Page 112 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

98 Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians
TERMINOLOGY

bib lio graphic util ity: A con sortium, or a net work of auto mated
libraries sharing one or more machine readable databases. Bib -
liographic util ities may be large or small, and they may be
national, inter national, or regional in scope.
CIP: Abbre vi a tion for Cat a loging in Pub li ca tion. In this prac tice, the
cataloging infor mation pre pared by the Library of Con gress before
the book is pub lished is incor porated into the book and printed on the
copyright page (the back of the title page).

MARC: Refers to Machine Read able Cat aloging. MARC tapes are
computer tapes with bibliographic records, done in MARC for mat,
compiled by the Library of Con gress. MARC tapes are used for copy
cataloging either through direct access to the tapes or by par ticipating
in a net work that uses MARC tapes as a main source for its data base.
net work: A group of auto mated libraries that join together for the
purpose of shar ing infor mation by using the same library application
system from a centralized com puter facility.

OCLC: Abbre viation for Online Computer Library Center. This is the
world’s larg est and most com pre hen sive bib lio graphic util ity, con sist -
ing of over 30,000 mem bers through out the world, and cur rently with a
database of mil lions of records that is grow ing every day.

union list: A com bined list of the hold ings of many librar ies. It may
be on paper or, more likely, in electronic for mat, usu ally referred to
as the online union list.

To per form copy cat aloging, one must be able to find the record
created by some one else. One way to do that is through the CIP in for-
mation. An other is buy ing the re cords from com mercial library ser -
vice com panies. In nei ther case is there a con tribution to the da tabase,
which does oc cur, how ever, when copy cat aloging is done by shared
cat a log ing or co op er a tive cat a log ing, with the use of a bib lio graphic
util ity. The da ta bases in bib lio graphic util i ties usu ally in clude the
MARC da tabase from the Library of Con gress plus the cat aloging re -