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SCP Cataloging Priorities

Introduction

The Shared Cataloging Program provides bibliographic records for remote access CDL licensed and selected open access resources to the UC campuses for use in their ILSs. While SCP is given significant flexibility and independence in prioritizing its day-to-day cataloging activities, the Joint Steering Committee for Shared Collections (JSC) is the final arbiter for SCP cataloging priorities. If appropriate, the JSC may delegate this responsibility to a designated group, e.g. the East Asian Bibliographers for Chinese language resources.

This document presents the current SCP cataloging priorities and presents the parameters by which the JSC sets them. These are presented in three sections, General Principles, Standing Priorities, and Project-Oriented (Quarterly) Priorities.

General Principles

The following general principles guide the JSC in setting SCP cataloging priorities. On a practical level, SCP’s routine cataloging activities and adjustments to those in response to changing circumstance are guided by these general principles.

  • Licensed materials are cataloged before free/open access materials.
  • To enable access to the greatest number of resources as quickly as possible, and reflecting a bias toward access to current information and newly licensed resources:
    • Licensed databases are given first priority since a single record describes and links to a large amount of information.
    • Newly licensed journal packages are prioritized next, as journals contain large amounts of information from multiple contributors and because the currency of the content is critical in many disciplines.
    • Newly licensed monographic packages fall next in priority. Packages with MARC record sets are prioritized before those without, and packages with higher quality records (requiring less work) may move ahead of others that will be more time-consuming.
    • New content added to existing packages, with priority given to additions to journal packages first, then monographic packages as noted above.
    • Open access materials receive the lowest priority, with databases, serials, and monographs prioritized as noted above.
  • When there are multiple demands within one of these categories, the principle applied is “First in, first out.”

Standing Priorities:

Reflecting the general principles above, the JSC establishes broad based cataloging Standing Priorities that, along with the General Principles, SCP uses to manage cataloging workloads throughout the year. The Standing Priorities are reviewed annually and done in consultation with the UC Bibliographers Groups. The current Standing Priorities are given below.

  • New content from currently licensed journal packages (transfers, adds, etc.)
  • New acquisitions
  • UC supported open access resources (e.g. eScholarship, BioMedCentral)
  • Other open access resources (by request only)
  • New content from other licensed packages

Project-Oriented Priorities

On a quarterly basis, SCP submits a list of recommended Project-Oriented Priorities for the coming quarter. Unlike the Standing Priorities, the Project-Oriented Priorities are very specific and needs dependent, for example, to address a growing cataloging backlog, to catalog a new acquisition that necessitates a prolonged effort, to address a specific cataloging request from a stakeholder, or to address a special project outside normal cataloging activity (e.g. updating URLs due to a platform change). These recommendations are reviewed by the JSC, and are distributed to the UC Bibliographers Groups. Taking into account any feedback received by the Bib Groups, the JSC approves, revises, rejects, or augments the submitted priorities. This quarterly review provides the most direct opportunity for Bibliographer Groups to influence SCP’s cataloging activities. Note that these quarterly priorities do not generally include “normal” cataloging activities. For example, SCP would not recommend for prioritization a newly acquired serial package containing a couple hundred titles as this would, under the general principles and standing priorities, be automatically given a high cataloging priority. Note also that in some cases, SCP may not recommend any specific quarterly cataloging priorities. The current quarterly priorities are as follows:

  • YBP/Ebrary DDA pilot
  • Japanese DDA pilot
  • LION transition
  • WorldCat Collection Sets/OCLC KB

Chinese Language Resources

Subject to review by the JSC, the UC East Asian Bibliographers Group sets the cataloging priorities for Chinese language resources and have designated priorities for the current quarter as follows:

  • Apabi ebooks
  • Dacheng
  • SuperStar Chinamaxx New Purchases (number for each purchase varies)
  • Airiti ebooks (new purchases from DDA pilot)
  • Ongoing maintenance to cataloged packages (COJ, TEPS, CAJ, Apabi, SuperStar)
  • SuperStar Chinamaxx Phase 1