> <surname>

A RECENT POST TO DEWEYERRORFriday January 6, 2012LCCN: 2010033097 Author: Phillips, CarlTitle: Double Shadow

Dewey number in record is 813.54. This is a book of poems, so the Dewey number should be 811.54.

This message has also been submitted to LC.Barbara Thiesen (Bethel College)

LCCERROR

Started November 17, 2010 Subscriptions to:LISTSERV @LISTSERV.KENT.EDUSUBSCRIBE LCCERROR

<forename> <surname>

A Post to LCCERROR

LCCN 2011006448 The lesson of Carl Schmitt, Expanded ed., is not complete yet, but has an 050 00 of JC263.S34 M44514 2011. This number is not correct; it should be JC263.S34 M44513 2011 to match its previous edition, LCCN 98023580.

(LC has changed their call number.)

A Post to LCCERROR

LCCN 2011006448 The lesson of Carl Schmitt, Expanded ed., is not complete yet, but has an 050 00 of JC263.S34 M44514 2011. This number is not correct; it should be JC263.S34 M44513 2011 to match its previous edition, LCCN 98023580.

(LC has changed their call number.)

PERSNAME-L

Started July 30, 2007 Address for subscription:LISTSERV @LISTS.OU.EDU(NOTE: @LISTS, not @LISTSERV)Subscribe PERSNAME-L <forename>

<surname>

Example of a PERSNAME-L Post

The author of Deprivation and freedom : a philosophical enquiryis differentiated as Hull, Richard J., Dr.

Stephen ArnoldBibliographic Maintenance and Authority Control, The Bodleian Libraries, Oxford.

Persons named Joseph Seymour

First Author, of:First troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, c2008

Second Author, of:Lenin & the vanguard party, 1997


First Name Authority Record As Originally Written

010 n 2008044954040 DLC ǂb eng ǂc DLC1001 Seymour, Joseph670 Seymour, Joseph. First troop Philadelphia City

Cavalry, c2008: ǂb t.p. (Joseph Seymour) cover p. 4 (Philadelphia native; US Army historian, Washington, D.C.)


First Name Authority Record Edited to Include Second Person

1001 Seymour, Joseph670 [Author of First troop Philadelphia City Cavalry]670 Seymour, Joseph. First troop Philadelphia City


[continued on next slide]


First Name Authority Record Edited to Include Second Person[continued from previous slide]

670 [Author of Lenin & the vanguard party]670 Lenin & the vanguard party, 1997: ǂb p. 3 (Joseph

Seymour; SL [Spartacist League]/U.S. Central Committee member)


Second Name Authority Record Created to Disambiguate First Author

010 no2012108857040 ViFGM ǂb eng ǂc ViFGM1001 Seymour, Joseph, ǂd 1968-667 Formerly on undifferentiated name record: n 2008044954670 The Pennsylvania Associators, 1747-1777, c2012: ǂb t.p.

(Joseph Seymour) dust jacket (historian, US Army Center of Military History; lives in Baltimore)

[continued on next slide]


Second Name Authority Record Created to Disambiguate First Author

[continued from previous slide]

670 Phone call from author, Aug. 14, 2012 ǂb (b. 1968; unused middle name Alan)

670 Seymour, Joseph. First troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, c2008: ǂb t.p. (Joseph Seymour) cover p. 4 (Philadelphia native; US Army historian, Washington, D.C.)


First Name Authority Record After Disambiguation

010 n 2008044954040 DLC ǂb eng ǂc DLC ǂd CU-A ǂd ViFGM1001 Seymour, Joseph670 Lenin & the vanguard party, 1997: ǂb p. 3 (Joseph

Seymour; SL [Spartacist League]/U.S. Central Committee member)


First Name Authority Record As Originally Written

010 n 2008044954040 DLC ǂb eng ǂc DLC1001 Seymour, Joseph670 Seymour, Joseph. First troop Philadelphia City


What’s the “Catch”?

• Name Authority Records represent name headings

• Name Headings sometimes do not represent individuals on a one-to-one basis

• Headings and individuals can become confused

• PERSNAME-L can help undo confusion

PERSNAME-L

• I hate to do major work on records with only my library being the beneficiary.

• It can be time consuming to determine whether or not authority records are duplicates or not, and to spend this time is hard to justify if only my library has the information. Jason LeMay, Gwinnett County (Ga.) Public Library

PERSNAME-L

• I hate to do major work on records with only my library being the beneficiary.

• It can be time consuming to determine whether or not authority records are duplicates or not, and to spend this time is hard to justify if only my library has the information. Jason LeMay, Gwinnett County (Ga.) Public Library

A Negative Response

[In response to a post on Autocat asking why people DON’T read PERSNAME-L]

I do feel that I'm doing some really good work that would come in handy to others, but, alas, I have been told explicitly that our mission is not to take extra time for the larger cataloging community. I just wish I could spend more time going back and fixing our own messes.

A Negative Response

[In response to a post on Autocat asking why people DON’T read PERSNAME-L]

I do feel that I'm doing some really good work that would come in handy to others, but, alas, I have been told explicitly that our mission is not to take extra time for the larger cataloging community. I just wish I could spend more time going back and fixing our own messes.

A Positive Endorsement

… this list strikes me as a far more efficient mechanism than waiting for LC or OCLC update reports.

Anthony Franks (Library of Congress)

Disambiguation e-mails

1) Initial approach:

Hello [Person],I am a librarian, working on your book [Title].I also found your web page herePlease respond to confirm the e-mail

connection. I have a question for you.Sincerely - Ian


2) Follow-up if no response received: I did not receive a response to the message

below, and would be grateful to hear from you. Sincerely - Ian


3) Request for information Thank you! I am working on improving the cataloging of

your book by making it more likely that anyone looking for it under your name will not have to contend with other titles by namesakes of yours.


3) Request for information (continued)

We catalog librarians attempt to provide unique headings for each person represented in catalogs worldwide. Since other persons with your name are already extant, I want to create a distinct heading for you.


3) Request for information (continued) To this end, please provide:

• your full name in direct order (including any unused names) as ordinarily written

• on its own, your surname (if you have more than one surname, all of them)

• the year of your birth


3) Request for information (continued) To this end, please provide:

• the titles of any other books, videos, etc. which you have authored or edited, and which might appear in library catalogs. (Not articles in journals, since those aren't usually in such catalogs.)


3) Request for information (continued) The work I do is part of an international project

coordinated by the Library of Congress, the Name Authorities Cooperative Project, and will be copied by other librarians who find the record I prepare. Hence my concern to do the best possible job.

Thanks again for your help. Sincerely - Ian


4) Farewell

Thank you, that enables me to complete my work. Best wishes for the success of your book - Ian

SERIES-L

Started March 24, 2009 Address for subscription:listserv @po.missouri.edu Subscribe SERIES-L <first> <last>

SERIES-L Contribution: Public-Library Oriented

The SARs shown below were contributed to the LCNAF over the past few weeks. You may wish to check your catalog to see if these new SARs should be added locally. In many cases the bibliographic records in OCLC gave only 490 0 series transcriptions, and these records have been modified to agree with the SARs listed below.

SERIES-L Contribution: Public-Library Oriented

100 Aaron, Rachel. $t Legend of Eli Monpress no2010158638643 London $b Orbit

130 Age of dinosaurs (Mankato, Minn.) no2010158641643 Mankato, MN $b Creative Education

100 Bertsch, Patty. $b Adventures of Delrick series no2010150338643 Cincinnati, Ohio $b P. Bertsch

100 Bishop, Anne. $t Black jewels novel no2010158644643 Prince Frederick, MD $b Recorded Books

SERIES-L Contribution: Academic-Library Oriented

I'm working on sorting out locally the series Biblioteca de autores espanoles. We have the mid-20th c. ed., published by Ediciones Atlas. This is the kind of series where a multi-volume monograph is issued as non-consecutive volumes of the larger series, which is classed together. It requires special handling to tell our users which volumes to select. Thus, works of Cervantes are v.1 and v.156 - for which one note in the holdings record reads: Shelved as v.1 and v.156, respectively, of the series Biblioteca de autores espanoles. Another note give v.1-v.2 so that all will know we have both volumes. Not all members of the series are like this, thankfully, but a significant number are.


Once I'm done - and it'll take a while :-) I plan to tell SERIES-L all the local notes we used in holdings records, so that readers (and those using the archives) can take advantage of this work if they so choose. I'm keeping this information in an Excel document. Meanwhile, if anyone has any stories to tell, particularly of pitfalls to avoid, I'd appreciate hearing from you - offlist preferably..


(Follow-up message):Locally I've finished working on it and have an Excel file in which I kept notes. If anyone plans on doing work on this series, and wants my file, please write privately …

In some cases my file contains contents notes from OCLC masters. The volume designator, "Tomo" should be abbreviated t. rather than v. in fields 440, 490 and 830, and my spreadsheet indicates what I found and cleaned up locally and in OCLC. Greater flexibility can be applied for call numbers. I also created new OCLC masters for some subsets of the voluminous works of Lope de Vega, rather than try to accommodate all of them in one local record.

WHY SO MANY DIFFERENT LISTS?

• Notification, not discussion, the purpose of these lists

• People are used to receiving notifications via dedicated lists – but not from numerous contributors

• Individual lists allow people to “specialize” in particular types of error

OTHER POSSIBLE PROJECTS

CORPNAME-L

OTHER POSSIBLE PROJECTS

Learning experience: Resources such as these need to be nursed along carefully, lest they turn into:

SILENCE-L

SILENCE-L

Envoi

Please communicate about these and all concerns for error handling.

Address for correspondence: ifairclo @gmu.edu

Please write for information about participating in each of these

projects – and setting up new ones!

Envoi

Please communicate about these and all concerns for error handling.

Address for correspondence: ifairclo @gmu.edu

Please write for information about participating in each of these

projects – and setting up new ones!

Documents

The Effective Use of e-Mail Lists and Other Projects to Improve Bibliographic Data Quality Cataloguing and Indexing Group Annual Conference Sheffield,