Networked Services Project
Request for Tender for NLA Networked
Services
Chapter 4 - Project Capabilities Sought
4.2 Cataloguing Client
4.2.2 Mapping to Configurations
4.2.3 General Capabilities Sought
4.2.4 Specific Capabilities Sought
4.2.6 Links to Other Configurations
4.2.1 Overview
The Library is seeking proposals for a Cataloguing Client that could be used to create and maintain:
a) Cataloguing data on the National Bibliographic Database (NBD)
b) Cataloguing data for each library's own local system; this category could include, in the Library's case, data for the Library's own ILMS.
The Library does not consider it part of its role to provide local cataloguing software for Australian libraries, but recognises that if the Cataloguing Client is capable of updating both the NBD and local systems it will achieve greater market acceptance, and is likely to result in the NBD having greater coverage overall. The Library also envisages that the NSP-sponsored Cataloguing Client will demonstrate the effectiveness of client software as a means of supporting NBD contribution as a low-effort by-product of local cataloguing workflows, and that this will encourage a trend among local system vendors to develop software that can update the NBD and the local system simultaneously.
In the long term the Library envisages that all the NBD contribution functions described in this Section will be performed on libraries' local systems, or on third party cataloguing clients. The Library thus views the NSP-sponsored Cataloguing Client as largely a short to medium term solution.
4.2.2 Mapping to Configurations
The requirements described in this section relate to Configuration #2.
4.2.3 General Capabilities Sought
a) The following general functions are sought:
i. Searching of external systems, including the NBD
ii. Capture of data from external systems, including the NBD
iii. Creation, change and deletion of data
iv. Exporting data to the NBD and other external systems
v. Ordering cataloguing products from the NBD
vi. Reports.
b) General capabilities which apply to all the above functions include:
i. Provide support for the extended Roman character set as defined in the USMARC format or in a combination of ISO 646 (ASCII) and ISO 8859 (Extended Latin alphabet), including diacritics and special characters; preferably the ability to accept, input, display, include in searches, sort and transmit these characters to target systems
ii. For non-Roman scripts, provide a minimum level of support that allows non-Roman data to be loaded, stored and transmitted in MARC records ie passed through the Client without corruption
iii. For any scripts where display is not supported, the Cataloguing Client should substitute appropriate text or symbol for the character (ie not display garbage)
iv. Provide easy to user interfaces, suitable for novice and experienced users, with online help and tutorials
v. Provide all the capabilities listed in this Section within a single user interface independent of the feature set and interface conventions of the target external servers.
4.2.4 Specific Capabilities Sought
The specific capabilities listed are not intended to be an exhaustive list of required functionality. They are designed to be illustrative of the range of functionality desired by the Library, and include capabilities which may be unusual in the library services marketplace. The Library does not expect that Tenderers will necessarily be able to provide all the functionality listed. However, the selection process will include detailed evaluation of the extent to which Tenderers are able to provide the capabilities listed.
4.2.4.1 Searching of external systems, including the NBD
a) Allow cataloguers to search the NBD and other Z39.50 compliant targets.
4.2.4.2 Capture of data from external systems, including the NBD
a) Allow a cataloguer to import copies of bibliographic, holdings and authority data from the NBD and other Z39.50 compliant databases into the Cataloguing Client for editing.
b) Allow a cataloguer to cut and paste bibliographic, authority and holdings data from the NBD and other Z39.50 compliant databases into a record being created or edited on the Cataloguing Client.
4.2.4.3 Creation, change and deletion of data
a) Provide work forms for the creation and change of bibliographic, authority and holdings data in USMARC format.
b) Provide work forms tailored to monographs, serials and other categories.
c) Provide efficient cataloguing work screens; provide a screen editor, with good text processing facilities.
d) Allow cataloguers to set default values for particular data elements.
e) Suppress prompts for fields which occur infrequently but allow these prompts to be called up easily and data inserted as required.
f) Allow a cataloguer to save partly-completed work, whether it is the creation of a new record or the update of an existing one, and resume it later; in such cases the partly-completed work should not be transmitted to an external database.
g) Allow concurrent searching and cataloguing sessions, with the ability to "cut and paste" retrieved data from one window to another.
h) Allow a cataloguer to use a bibliographic, holdings or authority record as the basis for creation of a new record (eg to create a record for the "3rd edition, 1996" from a copy of the record for the "2nd edition, 1993").
i) Validate input and changed data against USMARC bibliographic and authority formats, and against validation rules specified by NBD Managers, including requirements to contain mandatory data.
j) Allow a cataloguer to add holdings data to the NBD as an integral, low-effort part of importing bibliographic data from the NBD.
k) Allow holdings added to a bibliographic record to be automatically copied to other bibliographic records, eg items in a series.
l) Allow a cataloguer to flag new, changed and deleted records so that they will come to the attention of an NBD Manager; and to attach messages to the records.
m) Allow cataloguers to flag data as requiring deletion on a target database.
n) Allow cataloguers to make global changes on NBD bibliographic, holdings and authority data.
o) Allow cataloguers to search cataloguing tools such as LCNA and the Dewey Decimal Classification, and to incorporate data from search results into their work forms.
4.2.4.4 Exporting data to the NBD and other external systems
a) Allow a cataloguer to transmit new, changed and delete-status bibliographic, holdings and authority data to the NBD.
b) Allow records from the Cataloguing Client to be transmitted in real time to the NBD.
c) In transmitting data to the NBD, comply with the Union Catalogue Profile of Z39.50 Version 3 Extended Service for Update. (The Union Catalogue profile is under development; a copy of the latest version will be available in late March at
http://www.nla.gov.au/2/NDIS/devproject.html)and through http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/agency/profiles/profiles.html
d) Provide an option that will allow cataloguers to transmit new, changed and delete-status data simultaneously to the NBD and to another external database, so that for, instance, the cataloguer can update the NBD and their local library system at the same time.
e) Accept reports from the NBD indicating errors or possible errors, including cases where:
i. a bibliographic or authority record exported from the Cataloguing Client is a definite duplicate (ie describes the same item or term) as a record that already exists on the NBD
ii. a bibliographic or authority record exported from the Cataloguing Client is sufficiently similar to record(s) already on the NBD to require the cataloguer to investigate the possibility of duplication
and provide an efficient and effective way for a cataloguer to send corrected data to the NBD if appropriate.
4.2.4.5 Ordering cataloguing products from the NBD
Background
As well as importing individual records from the NBD and transmitting them to their local systems, cataloguers will want to place orders for files of records from the NBD eg refresher files.
Capabilities
a) Allow cataloguers using the Cataloguing Client to use the full range of NBD search functions to select records to be delivered.
b) Allow cataloguers using the Cataloguing Client to place standing orders so that records selected by specified criteria are automatically delivered to the Customer Library at specified intervals, including 'deliver every Friday by FTP all the serial records to which libraries x and y have added or changed holdings since the previous Friday'.
c) Allow cataloguers using the Cataloguing Client to cancel or postpone the delivery scheduled for a particular date ie vary the standing order, and to specify an expiry date for the standing order service.
d) Provide cataloguers using the Cataloguing Client with a range of options for selecting records to be delivered, eg output results of last search, request only authority records updated sine the Customer Library's last run.
e) Provide cataloguers using the Cataloguing Client with a range of options for format of records, eg ASCII, untagged, specified fields.
f) Provide cataloguers using the Cataloguing Client with a range of options for delivery methods, eg FTP, magnetic media.
4.2.4.6 Reports
a) Provide reports which will assist cataloguers in monitoring and evaluating use of the Cataloguing Client.
4.2.5 Questions
4.2.5.1 General
a) If you are tendering for both the National Bibliographic Utility and the Cataloguing Client, and are including a proprietary 'non-client' cataloguing facility in your tender for the National Bibliographic Utility, please outline the differences between the client and non-client solutions.
b) Describe:
i. the minimum and recommended hardware platform and software required for installation of the Cataloguing Client
ii. the degree of expertise needed to install the Cataloguing Client
iii. the protocols used for communication between the Client and Servers.
c) What options are there for distribution of the Cataloguing Client to Customer Libraries? What would be your recommended arrangement for distributing the Cataloguing Client?
d) What parameters on the Cataloguing Client can be set by NBD Managers ie set before distribution? How would parameters set by NBD Managers be protected from unauthorised change? What parameters can be set by individual cataloguers, across sessions and within sessions?
e) What does the Cataloguing Client require of Servers?
f) How does the Cataloguing Client use Z39.50? Describe your company's involvement, if any, in the Z39.50 Implementors' Group, and your strategies for future developments related to Z39.50.
g) Please list any examples of external databases that the Cataloguing Client has successfully and regularly searched, and updated.
h) If the Client supports simultaneous searches across multiple external databases, describe how this works. What is your recommended maximum number of databases in a simultaneous search?
i) Describe the facilities of the Cataloguing Client for registering users and access authorities. How does the Cataloguing Client restrict functions to authorised users, including functions that result in updates to external systems?
j) Does the Cataloguing Client have any facilities to receive and display news broadcasted from the NBU? If so please describe.
k) State which character sets a cataloguer may use, and how cataloguers may input codes for characters that cannot be directly input or displayed by the Cataloguing Client.
l) How does the Cataloguing Client interface with the different character coding requirements of the NBD and other external systems?
m) If you are prepared to guarantee response times for NBD searches initiated on the Cataloguing Client, and times taken to transmit cataloguing data to the NBD, please do so. What factors would affect these times, and which of those factors do you regard as beyond your control?
n) How would the Cataloguing Client deal with a situation where the NBD server was down? Could data creation and change continue on the Cataloguing Client? Would transactions targeted at the NBD server be queued and transmitted later?
4.2.5.2 Searching of external systems, including the NBD
a) When a cataloguer uses the Cataloguing Client to search the NBD, will any of the search capabilities listed in the NBU Searching Section (4.1.6.12) not be available to the cataloguer? If so please list them.
b) How could the Cataloguing Client be set up so that cataloguers are offered a choice of databases to search for cataloguing copy, but are encouraged to search the NBD first? If the Client allows cataloguers to set scripts for sequential searches, eg " for bibliographic records search the NBD first; if no hits search RLIN; if no hits search OCLC" describe how this works.
c) Does the Cataloguing Client have an option that allows a cataloguer to transmit copies of bibliographic, holdings and authority data from the NBD to the cataloguer's local system, or from other databases (eg RLIN) to the NBD, without the intermediate steps of importing the data into the Cataloguing Client and manually intervening to re-export it to the local system or NBD? If so please describe.
d) Does the Cataloguing Client provide an option for a cataloguer to transmit a failed search on the NBD authority file to LCNA or LCSH, without re-keying the search?
4.2.5.3 Capture of data from external systems, including the NBD
a) Does the Cataloguing Client allow cataloguers to view multiple search sessions on external databases, for example to compare MARC displays of the same bibliographic record on the NBD and another database? If so please describe.
4.2.5.4 Creation, change and deletion of data
a) Please provide screen prints, or a demonstration diskette, or a telnet address of a demonstration system, or equivalent, so that the Library's evaluators may view some typical online work forms that a cataloguer would use to input new bibliographic, holdings and authority records. This should include examples of variant types of work forms eg if different work forms are available for serials, music, non-Roman script etc.
b) Describe how cataloguers could set default values for particular data elements. Could they save these defaults across sessions? Could they set defaults for a particular session only eg set the contents of a series field?
c) What validation tests does the Cataloguing Client provide eg mandatory/optional, repeatable data element/not repeatable, edit masks, validation against code sets, validation of headings in bibliographic records against the NBD authority file, validation against rules such as Òuse subdivision only in LCSHÓ? To what extent can these validation tests be set and changed by the Library?
d) Does the Cataloguing Client provide spell checking? If so can it be turned off and by whom?
e) How would the Cataloguing Client deal with cases where a cataloguers uses a heading that is an unpreferred form on the NBD, or not already used on the NBD?
f) How would the Cataloguing Client deal with cases where a cataloguer issues a transaction to delete an NBD bibliographic record which has holdings data linked to it? Or an NBD authority record which has an NBD bibliographic record linked to it?
g) How would the Cataloguing Client deal with cases where a cataloguer issues a transaction to add holdings to an NBD bibliographic record and the NBD bibliographic record already has holdings for the cataloguer's library?
h) Does the Cataloguing Client provide an option for adding holdings information automatically to new records? For example, if no holdings data is present, automatically add the Contributing Library identifier and the text 'held'. If so please describe.
i) If the Cataloguing Client stores in each bibliographic, holding and authority record:
i. the date of creation and/or latest update
ii. the record source (eg the Contributing Library symbol)
iii. the source (eg the Contributing Library symbol) of the latest update
please describe how this data is created and stored.
j) To what cataloguing tools does the Cataloguing Client provide access? Where would you recommend these cataloguing tools be stored - on the Cataloguing Client, on the NBD, or on other servers?
k) Does the Cataloguing Client support non-MARC cataloguing? If so describe.
4.2.5.5 Exporting data to the NBD and other external systems
a) Does the Cataloguing Client have any facility to ensure or encourage transmission to the NBD of a copy of a record that a cataloguer derives from a non-NBD source? If so please describe.
b) Does the Cataloguing Client allow cataloguers to flag records that are exported to the NBD for review by NBD Managers? If so how is this "flag" stored in the exported record? Can the cataloguer attach comments?
c) Does the Cataloguing Client support simultaneous update of multiple external systems? If so describe how this works, and any limitations.
d) What, if any, facilities does the Cataloguing Client provide to enable cataloguers to flag records as not duplicating similar records on the target database?
e) Does the Cataloguing Client have any facility to transmit holdings data to the NBD in the USMARC holdings format, or attached to a brief MARC record, or in a non-MARC format such as a delimited ASCII format consisting of the location, call number and one or more potential unique identifier? If so please describe how these formats are generated and exported. If brief MARC and non-MARC formats are supported, please also describe the formats.
f) If the Tendered Cataloguing Client does not comply with the Union Catalogue Profile of Z39.50 Version 3 Extended Service for Update, please describe how it would communicate with the National Bibliographic Utility. If you have a development path that would include Union Catalogue Profile support, please describe it, including your schedule for implementation.
4.2.5.6 Ordering cataloguing products from the NBD
a) Describe how cataloguers would order files of records from the NBD for loading to their local library systems.
4.2.5.7 Reports
a) What reports does the Cataloguing Client provide? To what extent could cataloguers in Customer Libraries generate customised reports?
4.2.5.8 General technical questions
a) In addition to the above questions, Tenderers are required to answer the questions in Sections 5.10.1 to 5.10.13, to the extent that they are applicable to this configuration.
4.2.6 Links to Other Configurations
The Cataloguing Client will be required to link to the National Bibliographic Utility (Configuration #1) and the Integrated Library Management System (Configuration #6). Tenderers should explain how they would implement relationships to this configuration.
Return to Start or Continue to Chapter 4-3
| About This Site | Copyright | Privacy | Accessibility | Site Map | Site Search | Content A-Z | Contact Us |