The sharing of catalog records among libraries has long been the most economical way of ensuring access to and consistency in collections all over the world. When a cataloger begins processing a collection, they will likely start by searching for an existing bibliographic record that matches the item in hand. Backstage refers to the rate at which a match is found as the ‘copy rate’. Records that go unmatched require original level cataloging – that is, a bibliographic record generated from scratch or using elements from a stub record.
In a selection of 10 books, let’s say that 3 match an existing record in a shared database, and 7 require original level cataloging. The 3, which will be treated as copy records, represents 30% of the batch. The copy rate, then, is 30% within the database that was checked.
Why Does Copy Rate Matter?
Copy catalog records typically require less editing (if any) to bring up to a library’s bibliographic guidelines. Original records require much more. Evaluating a collection’s rate of copy, whether working with a team of internal catalogers or if you’re outsourcing, will frame the workflows, budgets, and timelines necessary to process it. A project with a high rate of copy will typically be faster and cheaper than one that requires a lot of original level cataloging.
How To Evaluate Your Copy Rate
1. Determine a scope.
What needs to be cataloged? Is it a backlogged collection from the 19th century? Is it mixed between languages or formats? Are you receiving ongoing shipments from a distributor who only provides brief records to its clients?
Break the scope of work to be completed down into ‘traits’ – that is, groups separated by one of the variables described here. If the collection’s publications span decades, consider older materials to be one trait and newer as another. If your collection has books and CDs, consider each format type as its own trait. Different languages, too, can experience fluctuations in their rate of copy. Treat each language, or family group of languages, as separate traits.
2. Investigate your copy rate(s).
Review a randomized assortment of each trait within your collection by searching for matching copy records on the database you’ll be using for your project. How much should you sample? The goal is to give your team a confident snapshot of your collection. Larger sample sizes result in the best statistics, but you can typically develop a feel for your collection by reviewing 10 – 15 items from each trait.
What Might the Results Look Like?
Let’s look at an example. We’re librarians working with the Abril collection, which was donated several months ago and which is now in the queue to be processed. The donor provided an excellent inventory list and we know that the collection contains the following: monographs, serials, DVDs, and some unpublished theses. Most of the collection was published within the last 30 years with the exception of a handful of 19th century volumes. Lastly, the collection spans English, German, Dutch, and Russian languages for monographs, Dutch for serials, and Russian for DVDs.
How would we divide this collection into traits, how much would we sample, and what are our findings?
What are our conclusions?
- It looks like our English portion and Russian monographs have a high rate of copy. That should make cataloging go much faster for those sections!
- The Germanic group had a 60% hit rate. There was some fluctuation between the Dutch and German, but nothing so drastic that we’d want to reevaluate. The cataloger determined that 60% was a comfortable assessment.
- There were few enough serials in the collection that we opted to diminish our sample size and just check 5.
- We can plan to create original level records for the majority of the Russian language DVDs.
- We decided to skip checking the unpublished theses; they make up a small segment of the collection and, in examining their covers and inside page, our team is doubtful that copy records exist. If it turns out that there is copy, then it’ll be a pleasant surprise to our timeline and budget.
- We also skipped examining the 19th century items. We’re going to assume that these do have copy records given their age. There are so few that, if we’re wrong, the extra cost and time necessary to catalog a handful of original level records won’t be difficult to absorb.
Questions?
If you’d like to learn more about how our team evaluates copy rate for upcoming projects, call us at 1.800.288.1265, visit us online at www.bslw.com, or send an email to info@bslw.com.
