Forum on Library Services for People with Disabilities

Kinetica Report

Kinetica Database Services for the Forum on Library Services for People with Disabilities, March 2002

National Union Catalogue of Library Materials for People with Print Disabilities (NUC:D)

Production of the microfiche National Union Catalogue of Library Materials for People with Disabilities (NUC:D) ceased in 1998. The Round Table on Reading Materials for People with Print Disabilities when it met in Canberra in October1993 had been advised that the microfiche product would not continue after the replacement of the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) system. Subscriptions to the microfiche had declined over a number of years prior to its cessation and online access to the new Kinetica service provided an appropriate alternative.

Kinetica implementation

The Kinetica service replaced ABN in March 1999. Kinetica provides access to the National Bibliographic Database. It supports cooperation and resource sharing within the Australian library community through the delivery of MARC records and the provision of a document delivery service. It also provides gateways to other major library databases, including the American Research Libraries Group (RLG) Union Catalogue and the National Library of New Zealand's Te Puna service. Access to Kinetica is via the internet. Kinetica provides a Windows-based Client software for library cataloguers, and a web browser interface, KineticaWeb, for database searching and the creation of simple bibliographic records.

KineticaWeb provides a user-friendly interface for searching the NBD. Its search functionality makes it easy to find materials for people with disabilities, for example the use of keyword searches with the addition of Subject Keyword (SW) = large print or Title Keyword = Braille provides an easy way to locate materials in these formats.

Kinetica has sought to ensure that the KineticaWeb interface is accessible for people with visual disabilities. The current version of the interface has been evaluated and changes made to improve accessibility. A new version of KineticaWeb is currently being tested, the accessibility of this version has been successfully evaluated using the Wave (http://www.temple.edu/programs/eit/wave.html).

National Bibliographic Database

Some organisations that formerly contributed to NUC:D have chosen not to contribute to the National Bibliographic Database (NBD) using Kinetica. Approximately 50 organisations contributed to NUC:D during the mid-1990's. Many of these contributed on an irregular basis. Currently 36 organisations are contributing to the NBD, these include all of the major and regular NUC:D contributing organisations. 36 former NUC:D contributors have search access to Kinetica.

Kinetica has a package of initiatives aimed at encouraging smaller organisations to contribute to the NBD. These include:

  • The new Web Input interface (see below)
  • Cessation of fees for use of the Batch*Link service
  • Support for the formation of consortia to allow smaller libraries to share Kinetica memberships

During 2002 Kinetica will contact the former NUC:D contributors that no longer contribute to the NBD to inform them of these initiatives and encourage them to reinstate their NBD contributions.

NBD Coverage

The following graph provides details of the rate of contribution to the NBD of bibliographic records for braille, large print and talking book materials. The rate of contribution has changed little during the past six years. The implementation of Kinetica in March 1999 did not cause any noticeable change in the rate of contribution. The slight downward trend in 2000 and 2001 may reflect a reported decrease in the production of Braille materials caused by increased use of digital delivery, and a reduction in large print production caused by increasing use of photo reproduction technology to enlarge existing versions of print titles.

Number of bibliographic records added to the NBD

Number of bibliographic records added to the NBD

Note: The graph shows a decrease in the number of bibliographic records contributed to the NBD during 2001. This decrease is largely due to a technical problem that prevented the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (VIB) from contributing for a period. As a result there is a significant backlog of VIB data that is yet to be added to the NBD including approximately 600 records for Braille materials, 700 records for talking books and 80 records for large print items. VIB and Kinetica are working to load this backlog of data as soon as possible.

Works-in-Progress on the NBD

Works-in-progress (WIP) records are commonly added to the National Bibliographic Database. They were established on the NBD to support the producers of materials for people with disabilities. This type of material has a long production cycle, and to prevent duplication of effort and aid producers' funding bids, organisations may add a WIP record to the NBD to signal their intent to create a Braille or talking book item.

WIP records are only produced for materials for peoples with disabilities such as Braille or talking books and are normally created just prior to the start of the production process, though some organisations may create the WIP just after production has commenced. These records can be recognized by the acronym 'WIP' and a date in the holdings statement, for example: 'WIP99/02' . WIP records generally meet the Kinetica minimum level cataloguing standards and may also include additional notes containing information on the production cycle of the item.

The key maintenance issue relating to WIP records is their deletion from the NBD in cases where the production of the item does not proceed. A clean up of very old WIP records was done prior to migrating the NBD to the new Kinetica system. However, there are still a considerable number of older WIP records on the NBD, and determining an acceptable standard retention period can prove difficult given the long production cycle for some items.

Though many organizations and libraries enter their own WIP records, Kinetica staff still regularly add WIP records for some smaller organisations that are unable to use the Kinetica Cataloguing Client or Kinetica's batch upload service, Batch*Link. It is anticipated that the new Kinetica Web Input form will offer greater independence to these organisations, enabling them to add records directly onto the NBD without intervention from Kinetica staff.

Kinetica Web Input

Web Input is a web-based interface that allows users to input simple MARC records to the National Bibliographic Database (NBD) through KineticaWeb. It was launched in October 2001. The Web Input interface was especially created for organisations that produce a relatively small number of original bibliographic records and therefore do not want to use Batch*Link or the Kinetica Cataloguing Client. Web Input gives these libraries the option of creating simple bibliographic records, including holdings, via a Web browser, and contributing their unique records to the NBD. The needs of the smaller organisations that formerly contributed to NUC:D were considered in the design of this service.

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