ABN NEWS With Ozline News


ISSN 1039-348X
No. 80
March/April 1995


In this issue ...

ABN news with Ozline news was edited and designed by Leora Kirwan using desktop publishing software. This publication is issued bimonthly by the Services to Libraries Division of the National Library of Australia. Subscriptions are available on application at the rate of $A40.00 p.a. from:

Editor, ABN News with Ozline News
Network Services Marketing
National Library of Australia
CANBERRA A.C.T. 2600

Unless otherwise specified, for further information contact the ABN/Ozline Help Desk on (1800) 026 155, or e-mail: ABN Help Desk


NDIS contract signed

The Director General of the National Library of Australia, Warren Horton, the National Librarian of the National Library of New Zealand, Peter Scott, and the Managing Director of CSC Australia, Peter Rehn, signed the Systems Integration contract for the National Document & Information Service (NDIS) Project on Friday, 31 March 1995.

The signing of the Contract gave the green light for the next phase of the NDIS Project to begin.

Since November 1994, the National Libraries have worked with CSC Australia on Phase Zero, the analysis and design phase of the project. Phase One can now start building on this foundation, implementing all the elements of CSC's technical solution and resulting in the release of some services as early as next year.

In preparation for the signing of the Systems Integration contract, the two National Libraries and CSC Australia undertook an intensive review of the user specifications outlined in the Request For Tender (RFT). The review was undertaken to ensure that the key requirements of users and the business needs of the project were fully represented. The results of this review will be outlined in future editions of ABN news with Ozline news.

[Image]

Peter Scott, the National Librarian of the National Library of New Zealand; Peter Rehn, the Managing Director of CSC Australia; and Warren Horton, the Director General of the National Library of Australia

Roadshow thank you

Thank you, from Warwick Cathro, Jan Rosi and the members of the marketing team, for attending the NDIS roadshows.

We enjoyed meeting you and hope you found the roadshows interesting and informative. Click here for the answers to some of the questions asked.

Project update

Data Migration

Considerable work has already been undertaken to ensure the effective and timely migration of data to NDIS, which will begin in the middle of this year. A focus group of database providers is currently being formed to provide expert advice in this area.

BSEG Report

The NDIS Project was featured in the recently released final report of the Broadband Services Expert Group which was established by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The report recommended that a nationwide strategy be implemented for the establishment of new communications networks. It recommended that broadband links be provided to all schools, libraries, medical and community centres by the year 2001. The architecture of the NDIS will support broadband service capabilities.

User Consultation

Users are encouraged to use the National Library's NDIS-L listserver as a forum for discussing comments, ideas and suggestions for the NDIS project.

To subscribe to NDIS-L send the message: subscribe NDIS-L <your firstname> <your lastname>

To: listproc@nla.gov.au

If you have any queries please call the Help Desk on tel: 1800 026 155.

Expansion of the NLA World Wide Web Server

From 6 March, visitors to the National Library's World Wide Web Server will have found a greatly expanded range of information about the Library and its activities.

An increasing number of people worldwide have access to the Internet through the World Wide Web. These people are now able to browse the Library's Server to discover information about its collections and services, to access a range of other information, including Australian government information, useful Internet navigation tools, and government policy information concerning the information superhighway.

Those interested in the Library's collections are now able to read the latest draft of the Library's collection development policy, browse a range of images from the Library's pictorial collections, search over 150 detailed finding aids to the manuscript collections, and discover a wealth of information about the Library's Australiana and Asian collections.

Libraries and other users of the Library's network services can quickly call up information about NDIS (the National Document and Information Service Project), read the latest issue of ABN news with Ozline news, check out recent ABN Standards Committee and Network Committee papers, or look up the charges for ABN, Ozline and other services. Likewise, those interested in the activities of the DNC Office, the National Preservation Office, or ACLIS will find information on the server, and the AIMA training calendars and course descriptions are available for those responsible for staff development in libraries.

A wealth of information on services offered by the Library is available, and the Library is using the "forms facility" of the server to extend many of those services. For instance, users can not only find out about the allocation of ISBNs and ISSNs, but can apply for a number using an online form. Similarly they will be able to order publications and merchandise from the NLA shop using an online order form, or fill in an online form to ask a reference question of the Library staff.

The information available via the Library's World Wide Web Server is not confined to information about the Library's own collections and services. The Server is a starting point for locating Australian government information on the Internet. It hosts the official Commonwealth Government Internet home page, and points to a wide range of other Commonwealth, State and local government information. It also has extensive links to overseas government information, in particular US Government Information. Policy makers and practitioners in the field of information policy will find a comprehensive set of pointers to the information infrastructure policies of Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The National Library aims to make its World Wide Web Server a significant resource of information sources that relate to Australia and its cultural, economic and technological development. Despite the wealth of information which it already contains, the server is not yet complete. Over the next few months, it will expand further to include new sources of information about library and information science related information, including standards and internet resources.

The server will be used extensively by the Library to communicate and consult with its users. The Library will use the server to seek comment on draft policy documents, to make available papers of interest to the Library community, e.g., papers prepared for the 3rd Round Table on Libraries and Asia were placed on the server prior to the meeting to generate discussion.

We invite all readers of ABN news with Ozline news to explore the server, if you haven't already done so. It can be found at http://www.nla.gov.au/. Recent issues of ABN news with Ozline news can be found on the Server. Check them out at http://www.nla.gov.au/ntwkpubs/abnnhome.html

For more detailed information about the Server, contact Diana Dack on (02) 62621425 or e-mail: Diana Dack

CJK contract signed on both sides of the Pacific

[Image: CJK Signing]

The National Library has signed a contract with Innovative Interfaces Incorporated for the supply of the INNOPAC software to the Australian National Chinese Japanese Korean (CJK) System. The contract was signed by Eric Wainwright, Deputy Director-General of the National Library and Chair of the National CJK Steering Committee, and Jerry Kline, President of Innovative Interfaces, at the end of March. Under the contract, the software will be installed at the National Library in July.

The National CJK System is a co-operative project of seven Australian university libraries and the National Library. Once the System is operational, it is expected that more Australian and New Zealand libraries with CJK collections will join. The libraries will use the System to build a union catalogue of CJK material and as a source of copy cataloguing. It will provide full support for CJK characters and be available, at a charge, over the Internet.

The OPAC, cataloguing and CJK functions of INNOPAC will be installed with a number of significant enhancements to the software. The main enhancement will improve the record-matching capacity so that incoming records from sources such as Library of Congress, OCLC, RLIN, the National Diet Library and ABN can be checked against the CJK System's database on control numbers, year, place, edition and title. When a match is identified, the system will decide which is the higher quality record, and add, overlay or discard records as appropriate. Copies of the specification for this enhancement are available from the CJK Project Manager (address below).

Another important will interface MASS (Multilingual Application Support Service) with the INNOPAC software. MASS is a Unicode-based software product developed by the Institute of Systems Science at the National University of Singapore. It will be used for CJK character input and display on most of the workstations accessing the CJK System. The National Library of Australia has made a number of suggestions for improving the software and the Institute is expected to provide an enhanced version of MASS sometime in June.

A further significant enhancement will allow keyword searching on one and two character words.

Further information is available from:

Linda Groom, National CJK Project Manager
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600
Telephone: (02) 62621246; Facsimile: (02) 62734327; E-mail: Linda Groom

Network Committee Meeting

The Network Committee's first meeting for 1995 was held on 9 and 10 March at the National Library. As usual for the first meeting of the year the main agenda item was the 1995/96 budget and charges. Changes to the charging schedule for 1995/96 are described in a report in this issue. Other highlights of the meeting are described below.

1995 Chairperson

Neil McLean was elected Chairperson. Neil is Associate University Librarian at Macquarie University. He has been a member of the Network Committee since July 1992. Linda Luther was elected Deputy Chairperson. Linda is Associate Librarian at the University of South Australia. She has been a member of the Network Committee since January 1991.

Governance options for the NDIS and the transition period

The Committee considered a number of models for the governance of the NDIS including:

1995/96 CHARGES Details and Background to the Changes

At its meeting in March, the Network Committee reviewed the network's financial position and set the charges for 1995/96. Taking account of the network's financial performance over the last year, the Committee proposed only a minor overall increase in charges; it also introduced a significant adjustment to the charges for the network's information databases.

Overall, the charging increases recommended by the Committee represent an increase of 1.1% - or considerably less than the rate of inflation. It is estimated that they will raise an additional $A170,000, increasing the network's total accrued revenue in 1995/96 to about $A8.2 million. In reaching its recommendations on the new charges, the Network Committee had before it the advice of its Charging Subcommittee and of the Ozline Database Providers Meeting, both of which had met in the previous month.

All ABN and Ozline customers should, by this date, have received the revised Charging Schedule, setting out in detail the charges which will apply from 1 July. The full document was also available on the Library's web server. This article provides an overview and some background to the new charges.

Online services

The Supersearch and Ozline connect time charges will be set at a uniform $A1.00 per minute. The Bulk Purchase and Site Licence charges for both services will also be set at the same levels: 20 hours connect time will cost $A900 and 40 hours use will cost $A1,600. These changes represent an increase in the charges for Supersearch of 25% and, importantly, a reduction in the charges for accessing the Ozline databases of 33%.

The Committee has retained the Inquiry charge at 31.5 cents and the UnCover document charge (including fax delivery) at $A10.50 plus the US copyright fee. This charge, negotiated with UnCover by the National Library, represents a significant discount on UnCover's standard charge for overseas customers.

Products

The basic rate for MARC records will increase by 3.2% to 32 cents. This rate will apply to downline loading and to automatic off-screen use, as well as to the first 2,000 records supplied on tape or diskette. The charges for larger files of records, for concessionally priced records (including 'bib change' records) and the subscription price for an unlimited number of records will also rise by 3.2%. Run charges will remain unaltered.

The charge for the Authority MARC Output service will increase to $A1,500 per run.

The processing charges for microfiche catalogues will be increased on a sliding scale, with the charge for small catalogues remaining unchanged and the charge for larger catalogues increasing by about 10%.

Service charges

The Monthly Service Charges for the single service user categories (that is, Ozline Only, NLM and UnCover Only) will be aligned with the Search Service charge - ie $A15 per month. The service charge for Products Only customers will also increase to $A15 per month. In addition to simplifying the network's scale of fees, it is considered that these changes will encourage customers to explore the use of the other database services since, for the standard Search Service charge, customers will be able to access all the above services.

NBD issues

Other important expenditure decisions arising from the Network Committee's review of the budget concerned the NBD. Expenditure on the Quality Improvement Programme in 1995/96 will be $A100,000. It is estimated that this further expenditure will complete the task to correct authority headings and to remove duplicate records from the NBD.

* Increases in the 3 previous years have been 7% in 1992/93; 6% in 1993/94 and 4.0% in 1994/95

Farewell Norm, Welcome Bemal

Norm Morrison, Manager NBD & Standards, retired from the Library on 28 April 1995. Following a career in the Royal Air Force, Norm spent a total of 23 years in the National Library where he held a variety of positions in Medline, Biosis, Films, Ozline and NBD. Norm is an outdoors enthusiast and already has a full program of activities lined up for his retirement.

The new Manager, NBD & Standards is Bemal Rajapatirana. Bemal has worked at the National Library for 5 years, most recently as the editor of the Australian National Bibliography. She has held positions in Cataloguing, Selection, Gift and Exchange, NBD. Before coming to the National Library, Bemal held various short term appointments in the libraries of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Department of the Treasury, the ACT Institute of TAFE and the Department of Defence.

ABN/Ozline Annual Users' Meeting

Arrangements for the 1995 Annual Users' Meeting are now well advanced. As mentioned in ABN news with Ozline news no. 79, Helen Livingston has been elected as the Chairperson of the meeting. A call for agenda items during March produced a number of suggestions from users and these have formed the basis of the draft agenda which will feature discussion of the NDIS Project, governance of the network and document delivery issues.

The meeting will also feature an Ozline Showcase. Ozline database producers will be available during breaks in the meeting to discuss and demonstrate their databases. This will provide an excellent opportunity to learn more about the wide range of databases now available through Ozline.

The Annual Users' Meeting will be held at the World Congress Centre in Melbourne on 18-19 July. This venue on the corner of Spencer and Flinders Streets provides ready access to public transport, parking and a range of accommodation options. Special accommodation rates for delegates have been negotiated at a number of convenient hotels. Details of these offers will be distributed with the registration forms. The registration cost for the meeting, which includes morning and afternoon teas and lunch, is $A65.00. There will be an optional cocktail reception, at a cost of $A28.00, from 6.00 to 7.30pm on Tuesday 18 July. Registration forms will be sent out at the end of April. So come along, hear about recent developments, and have your say about the future direction of the network.

[IMAGE] Photo Helen Livingston

Answers to the NDIS roadshows questions

More than 1,200 people attended the series of presentations on the National Document and Information Service that travelled to all Australian capital cities (and Townsville) in November, December and February. The National Library of Australia's Assistant Director General (Services to Libraries), Warwick Cathro, and the NDIS Joint Project Director, Jan Rosi, provided a description of CSC Australia's solution and user implementation requirements. Many people took the opportunity to ask questions and a compilation of the most frequently asked questions, with answers, is provided below. If you would like further detail on any aspect of the project, please contact the ABN Help Desk on 1800 026 155.

APAIS - Australian Public Affairs Information Service

APAIS is a subject index to current Australian periodical and newspaper articles, scholarly journals, conference papers and books falling within the scope of the social sciences and humanities. Emphasis is given to articles in Australian political, social, economic and cultural affairs, and material indexed must have been published within the previous two years.

The following items are indexed:

Overseas publications are scanned for material on Australia's economic, social, cultural, legal and political life. Material by Australians on topics not related to Australia is usually not selected from overseas publications.

Queries about the content of APAIS may be directed to the National Bibliographic Publications Section of the National Library ph: (02) 62621668.

Formats Printed issues. Published from January to November and an annual cumulation volume. Entries are arranged by subject and each issue contains an author index and a listing of the titles indexed with their National Library call number. Further information about the print issues, and subscription details, is available from the Sales and Distribution Section, National Library of Australia, Canberra ACT 2600.

Online database. The online version of APAIS is available from the National Library's Ozline network and from the AUSINET online service. The databases contain all records created since January 1978. Further information about access to Ozline is available from the ABN/Ozline Help Desk, National Library ph 1800 026 155 or fax (02) 6273 1180.

CD-ROM database. The APAIS database is available on AUSTROM, with a number of other databases on social science and education topics. The CD-ROM uses KAware software, and further information is available from Informit, RMIT Libraries, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Vic 3001 fax: (03) 663 3047.

Thesaurus

All articles in APAIS are assigned subject descriptors from the APAIS Thesaurus. The Thesaurus is available in printed form from the National Library's Sales and Subscriptions service for $A17.50 and can also be supplied on ASCII or Word for Windows format diskette by the National Bibliographic Publications Section for $A150.

What's new for CINCH - the Australian Criminology Database

CINCH, the Australian Criminology Database will have approximately 3,000 records added to the database in 1995. This is due to new arrangements for the production and supply of the CINCH database. Effective from the beginning of 1995, the Australian Institute of Criminology is contracting out all CINCH indexing. The Institute has contracted Datascape Information Pty Ltd to undertake all CINCH indexing.

Institute staff will remain responsible for the overall management of the database, and for delivery of updates. Because of the significant increase in records, CINCH on OZLINE will be updated more frequently; ten updates in 1995, compared with six in previous years.

The other major change is that for the first time, new CINCH records will all have a short abstract. Although the CINCH database has had an abstract field in its data structure, until now this field has been more often used for notes, rather than for formal abstracts.

1000 subject headings

Fourteen years and 1000 subject headings later, the Subject Headings Review Panel (SHRP) passed a milestone in March this year when they approved Proposal no. 1000, Reception (Theology).

Proposal no. 1 in 1981 was for the heading Verandas and was put forward by Peter Haddad of the National Library of Australia. Peter in fact proposed the heading Verandahs but it was decided that the spelling advocated in The Macquarie Dictionary should be followed and consequently the heading was approved without the letter 'h'. The heading is still listed with approximately 500 other ABN-approved headings in Part G.10 of ABN Cataloguing Manual.

Many of the headings approved by the subcommittee which later became the Subject Headings Review Panel (SHRP) have since become Library of Congress headings and they are therefore no longer included in the manual. Guidelines for preparing subject heading proposals together with a proposal form are also found in Part G.10, and SHRP encourages all Australian libraries to submit proposals for subject headings which they feel are not adequately covered by LCSH, for changes from LCSH to Australian terminology and for additional references to existing headings. Headings approved by SHRP (and ratified by ABN Standards Committee) become valid authority file headings on ABN, and are also submitted to the Library of Congress with a request to incorporate the headings in LCSH.

Proposal no. 1000 was put forward by the Reverend Trevor Zweck of the Luther Campus Library in South Australia. He proposed Reception (Theology) to cover the concept of the process of acceptance by the churches of the results of ecumenical dialogues. Trevor has been the Librarian at Luther Campus Library for 14 years. He is also the President of the Australian and New Zealand Theological Library Association. He has proposed a number of theological subject headings over the years and feels that SHRP fulfils an important role in proposing new headings to the Library of Congress.

SHRP meets twice a year and considers, on average, about 50 proposals each meeting. Membership of the Panel comes via membership of the ABN Standards Committee. Current members are Joan Moncrieff (VDU - chair), Glynis Burnett (NST) and Graham Blewett (NHUR) together with Norm Morrison of ABN. At the March meeting, 30 new subject headings were approved together with changes to 11 LC subject headings. A great deal of work is done by the Panel members in checking proposed headings and their references before the meeting, and then a long day is spent considering the proposals together. Despite all the hard work, the members enjoy getting their teeth into proposals which range from Coryphaenidae to Winfield Cup, and they find the amazing variety of headings very stimulating.

[IMAGE] Photo Subject Headings Review Panel, (left) Graham Blewett (Hurstville City Library), Angela Brown (ABN Support), Glynis Burnett (Sydney Institute of Technology, Ultimo), Norm Morrison (ABN), Linda Brindle (ABN Support), Joan Moncrieff, Chairperson (Deakin University)

[IMAGE] Photo Trevor Zweck, Librarian, Luther Campus Library

Who uses Ozline?

To help the producer of each Ozline database refine the scope and content of their database and to help them with knowing their market, we are planning to supply each producer with statistics of use of their database. The statistics will not identify any individual, as they will be at the institution level only.

If you have any problems or questions about supplying your institution's use of Ozline to the database provider, please telephone Tom Ruthven on (02) 62621677 or E-mail: truthven@nla.gov.au

Ozline Database Producers' Meeting

Gearing up for the transfer to NDIS and the charges for 1995/96 were the main topics of discussion at a well attended meeting held in Melbourne in February.

Transferring data from Ozline to NDIS was a major topic. Options and a time frame for moving the data into a test system were discussed.

NDIS will be capable of linking records in each database with holdings information or the document's image. To make the link simple, Database Producers will be able to request ISSNs for journals they index which do not have an ISSN, and hopefully ISSNs will be added automatically to all existing index records during the transfer to NDIS.

Other matters relating to NDIS included an increase in the number of formats acceptable for loading such as Standard General Markup Language, consistency of the record layout across the databases, and using hypertext links.

Producers were supportive of the moves to a consistent charge for Supersearch and Ozline.

Newsbriefs from the Producers

Free databases on Ozline during May and June

SCAN (SCANfile: science policy and management)

June:
AHRR (Australian Historical Records Register) and NICAN (National directory of organisations providing sport and recreational activities for people with disabilities)

For those interested in honing up on their online search skills or exploring databases they are not yet familiar with, here is another opportunity to do so with Ozline's free database of the month offer. This offer applies to access via our user friendly interface, SOFI, as well direct online access using STAIRS commands. A short description of each of the four databases being offered free of charge is given below:

SCAN

The SCAN database is produced primarily for staff of the CSIRO. It corresponds to Scanfile, a weekly current awareness bulletin compiled by the Corporate Library & Information Service at the CSIRO. This database covers current and emerging issues in research management, and science and technology policy. Over 200 current Australian and international journals are scanned, with coverage dating from 1982 onwards. There are approximately 17,000 records in this database.

AHRR

AHRR is a database with a difference. It was produced by the Australian Bicentennial Authority with the view to providing insight into life in Australia from settlement to 1988. It contains bibliographic records which describe paper material such as letters, diaries, photographs, financial reports, recipe books etc held by private individuals and groups round Australia. AHRR describes the historical significance of the material, plus the prominent names, places and subject matter associated with it. It also describes the availability of the material as well as access conditions.

This is a fun database to search. If you are not sure where to start, try typing in your family name or the name of your home town. If all else fails, try searching on the topic 'cricket'. The results never fail to be of interest to those who are sports enthusiasts.

NICAN

NICAN is a directory database which offers information on sport and recreational activities for the disabled. It can also be used to ascertain the facilities, resources and activities offered by specific institutions. For example, it can tell you which institutions within a city, or town have wheelchair access or offer travel opportunities, school holiday activities, art classes, gentle exercise or wheelchair dancing for the disabled.

Past searches have helped disabled people find information related to lawn bowls, basketball, disabled skiing, conferences, resource centres and much more. This database is updated monthly, and contains over 4000 records. Why not offer to do a free search for any disabled person in your institution during the month of June.

National survey of bibliographic access to documentary pictorial collections, 1994

The National Library is pleased to announce that the National Survey of Bibliographic Access to Documentary Pictorial Collections, 1994 is now available for distribution.

The survey was commissioned by the Working Group on High Priority Cross Sectional Projects and was conducted by Paul Hodgson of Informed Sources.

Terms of reference for the survey were to:

  1. Describe the existing state of bibliographic access to pictorial collections, including the following aspects:

Duplicate removal contracts

The Network Committee has allocated $A100,000 to the NBD Quality Improvement Program for 1995/96. Most of these funds will be devoted to the removal of duplicate records, and the National Library is calling for quotations for this work.

There will be approximately 21,000 monograph and 11,000 serial duplicates to be removed during 1995/96. In order to minimise the overheads and costs of administering the contracts, the preferred minimum contract size is $A25,000. The National Library will provide a short course for successful tenderers. If you require further information about the techniques of duplicate removal, or if you wish to receive a copy of the procedures manual to assist with the preparation of your quotation, please contact Jacob Young on (02) 62621683. All other enquiries should be directed to Julia Trainor on (02) 62621514. Both Jake and Julia may also be contacted via the Help Desk on 1 800 026 155. Quotations should reach Julia Trainor by 9 June 1995 at one of the following addresses: c/o National Library, Canberra 2600. Facsimile (02) 62731180 or E-mail: jtrainor@nla.gov.au.

Standards Committee Report

The ABN Standards Committee met on 29-30 March and elected Andrew Wells as chair and Graham Blewett as deputy chair. The Committee welcomed two new members: Magdalen Lee who is the nominee of the CJK Technical Committee, and Barbara Reif who was re-elected after a one year spell from the Committee, and is now serving a third term.

Non roman scripts

The Committee considered two papers on the romanisation of Chinese and Greek characters in ABN. Australian libraries have expressed dissatisfaction with the current standard for romanisation of these scripts, and the Committee made some broad policy recommendations. Acknowledging that the preferred access to these materials is the vernacular script, and that the Library of Congress and ISO standards are not always consistent and do not necessarily meet the needs of users, the Standards Committee has recommended that parallel records should be avoided in future as a method of access by alternative romanisations. Instead, the Committee recommended that access in alternative transliteration standards should be provided by means of software manipulation of the data rather than by duplication of data. Such a solution could be developed for the CJK system, and could be pursued for a future enhancement to the NDIS.

Chinese

In the case of Chinese, the Standards Committee anticipated that the National CJK Database will become the 'CJK arm' of the NBD, and sought to hasten the transition to the CJK system becoming the primary source of CJK data and services to Australian libraries. Rather than persist with trying to develop successful dual romanisation systems on ABN, the Committee saw the provision of services using Chinese scripts as the preferred path. Accordingly, the Committee resolved to urge the Network Committee to ensure that the National CJK System is relevant to the needs of all Australian libraries, including state and public libraries, with regard to standards, access, services, charges and governance.

Greek

In the case of Greek, the Committee declined to vary the ABN standard from the LC standard, but made a recommendation that it would consider proposals for composite records which would include added entries to provide access by title in an alternative romanisation.

Authorities in NDIS

With the NDIS project underway, the planning for NBD data migration to the new system is one of the first cabs off the rank. The Standards Committee considered what opportunities the NDIS will offer to the authority control services we provide. The Committee anticipated that the Australian extension to LC subject headings will continue to be developed through the Subject Headings Review Panel, and grow from strength to strength because the NDIS will permit global 'flipping' of all incoming LC terms to their new Australian equivalents.

The Standards Committee would like to be able to distribute MARC authority records for Australian names and series for contribution to the Anglo-American Authority File, and for exchange with the Library of Congress. This would improve the accuracy of Australian names used in LC records.

The Standards Committee also considered the opportunity to improve the accuracy of MARC records distributed from the NDIS, to accurately distinguish between true LC subject headings and the terms which are Australian extensions to this thesaurus. At present all LC and Australian subject headings are coded as LC headings, but the committee acknowledged that this is more of a problem for our overseas exchange partners than for Australian libraries. The Committee will consult with Australian libraries about the options for distributing Australian subject headings, and the possible impact on local library systems.

Preservation microforms

Having established a standard for cataloguing preservation microform masters, it came to the notice of Standards Committee that not all preservation masters are equally long lived. Preservation masters which are on acetate based film need to be monitored for their rate of deterioration, and so the standard was modified to provide a note to that effect so that acetate based films may be identified by online searching.

The next meeting of the ABN Standards Committee will be held on 14-15 September.

Conference papers and other analytical data on ABN

In addition to records for books, serials, and non-book material on the National Bibliographic Database, there are also records for analytical data which come from Australian libraries and National Agency tapes.

An analytical record describes "a part of an item for which a comprehensive entry is also made." One example is records for monographs in series where there is a record for the series and a record for each individual monograph within the series.

Some journal issues, in particular special supplements on a specific topic or issues devoted to conference papers or abstracts, are also catalogued individually on the National Bibliographic Database. This practice is a great aid to searchers, providing access to conference papers or other material which may never be published in monograph form and would otherwise remain 'hidden' in the journal sets.

The University of Adelaide has been inputting this type of record for some time now and examples can be found at rids abn94-86401 and abn94-88364. If you search for the rids, nlm86-3526, and 92-43097 you will see examples from the National Library of Medicine and the Library of Congress.

If you are using Supersearch to search for conference papers, it is important to remember that the name of the conference may appear in the notes, title or series paragraphs. For conferences with highly specific names, a simple search of the key words from the conference title may retrieve such a small result that it is not necessary to restrict the search to specific paragraphs. For example, searching "HIGH ADJ TEMPERATURE ALUMINIDES" will retrieve only 2 records for the first and second conferences on that topic. Adding a date to the search would narrow the search even further, so that only the specific instance of the conference required is retrieved. Another search "CAL WITH MAINSTREAM" retrieves two records both dealing with the 'CAL into the mainstream' conference.

Even when the exact name of the conference is not known, a search of the sketchiest data may still produce an acceptable result.

For example, "ENTOMOLOGY.NO,SE,TI. WITH CONFERENCE" retrieves only 17 records, a small enough result for the searcher to check each record. Of course you have to know that it was a conference and not a symposium, workshop, meeting, or congress, etc.!

AMI - Australasian Medical Index

The Australasian Medical Index (AMI) is a database of citations to the Australian health and medical literature from 1980 to present. Items are selected from serials and conferences.

Indexing is carried out in accordance with the policies of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Their Medical Subject Headings thesaurus is used for subject indexing if no printed abstract is available.

AMI complements the MEDLINE database although journals indexed by the US National Library of Medicine for MEDLINE are not indexed separately for AMI. During 1995-1996 the records created by NLM for Australian material will be downloaded and added to AMI. A list of the journals indexed is available from National Bibliographic Publications, National Library of Australia, Canberra ACT 2600, Telephone: (02) 62621523 or Facsimilie: (02) 62731180.

AMI is available as an online database from the National Library by using ELHILL software.

Information about access to AMI online as available from the ABN/Ozline Help Desk, Telephone: 1800 026 155 or Facsimile: (02) 62731180.

The database is also available on CD-ROM as part of HealthROM, produced by the Australian Department of Health and Human Services. Further information about HealthROM is available from the Department, Telephone: (02) 62898488, Facsimile: (02) 62897102.

Daily news highlights

Logging in to SOFI

A small change to the SOFI logon procedure was implemented on Monday 13 March. The change meant that SOFI users will be prompted to input their Userid and Password before selecting a database. Previously users selected a database before inputting these details. SOFI customers who use automatic logon scripts may need to amend them to accommodate this change

7 March, 1995

MARC records from ABN

We will be implementing the new integrated USMARC format which will affect records output in both AUSMARC and USMARC. Customers were notified in early February of the impending changes. Customers receiving records on tape or diskette have been asked to request from the Help Desk a tape or diskette containing 37 test records in the new format in order to check how these records will load to their local systems. Downline loading clients have been asked to request the test records as a separate session. The ABN RIDs of the test records are also available from the Help Desk.

20 March, 1995

Cataloguing laws and treaties

Do you catalogue laws or treaties involving more than one party? Or, perhaps you catalogue items about, or related to, such laws and treaties? If you do, you may be aware of a conflict between what AACR2 instructs the cataloguer to do and LC's rule interpretation. For laws or treaties involving two or three parties, AACR2 states that the cataloguer should enter the law or treaty under main entry for one of the parties and provide added entries with uniform titles for the other parties. LC, however, instructs its cataloguers to make jurisdiction/uniform title references on authority records instead of the added entries in the bibliographic record. eg NACP Australia. Treaties, etc. New Zealand, 1965. Aug 31UPCP New Zealand. Treaties, etc. Australia, 1965, Aug. 31.

LC has proposed a title revision for AACR2 to reflect this practice. This revision has not yet been passed by the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR. Until the issue is resolved, however, ABN cataloguers should follow the LC Rule Interpretation as outlined in Cataloguing Service Bulletin 41, p. 27-28, and Cataloguing Service Bulletin 51. p.37, 44-49.

22 March, 1995

New UnCover Reveal service

The new UnCover Reveal service which was released on April 3 provides a significantly enhanced service. In addition to the present Table of Contents delivery, the new UnCover Reveal will alert subscribers to newly published materials on topics of their choice or by authors whose work is of interest. It will be possible for subscribers to create and store search strategies in their profiles. Once a week, these strategies will be run against the UnCover database and new matching citations will be automatically sent to subscribers e-mail addresses. Each profile can include up to 25 searches to be run weekly and table of contents delivery for up to 50 titles.

With the introduction of this improved service, UnCover will levy a fee of US$A20.00 per profile. When users with an existing profile log on to Reveal for the first time after April 3 they will be prompted to pay the annual service fee using either a credit card or UnCover account number. UnCover Australia customers may choose to charge the service fee to their account. In this case, a charge of A$A28.00 per profile will be added to their next ABN/Ozline bill.

USMARC integration - supplementary changes

LC records in USMARC integrated format will be loaded regularly to the NBD from April. Most of the system changes were implemented last year, but supplementary changes will be made from time to time to implement new fields and correct errors. The latest round of changes are being tested for implementation in April.

These changes include:

Two new fields, OTN (Other classification number, in addition to the local tag OCN) and ELA (Electronic location and access). New subfields "n" in NOX and "l" in NIR fields. And "c" and "2" in the SRN field. And "y" and "z" for the SFA field. Removal of obsolete requirements for mandatory subfield values for the STK, PNM and CHR fields. New indicator values for the SRN and NAT fields.

Any questions about these changes can be directed to Ian Dunn on 1800 026 155 or by E-mail: idunn@nla.gov.au.

30 March 1995

Highlighting LON field problem

A problem with the LON (new style ABN immutable number) field has been causing a problem for some cataloguers and some local systems lately. The ABN system is designed to protect the LON subfield "a" when a record is brought into CHANGE by masking it. A problem has arisen in the system recently and now when a record containing a LON field with both subfield "a" and subfield "z" is brought into CHANGE the LON field highlights with the message NSF indicating that a necessary subfield is missing. In order to verify the record some cataloguers have overtyped the "z" subfield code with an "a" subfield code or have deleted the whole LON field. Please do not overtype the "z" subfield with an "a" subfield as this will disrupt matching in local systems. Please do not under any circumstances delete the LON field. All data in the LON field is critical for local systems. This problem has been raised with our systems staff and will be dealt with as resources permit.

Meanwhile to verify a record with a highlighting LON please insert the "a" subfield in front of the "z" subfield. Please do not touch the "z" subfield. To find out what the LON "a" subfield should be look at the record in $,c display (complete bibliographic display) eg LON $az$ (atABN) 10162289$ (atABN) 9926297

(rid abn93-231465)

If the record is too long and the LON does not display on the first two screens of the $,c display, insert the "a" subfield as above and supply the number. The number is the same as the isnb (internal systems number of the bibliographic record) which can be found on the $,p (programmer) or the $,x (sortkey) displays. The isnb is at the top of these displays labelled as ISNB.

31 March 1995

Barr Smith library, University of Adelaide

Because of the cost efficiency of the ABN ILL payments system the Barr Smith Library will now charge ACLIS rates to other users of the ILL payments system. Previous charge levels will apply to users going directly to Barr Smith or who do not use the ABN ILL payments system.

Tips for using the subsystem correctly

We have had some instances reported to us recently of a library ROUing a request to the next library on the Route List and has then supplied the item, though it has indicated it was not able to fulfil the request. The library making the request is not able to respond using the ILL subsystem and may receive a second copy of the item from the library next on Route list.

The library issuing the SEN command will be credited with any payment due if both libraries are using the ILL payments system. So please make sure that you issue SEN (or SD) if you are going to supply the request.

10 April, 1995

Wade-Giles/Pinyin options available to the National CJK system

The CJK Project member libraries were consulted in March on whether the Wales-Giles data that will form part of the National CJK System should be automatically converted into Pinyin before it is loaded. A program, supplied by Karl Lo of the University of California San Diego, appears to be capable of such a conversion, and is presently being adapted and tested at the National Library. There is not yet a consensus among CJK member libraries on whether such a conversion should proceed.

Linda Groom, National CJK Project Manager has written a discussion paper that looks at the conversion proposal and several other options, and the paper is now available via the National Library's Home Page. The URL is: http://www.nla.gov.au/1/asian/ncjk/cjkhome.html.

The paper is also available in paper form from the Project Manager. Linda Groom, Telephone: (02) 62621246, Facsimile: (02) 62731180, E-mail: lgroom@nal.gov.au

20 April, 1995

Change to AGIS on Ozline

The Attorney-General's Information Service database on Ozline (AGIS) covers all aspects of law and comprehensively indexes over 100 journals. Because of the increasing size of the database, it was split into 2 files on 26 April. AGIS will cover material from 1989 to the present and AGI2 will cover 1975 to 1988. This will allow you to be more specific in your searching requirements and allow Attorney-General's staff to monitor use of the older index records.

If you have any questions or comments contact the Help Desk on 1 800 026 155 or (02) 62621531, or contact the Attorney-General's Department on (02) 62506520.

21 April, 1995.

National Bibliographic Database statistics on 6 April 1995

Bibliographic File                        11 049 458  
Holdings statements                       21 844 644  
Authority File                             1 392 270  
Original cataloguing                       1 615 084  

MARC Records Available on 6 April 1995

ANB                                    1972 -present  
LC BOOKS                              1968 - 27/2/95  
LC SERIALS                            1973 - 22/2/95  
LC FILMS                              1972 - 22/2/95  
LC MUSIC                              1984 - 22/2/95  
LC MAPS                               1973 - 22/2/95  
LC CJK                                1988 - 22/2/95  
USGPO                                 1976 - 28/2/95  
USNLM BOOKS                           1984 - 7/12/93  
USNLM SERIALS                         1984 - 7/12/93  
BNB                                   1971 - 13/3/95  
CANADIANA                             1974 - 22/2/95  
NZNB                                 1982 - 20/12/94  
SNB                                  1967 - 31/12/94  

Categories of Bibliographic Records on 1 April 1995

Total Bibliographic Records              11 003 230   
Interims                                     460 030  
Full Bibliographic Records              10 5 43 200   
Books                                      8 626 559  
Serials                                      998 988  
Nonbooks                                  10 543 200  

Nonbook Categories on 1 April 1995

Cartographic materials                       225 040  
Charts                                         1 644  
Filmstrips                                    25 510  
Games                                          1 547  
Kits                                           6 138  
Manuscripts                                   23 205  
Motion pictures & videos                     164 574  
Music scores                                 161 117  
Pictorial materials                           35 399  
Slides                                        16 732  
Sound recordings                             230 694  
Transparencies                                 2 820  
Other                                         6 546   

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Last updated 27 May 1997
Link(s) modified 15 September 1999