RE: Cataloguing open access

["Harvey Brenneise" <HBrenne@MPHI.org>]

I agree with you, Beth, about the need to provide a single access point
(the catalog) for important resources.  However, it does create some
significant cataloging issues.  Frankly, I think many catalogers are still
living in the past (emphasis on perfection rather than public usefulness).  
In the past, we've also "purchased" cataloging records one at a time (for
the most part) from OCLC.  Probably for important free resources, we need
to develop models where we collaboratively develop _groups_ of free
records (in my case they'd be public health) that can be input as a group
and updated regularly.  There are certainly some examples (starting with
the old OCLC collection sets, Serials Solutions, MARCHIVE GPO records,
even WebFeet) but it's hardly ubiiquitous or available for most
specialties.  Perhaps some grant proposals need to be written to try out
some new collaborative cataloging models.  I know that without this kind
of work, for example, hospital libraries will never be able to have these
kinds of links in their catalogs.

Harvey Brenneise
Michigan Public Health Institute
hbrenne@mphi.org