some meandering questions.

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

I've just recently had a question from a colleague in another library
about "cataloging"  "free" web materials.

I know its probably off topic and maybe belongs on some other listserv,
but we certainly touch on issues of selection of electronic resources,
which leads to questions about access to those resources.

Some libraries do not catalog electronic resources at all. I'd be
interested if there are written policies forbidding such material being
cataloged.

Others catalog electronic resources, but do not include aggregator
journals. Are there real policies, for such decisons- or are they a
reflection of the unresolved technical demands that handling them would
mean.

Still others catalog purchased or leased from publisher or "direct"
sources-but ignore secondary sources. Practice or policy? Why

I'd be interested in philosophies, practices or policies that include
selecting AND CATALOGING free web related material for the collections.
Many librarians seemed to be opposed to it. -though I haven't seen a
formal we don't want it statement, tech services librarians in various
libraries have mentioned this to me. And in some instances cataloging
departments dont want to handle them either.

Then there are I think literally hundreds of Internet journals, often peer
reviewed, AND for instance indexed in standard indexes.  Over a hundred
titles-my estimate- are indexed in CINAHL for example, and are available
free on the web. If you are supporting Nursing, do you consider those too
for cataloging if they meet institutional needs? Or are they out of bounds
for either technical (i.e. support for cataloging) or philosophical
reasons?

What is the philosophical justification - or is it a technical issues for
look here on our web pages if they are "free" look here in our opac for
traditonally cataloged items Or look in the OPAC if they are physical
entities but elsewhere if they aren't or only go to our opac if we "paid"
for it???

Chuck