Levels of cataloguing treatment applied by the National Library of Canada (Revised August 2003)

Summary

Effective April 1, 1996 the National Library of Canada has revised the levels of cataloguing treatment it assigns to publications catalogued for Canadiana and the NLC collections. This change is a result of severe budget cuts coupled with a a focus on more timely catalogue record production in response to a review of users' needs.

The previous cataloguing levels system, introduced in 1991, included five levels of treatment (full, partial, enhanced minimal, minimal or abbreviated) which were assigned on the basis of the nature or perceived value of specific categories of material. The revised system includes four levels of treatment (full, core, minimal, and abbreviated) and introduces the currency of an item as an additional criterion for determining its level of cataloguing treatment.

The revised system allocates full cataloguing treatment to CIP material, most government documents in the Depository Services Program (DSP), items for the National Library's special collections, Canadian ethnic and aboriginal newspapers, and current publications in the National Library's areas of special emphasis. All materials (with the exception of CIP, DSP, Canadian ethnic and aboriginal newspapers and material for special collections) will gradually drop down to lower levels of treatment as their dates of imprint age. By reducing the level of cataloguing treatment in this way, the revised system aims to keep these publications out of backlogs where, otherwise, they would be inaccessible for research purposes.

The levels of cataloguing treatment apply to all formats of material (print, audiovisual, electronic, etc.). Derived cataloguing copy will be used as the basis for cataloguing records wherever possible.

Annex A shows the levels of treatment assigned to various categories of material.
Annex B details the bibliographic data elements included in each of the levels.

Questions concerning this document may be addressed to: standards@lac-bac.gc.ca.

Background

In the spring of 1991, the National Library implemented a cataloguing levels system that assigned incoming publications to one of five cataloguing levels (full, partial, enhanced minimal, minimal or abbreviated) depending on the nature or perceived value of specific categories of material.

In 1994 a re-engineering project for the Library's bibliographic access functions recommended that the cataloguing levels system should be revised and simplified. At the same time, a user focus study was gathering information from Canadian libraries about the National Library's bibliographic products and services. Canadian libraries were asked a number of questions about their use of catalogue records created by the National Library, and a model intermediate level record was presented for their consideration. The study showed that there was very little enthusiasm for a cataloguing record which did not contain a full level of detail; libraries expressed the need for both descriptive and subject-related access points for all types of materials. However, it also became clear that timeliness was very important to users of derived cataloguing records. Libraries would not wait more than a year for cataloguing copy from the National Library; and Cataloguing in Publication (CIP) was a popular source of cataloguing. This study, therefore, reinforced the importance of keeping materials out of backlogs.

Shortly after the user focus study was completed, the federal government introduced a series of cuts to federal departments and their programs. In response to those cuts, the National Library was forced to reexamine its previous work on cataloguing levels in light of reductions to its resources.

The federal budget reductions have given the Library the task of determining how to manage its workload with reduced cataloguing resources while, at the same time, the number of materials to be processed is increasing more rapidly than ever, particularly as new formats like electronic publications are introduced into the cataloguing workflow. With added responsibilities and in the face of a minimum 15% cut to cataloguing resources over the next three years, the need to find productivity improvements is acute.

This revised system of cataloguing levels is an approach to meeting those challenges while maintaining a balance between the various needs of our users, the volume of incoming materials, and the diminishing resources available for cataloguing treatment.

Revised levels of cataloguing treatment

The revised system consists of four levels of cataloguing treatment: full, core, minimal, and abbreviated. Full details of the bibliographic data elements included in each level and of the categories of material they cover are shown in chart form in the Annexes. They apply to all formats of material (print, audiovisual, electronic, etc.) catalogued by the National Library.

Some particular features of the revised system of cataloguing treatment should be mentioned before moving to a summary of the four levels of cataloguing treatment.

• Timeliness and currency of material: The revised system adds the currency of an item as a new criterion for determining its level of cataloguing treatment. Items will drop to lower levels of cataloguing treatment as their dates of imprint age. (Note: for serial publications this will be calculated from the date that the first issue of the serial was published.)

• Authority work: Full authority records will be created for all Canadian entities on publications at the full, core and minimal cataloguing levels. However, full authority records for non-Canadian entities will not be created if an authority record already exists in the Library of Congress Name Authority File. No authority work will be done for items catalogued at the abbreviated level.

It must also be noted that the guidelines for assigning levels of cataloguing treatment will be applied in combination with the judgement of National Library cataloguers. In some instances, depending on the nature of a specific publication and the availability and ease of adding extra elements to the bibliographic record, the level of cataloguing treatment may be enhanced from what is otherwise specified below and in the Annexes. Derived cataloguing records will be used as the basis of Canadiana records wherever possible since they may contain valuable data that would not otherwise be provided in original cataloguing at the minimal or abbreviated level.

The following is a brief summary of each of the four cataloguing levels.

Full level:
No change to the former definition of the full level; records include full descriptive and subject access points and comprehensive notes.

Full level treatment is assigned to all material within the CIP program, most government documents within the Depository Services Program, items destined for the National Library's special collections (Reference collections, Rare books, Juvenile, the LOWY collection), Canadian ethnic and aboriginal newspapers (as of Aug. 2003), and to materials in the National Library's areas of special emphasis (Canadian literature, music and the historical approach to the development of Canadian society) published within the current year minus five. An exception for some music items has been implemented.

Core level:
Descriptive elements of a minimal level record with the added value of subject headings (limit of 1-2 subject headings); shortened Dewey numbers but no LC classification numbers unless required for shelving.

Core level treatment is assigned to two categories of material. Because of volume, core level is assigned to some music materials. Additionally, in an attempt to increase the amount of material under subject control, as of June 2002, Canadian federal government publications that do not fall into the full level categories are given core level treatment (in response to requests for subject access to this category of material).

Minimal level:
Descriptive access points are restricted; no subject headings are assigned, no LC classification numbers are assigned for serials and government documents, shortened Dewey numbers are provided and notes are limited to those needed for identification of the item.

Minimal level treatment is assigned as the default level to all incoming material that does not fall into one of the categories covered by the full, core or abbreviated levels.

Abbreviated level:
Only those data elements needed to identify the item are included. No subject headings and few notes are assigned. Descriptive access is generally restricted to one additional access point other than the main entry. No authority work is done.

The abbreviated level is assigned at the outset to all material excluded from the national bibliography, to mass market paperback fiction, ephemera and other minor publications, and to less significant educational materials.
Items in other categories are also catalogued at the abbreviated level when they are no longer current. This includes material in the areas of special emphasis with an imprint date older than the current year minus five years, and all other material with an imprint date older than current year minus one.

Rationale

The difficulty in revising the levels of cataloguing treatment to reflect reductions in cataloguing resources lies in balancing the trade-off between the fullness and the timeliness of cataloguing records; as the fullness of cataloguing treatment increases, there is a corresponding decline in the volume of material that can be processed. The 1994 user focus study clearly indicated that timeliness was a prime factor governing the usefulness of NLC records as cataloguing copy. The revised system of cataloguing treatment should ensure the timely production of records for all materials. Within that parameter of timeliness, it allocates priority for full cataloguing treatment to publications in the Library's areas of special emphasis and the CIP and Depository Services programs, and, as of Aug. 2003, Canadian ethnic and aboriginal newspapers. In some instances, exceptions have been made because of the volume of material to be catalogued or in response to concerns for subject access to materials that would not otherwise be included in those categories.

For reference and research purposes, however, timeliness is not necessarily a more important factor than fullness. Nevertheless, it was felt that research purposes would be better served by minimal and abbreviated records that mark the existence of a publication and make it accessible in the National Library's collection and on AMICUS than by adding these items to backlogs to await fuller treatment at some indefinite point in the future when resources might be available. The keyword and Boolean search capabilities of AMICUS should provide better access to minimal and abbreviated records than was previously available in other bibliographic products.

Predictability was another criterion in revising the cataloguing levels. Users must know what to expect in National Library records for various types of material so that they can stream their own cataloguing workflows accordingly. The revised system retains the concept of grouping the materials assigned to each level into logical categories. Each level is identified by a specific MARC 21 value (leader 17: encoding level).

The revised system involves reductions in authority work and in subject access for some categories of material because it was impossible to effect significant resource savings without involving these two aspects of the overall cataloguing process. Similarly, because the Library's areas of special emphasis (Canadian literature, music and the historical approach to the development of Canadian society) constitute a substantial portion of the material being processed, they could not remain untouched by cuts to the level of cataloguing treatment, if meaningful resource savings were to be achieved. However, since the areas of special emphasis are given a high priority in the cataloguing workflow, current acquisitions in those areas should be processed more rapidly and should not be affected by the required drop to the abbreviated level as their imprints age.

Annex A: Categories of material

Annex B: Data elements