Paper presented at the Cataloguing & Indexing Group conference in Swansea, UK in 2016.

1. Concetta La Spada
Library Data Analyst
What is it that cataloguers and librarians fear the most?
I think it is unhappy users; users that cannot find resources within library catalogues
and consequently cannot user these resources within publishers’ platforms

2. As a publisher we don’t want users to be unhappy because we know that unhappy users make:
Unhappy librarians. Librarians that cannot offer the best services to their users. And they
can’t do that because of miscommunication between them and publishers.

3. In order to have happy users and happy librarians we know that
we have to improve the discoverability of our resources.

4. How a University Press is improving discoverability
Concetta La Spada

5. Topics
MARC records and discoverability
Improvements of the automated eBook MARC records at CUP
Manual improvements of the eBook MARC records
A special project: CLC eBook MARC records
Special project 2: OPL MARC records
Cambridge Core: eBook MARC records and KBART lists

6. The importance of MARC records to improve discoverability
A MARC record is the bibliographic description of a resource. And this description has to
be properly coded and complete in order to achieve the best discoverability possible.
What happens when this description is not complete? This is what happens.
I was looking for this eBook within the library catalogue of the University of Cambridge and I started my
search as any student would have started: with a subject search. These are the results I got.
No results at all. Why did this happen? This happened
because the MARC record supplied did not have subject
headings. As a publisher we do not want this to happen
because if I were a student I would have thought that the
library did not have this title and then I would have gone to
the librarians to ask for help and consequently I would have
lost time and the librarians would have lost time. As a
publisher we don’t want students and librarians to lose their
time; we want our resources discoverable without any delays.
When I started working at the Press, I realized that our
eBook MARC records needed to be improved so we have
improved them in two ways.

7. 8a instead of 8i. i is for RDA
rules, a for AACR2s is for electronic, it should
be o for onlineAACR2 form of 040. To Change to
RDA
Space before the 050 b is
incorrect
n/a when there is no data is
incorrect
No 082
No punctuation before n
and pNot correct
Old form not used since
2012. Change to editor.
How automated eBook MARC records have been improved at CUP
First we had modified the automated eBook MARC records, the ones customers can download from our platform.
On the left we have a record as it looked before. We have
removed AACR2 data since we want to supply RDA records
and we have corrected technical errors and description
errors.
On the right we have a record as it looks like now. It is a good
record because is technically correct and properly described
but it is still not a “perfect record. It doesn’t have subject
headings, Dewey and other fields. At the Press we want to
supply the eBook records with all the access points needed to
achieve the best discoverability possible.

8. So I have worked on our eBook records with these tools: in particular MarcEdit to modify
records, and also to merge our eBook records with the print LC records; I also needed to
create Macros in order to make these records RDA records. I also used the LC’s Authorities.

9. How eBook MARC records have been manually improved
No
082
No Subject
headings
No authorized forms of authors’/editors’
names and series titles.
I have merged the
eBook records with the
LC print records
On the left is the automated record from before, with no
Dewey, no subject headings and other elements.
On the right there is a record how it looks like now after
margining it with the print records. After merging them I checked
they had all the access points needed, that LC numbers and LCSH
were still correct.

10. Enhanced eBook MARC records at CUP
LC and Dewey Classification numbers (050 and 082 fields)
LC Subject Headings (600, 610, 611, 630, 650 and 651 fields)
LC Authorized forms of authors/editors’ names (100 and 700 fields)
Also, in these records that require them,
Language and Geographical codes (041 and 043 fields)
LC Authorized forms of Series’ titles (490 and 830 fields)
Corporate or Conference main entry (110 and 111 fields)
Title variants (130, 240 and 246 fields)
Now they have all the access points needed to achieve best
discoverability possible.

11. I did this for the majority of
our collections (about
24.000 titles). These
projects are updated every
month when we publish
new titles with new perfect
MARC records. If you are
now happy with the eBook
MARC records you can
download from our
platform you can write to
me or your sale rep and we
will send you these records.
We are working on having
them on our platform too so
that customer can
download them and upload
them in their library
systems without any delays.

12. Cambridge Library Collection
The CLC collection is a
beautiful collection, with
titles in different
languages and we have
achieved amazing results
with it in terms of use
and sales. But we know
that we could achieve
better results if the eBook
MARC records for this
collection were improved.
These titles were all originally
published between the 16th
and the 20th century. This
collection is born from a joint
project between the
Cambridge University Press
and the University of
Cambridge.

13. CLC eBook Marc records
Title Page Title Page verso Original Title Page
Original pub.
date 1890
Print Publication
date 2013
Here you can see how these eBooks look like. We have new title page, a new title page
verso with new and original print publication date and a reprint of the original title page.

14. Unfortunately, our system doesn’t have all the
data about the original publisher and place of
publication so our records look like this example
on the left.
Here you see the kind of record we want to supply for this collection.
Again, a perfect records with all the access points needed to achieve the
best discoverability possible. The process will take a bit longer than
before because we don’t have LC print records for this collection so what
I can do is to copy (after checking that everything is still correct) what I
find in the LC records for the original publication.
I am confident to be able to complete this project by mid 2017. Please look forward to it.

15. Special project 2: OPL Marc records
The MRS Online Proceedings are an Archive but they are also a collection of
monograph. We have decided to supply MARC records created by describing the
collection but with links to the archive, which is available on Cambridge Core.

16. The records will be RDA records with all the access points needed to achieve
the best discoverability possible. This will be a unique set that will be greatly
improve the discoverability of the MRS Proceedings Archive on library
catalogues.
I am confident to be able to complete this project by the end of November
2016. Please look forward to it.

18. How will MARC records and KBART files be downloaded from Cambridge Core?

20. Recap
Improved automated eBook MARC records at CUP
Manually enhanced eBook MARC records available
CLC and OPL MARC records: works in progress
CUP new platform, Cambridge Core

21. This is me, when
I received the
Quality Award
from the Press. I
received this
award because
the quality of the
eBook MARC
records I have
produced has
been really
appreciated by
our customers.
This is to show
you that the
Press is
committed in
improving our
eBook MARC
records and
understand their
importance.
Along
with a
certificate.
I have also
received
this box of
cakes.

22. Thank you
Concetta La Spada
Library Data Analyst
email: claspada@cambridge.org
Please contact me if you have any
questions, if you want eBook MARC
records and if you have any advice on
how better develop my projects. I am
always happy to hear from fellow
cataloguers.