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ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 38 | April 1999


Kinetica news

Cataloguing standards for Kinetica

The Expert Advisory Group appointed to assess the application of ABN Standards Committee resolutions in Kinetica has completed its work. Members of the group are Leonie Bourke (Access Co), Glynis Oxlee (Macquarie University), Pam Dunlop (National Library), Julia Trainor (Kinetica Implementation) and Bemal Rajapatirana (National Bibliographic Database).

Almost 500 resolutions passed by the Standards Committee from 1983 to 1998 were considered; many are not applicable to Kinetica because they deal with issues specific to ABN's system, products and services.

In identifying the standards to be applied in Kinetica, the group took account of the fact that libraries are obtaining their cataloguing records from a variety of sources, not just Kinetica, but also overseas databases, and library supplier databases. By following the same standards used by major data providers, Australian libraries will be able to contain the cost of copy cataloguing and reduce the cost of maintaining local databases.

The group endeavoured to provide simple, `high level' guidance on cataloguing standards to be used in Kinetica. The only major changes are the stricter adherence to the Library of Congress name authorities and the Library of Congress subject headings. These changes are intended to reduce maintenance of authority files in library systems. Australian subject headings will no longer be established if there is already a LCSH term for a topic. Access via Australian terminology will be provided by a reference to the existing LCSH heading.

For name headings, Kinetica will prefer Library of Congress name authorities. Headings which have already been established in ABN or Kinetica may be replaced by the LC form. An exception will be made for Australian names, as authority records for Australian names will usually be established earlier and more accurately by Australian libraries.

To improve the quality of Australian name, title and series headings in Library of Congress cataloguing records, the National Library will offer the Australian name authorities to the Library of Congress.

A summary of the standards is on the Web at: http://www.nla.gov.au/kinetica/standards.html.

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: lkirwan@nla.gov.au

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