[DCRM-L] CERL as an alternative for OCLC?

[Allison Jai O'Dell]

On that note: many list members at hybrid institutions are used to
accepting/using records/data from multiple sources -- most of them being
not-OCLC.  I will suggest that we have workflows in place for using CERL
data.  Food for thought:  It's 2015; we don't have to choose one 'utility'
to do our work, anymore.  Jen's questions about
shareability/interoperability are key.


Allison

On Tuesday, April 14, 2015, Robert Maxwell <robert_maxwell at byu.edu> wrote:

>  While I sympathize with everything Erin says below, I suspect most
> catalogers on this list are from libraries that are not exclusively rare
> materials collections, and therefore have to play in the same sandbox that
> contains all the rest of the library’s collection, that is, a catalog that
> includes rare materials, archival materials, and general stacks materials
> of all formats. We couldn’t just drop OCLC and migrate to something else
> like CERL’s databases. BYU might be interested in pursuing some
> relationship with CERL and its databases, but let’s face it, it would mean
> double work. Our rare materials catalogers cannot abandon the library
> catalog that contains everything else in the collection, so if we were to
> participate we would have to catalog *both* in OCLC and CERL (or whatever
> other database). Therefore, for libraries like us (which I believe is most
> everyone nowadays except a few very specialized libraries) the best route
> is probably to try to negotiate the best outcome possible with OCLC and not
> threaten to leave OCLC (which we couldn’t anyway).
>
>
>
> Bob
>
>
>
> Robert L. Maxwell
> Ancient Languages and Special Collections Cataloger
> 6728 Harold B. Lee Library
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> (801)422-5568
>
> "We should set an example for all the world, rather than confine ourselves
> to the course which has been heretofore pursued"--Eliza R. Snow, 1842.
>
>
>
> *From:* dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu');> [mailto:
> dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu');>] *On Behalf
> Of *Erin Blake
> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 14, 2015 10:28 AM
> *To:* DCRM Users' Group
> *Subject:* [DCRM-L] CERL as an alternative for OCLC?
>
>
>
> There already is an organization that has made great strides with rare
> materials bibliographic data and linked data: CERL (Consortium of European
> Research Libraries). Unfortunately, the Folger is not a member (yet!) so I
> can’t access the Heritage of the Printed Book Database (HPB) to find
> examples, but their other databases and thesauri are available online for
> free.
>
>
>
> CERL hosted meetings in New York in January designed to persuade American
> research libraries to follow Yale’s example and join the consortium.
> Caroline Duroselle-Melish and I were there to represent the Folger, but I’m
> afraid I can’t remember exactly who all else was present.
>
>
>
> RLIN libraries will remember being able to search the HPB when it was part
> of RLG (back then HPB stood for “Hand Press Book Database”). The difference
> between what has happened with the HPB data in the years since RLG
> disappeared, and what happened with RLIN data, is telling.
>
>
>
> CERL’s Material Evidence in Incunabula
> <http://www.cerl.org/resources/mei/main> database (MEI) is a particularly
> good example: it pulls bibliographic data from the Incunabula Short Title
> Catalogue <http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/> and allows copy-specific
> provenance evidence to be attached in time-specific chunks with links to
> thesauri. For example:
> http://incunabula.cerl.org/cgi-bin/record.pl?rid=il00023000 brings up the
> record for a book with multiple copies. Click on “more” for the Bodleian
> copy and you’ll see that it has three time-specific chunks of provenance
> information based on physical evidence:
>
> 1.       An inscription and price on an endleaf let us know that it was
> in Bologna, owned by Christoph Scheurl, when it was new (late 16th
> century)
>
> 2.       The binding lets us know that it was in Frankfurt-am-Main, owned
> by Georg Franz Burkhard Kloss, in the 18th century
>
> 3.       Oxford shelfmarks let us know it’s been in Oxford, owned by the
> University, from 1834 or 5 to the present
>
> All those places and owners are picked from drop-down menus of data in
> linked thesauri, and the dates are encoded. Other fields indicate levels of
> certainty about the data. The former owner’s authority record points back
> to books he owned. The time and geographic information can be linked to a
> map with a time-slider and you can watch the book move from Bologna to
> Frankfurt to Oxford.
>
>
>
> Speaking on my own, and not for my institution (where we’re still in
> shock) I’m much more inclined to devote cataloging efforts to CERL’s
> infrastructure, where copy-specific details are valued and
> machine-actionable, than to OCLC’s infrastructure, where they’re not.
>
>
>
> Erin.
>
>
>
> ________
>
>
> Erin C. Blake, Ph.D.  |  Head of Collection Information Services  |
>  Folger Shakespeare Library  |  201 E. Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC,
> 20003  |  eblake at folger.edu
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','eblake at folger.edu');>  |  office tel. +1
> 202-675-0323 <%2B1%20202-675-0323>  |  fax +1 202-675-0328  |
> www.folger.edu
>
>
>
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