ORGANIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE 703-02
Assignment # Final paper
"Outsourcing Library Technical Services: A Cataloging Help or
Hindrance?"
Mary Jo Chrabasz
05/03/10
In this time of economic downturn, more and more libraries are turning to
outsourcing in an attempt to stretch their ever tightening budgets as far as they can
go. A number of vendors offer a variety of customized services to libraries, promising
technical services work for a fraction of the cost of providing the services in house.
Outsourcing, the act of having work that is normally done in the library performed by
an outside vendor, is done in various forms by a variety of vendors. Baker & Taylor,
in addition to offering a large number of current books and other materials at a
discounted price, provides library materials that are shipped "shelf ready," with call
numbers, barcodes, and full catalog records. Midwest Tape sends DVDs and CDs with
the library's logo included on the case artwork, and offers catalog records that have
been edited by OCLC to the library's specifications. Backstage Library Works offers a
wide variety of services to help libraries, from providing authority records to
coordinating large reclassification projects. Other vendors that offer outsourcing
include BWi and Yankee Book Peddler. Many libraries no longer perform any
cataloging work in house, preferring to outsource the cataloging. The question is, is
the cataloging provided by these vendors of the same quality as that done in house?
This paper will focus primarily on the services offered by Baker & Taylor,
through their Customized Library Services (CLS) program, to the Naperville Public
Library. Naperville orders a large portion of its print materials from Baker & Taylor
(B&T), with cataloging and processing done by B&T's CLS program, as well as ordering
audiovisual materials (mostly audio CDs and DVDs) from Midwest Tape, and from a
variety of other vendors for the remaining material. Naperville has been outsourcing
a large portion of its cataloging and processing to these two vendors for several years,
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1
while still maintaining a full technical services staff. While B&T sends materials that
are essentially shelf ready, cataloging and processing staff do review the materials
before they are put into circulation. The staff also continues to perform copy
cataloging, original cataloging, and processing for materials that come from vendors
other than B&T and Midwest Tape. Other outsourcing used by Naperville includes
authority work performed by Backstage Library Works, an ongoing project to add and
update the authority records in the local catalog.
Outsourcing is a growing phenomena in libraries today, but the idea of
outsourcing cataloging and other technical services is nothing new, there are
examples of outsourcing going back more than a century. One of the earliest
examples would be the Library of Congress offering pre-printed catalog cards to
libraries beginning in 1901. Rather than a cataloger sitting down with a copy of the
current cataloging rules to create a main entry card and abbreviated added entry
cards, the Library of Congress would send several identical cards. The local library
staff would only need to type the access term at the top of each identical card
(labeling one with the author, one with the title, and the rest with subject terms).
This saved the effort of catalogers in all types of librarians across the country. The
creation of Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC) was actually begun as a way of
automating the process of creating these cards.
The Library of Congress continues to assist libraries in cataloging to this day,
both with the Cataloging-in-Publication (CIP) program, and with loading its full
catalog records into OCLC's WorldCat database. WorldCat records labeled "DLC" (for
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Library of Congress) are often preferred by libraries over ones created by other
agencies.
Complete outsourcing of technical services work is a more recent phenomena.
Some of the earlier examples of outsourcing include the 1993 complete outsourcing of
the cataloging department of Wright State University. (Ayers, 17) Another prominent
example is the controversial outsourcing of Hawaii's entire technical services side to
B&T in 1997, which eventually led to not only the early ending of the contract but
lawsuits between the two parties.
Another type of outsourcing is purchasing record sets. This is a simpler form of
copy cataloging where the searching and retrieval portion is eliminated, and the
records are simply loaded into the local database. Many vendors partner with OCLC
to offer record sets with the books they sell, supplying records from WorldCat for
those materials. The use of record sets can be useful but there are many factors to
consider.
The biggest problem with record sets is accuracy and consistency. As Banerjee
states in his article about record sets (Banerjee, 58), problems can arise when records
are received that were not created to AACR2 standards, or given standardized subject
headings. He cites the case of Oregon State University (OSU), which received a large
microform record set that was missing 500 records and had all the subject headings in
655 fields instead of the 650 fields they belonged in. In some cataloging software
(such as Innovative's Millennium) this might not be a problem, but OSU's ILS indexed
655 and 650 fields separately so the mistake made the records nearly unusable.
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Another issue, that can be seen frequently in the WorldCat database, is
inconsistency with the way multi-part items are dealt with. When records are
contributed by catalogers at different institutions there can be large inconsistencies,
which often creates more work for other catalogers. One cataloger may create one
record for a multi-part item, while a second cataloger may take a similar item and
create multiple records, one for each part.
Other problems that arise can be a result of the various forms of MARC in
existence, or in one specific example, different ways of notating special characters
(Banerjee, 60). Careful checking of records at the time of loading is important to
catch problems early so they can be quickly resolved.
Outsourcing at the Naperville Public Library began in 2001 (Bokka, 1), as the
library prepared to open its third building, the 95th Street branch. Circulation was
growing increasingly larger, along with the materials budget, but resources for
technical services staff were not increasing. Initially, contracts were set up with BWi,
Midwest Tape, and Baker & Taylor. Currently, the majority of outsourcing at
Naperville is done with B&T for print and some non-print materials, while Midwest
Tape handles the majority of DVD and CD orders. The library still orders from BWi but
has cut back on the outsourcing due to problems. Additionally, Naperville has
contracted with Backstage Library Works for authority control work.
Baker & Taylor (B&T) is one of the biggest vendors in the library world. They
supply countless materials to libraries all over the country. B&T also offers a range of
services to libraries, including their Customized Library Service (CLS), which
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Naperville utilizes. Through CLS, Naperville receives materials already processed and
ready for circulation, as well as full catalog records.
Before beginning shipments of CLS materials, the library and B&T work together
to create a detailed profile. This document, currently 24 pages in length, is added to
or edited as needed. It is the blueprint for everything B&T does, and copies are kept
by both B&T and the library. The specifications are fairly detailed, beginning with
important information such as a login for OCLC (so that B&T can update holdings on
behalf of the library), information for a Z39.50 login to Naperville's catalog, and the
font details for spine labels. The details of what exactly the CLS responsibilities are
in regards to cataloging are spelled out in detail: stating the types of records
preferred from OCLC's database, that there is to be no original cataloging, the
encoding level required for MARC records, and the types of materials that will be
cataloged.
The remainder of the specifications document is a long list of various local
practices and preferences. Some are general, such as the preference that Dewey
Decimal call numbers do not extend more than seven digits past the decimal. Others
are fairly specific to the library, such as the item listing the preferred series entry to
be retained. There are many local practices listed for the juvenile materials,
including the use of 920/921 for all biographies, specific Dewey numbers for certain
topics (such as 398.2 for fairy tales), or the use of the history number for all books
about a country rather than the travel number. There is also a long list of juvenile
series that are labeled with a cutter for the series title rather than the individual
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authors. Other items included are special local subject headings, such as "BOARD
BOOKS" for all board books, or "LOCAL AUTHOR" for Naperville-based authors.
Once the specifications are written up and both the library and vendor are
satisfied with them, the next step is ordering. Before beginning large amounts of
ordering, a few small test orders are always a good idea. This allows both parties to
find and correct problems quickly, before too much time and money is spent on fixing
large quantity orders with problems. Naperville has three catalogers who, in addition
to copy cataloging and original cataloging duties, check over the catalog record for
each item that arrives. Most are simply looked over quickly and sent on to processing
for a final check but some mistakes are found. There are also occasional books that
need changes, such as a mistake in the call number, a decision by the cataloger to
change the call number, or occasionally a book which was ordered for one part of the
collection but once the book is in hand, it is moved to another part of the collection
(such as easy to reader or young adult graphic novel to adult graphic novel).
B&T utilizes OCLC's WorldCat database to perform copy cataloging for the
materials they supply. They use the specifications to edit the records from WorldCat
to local specifications, adding or removing subject headings for example, and they
add 907 and 949 fields. The 907 field is used by Naperville's cataloging software,
Innovative's Millennium, to match the new bibliographic record with the brief order
record that has been sitting in the catalog since the items were ordered. The 949
fields create and attach the individual item records to the bibliographic record.
These fields contain the barcode, item call number, item type, location, and more.
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Backstage Library Works (BLW) is another vendor that offers a wide variety of
outsourcing services. Naperville contracts with BLW for authority control, but they
also offer original and copy cataloging services, help with RFID tagging and
reclassification projects, digitization of archival materials, and more. From their
start as a division of Dynix (a popular ILS), working on retrospective conversion of
catalog records to MARC format in the early days of online catalogs, to their recent
expansion into digitization with the acquisition of OCLC's Preservation Service Center
(Pratt, 1), BLW works "behind the scenes" to assist libraries with technical services
projects.
BLW offers authority control services, where the library sends a set of catalog
records and BLW retrieves authority records for the authors, subjects, and series that
are referenced in those files. BLW then sends the library a set of authority records to
load into their catalog. Naperville began the process in late 2008, and has been
working with BLW to add new authority records on a quarterly basis. While cataloging
staff does perform some manual authority control (mostly keeping an eye on new
book series to make sure all titles have a series entry, or correcting typos in records),
the authority records sent by BLW help maintain consistency in the catalog.
Sometimes outsourcing is not the best idea. The quality and cost effectiveness
of outsourcing needs to be evaluated to determine whether it is a viable option. In
the case of Ohio State University's Slavic cataloging, as Ayers mentions in her article,
the quality of outsourced original cataloging records was of acceptable quality but the
price was higher than in house. After several years of outsourcing the backlog to a
vendor and continuing to catalog new acquisitions in house, the cost of outsourced
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cataloging was $36.67 per title, while in house cataloging was $17.03 per title. (Ayers,
20)
Some of the other considerations that need to be looked at when beginning or
continuing outsourcing include monitoring the quality of records, whether or not any
editing needs to be done in-house that cannot be done by the vendor (local call
numbers, subject headings, etc), the time needed for interfacing between the vendor
and library, and the limitations of automated authority work. (Ayers, 25)
The biggest issue that needs to be considered is the quality of cataloging. While
many records available for copy cataloging in OCLC's WorldCat database are of
sufficient quality, there are often poor quality records added. Frequently a search
for an ISBN will bring up multiple records for the same title, one good one and several
brief records or records that are somewhat close to full level cataloging but are
missing significant information such as a complete physical description or subject
headings.
The big question is, are the records of enough quality to justify the outsourcing?
In my opinion, yes. The majority of records received from B&T are excellent and
need no corrections. Most of the corrections tend to be a series entry that isn't
traced (more of a local practice, since Naperville's children's librarians use series
searching extensively), or the occasional call number dispute where two or more
Dewey Decimal numbers are equally valid for a book. Conference calls are held on a
regular basis to discuss problems, and the B&T team listens to issues brought up and
works to correct them quickly.
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The existence of WorldCat makes such outsourcing possible, as B&T has access to
the records in that database for copy cataloging purposes. The majority of WorldCat
records are acceptable as is, with little editing needed to be done. The biggest
problem with WorldCat is weeding out the poor records. Often there are three or four
records that come up in an ISBN search, and they need to be reduced to the one best
one. There is some instruction on that in the CLS specs, which state records created
by the British Library (OCLC symbol UKM) are only to be used as a last resort. Some
records are easy to weed out, as they are extremely brief records that are missing
quite a bit of information. Others need to be looked at carefully to decide which is
the best record. Unfortunately, some libraries often create a new record for an item
when it is unnecessary to do so, adding clutter to the database. Fortunately, B&T
does employ trained catalogers who usually pick the correct record for each item.
Occasionally an item will come in with the wrong record selected, but these are few
and far between.
The bottom line is, if the vendor's catalogers take the time to look at the records
they are selecting, and not only edit according to the specifications document but
also check the information against the actual item, the catalog records will be of
good quality. For public libraries purchasing current and popular items, outsourcing
of cataloging can be very cost-effective. For academic or special libraries that
require quite a bit of original cataloging, especially in different languages,
outsourcing might not be as cost effective for ongoing orders, though some vendors do
offer original cataloging services to reduce backlog. For many libraries, outsourced
cataloging can be very useful.
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So, is outsourcing a good thing for libraries or a really bad idea? In most cases,
yes, outsourcing can help libraries improve their workflow and keep backlogs down.
The specifications for the vendor need to be carefully prepared, reviewed, and
revised as needed. Test orders, to catch problems and check the quality of vendor
work, are vital. The contract and work should be regularly reviewed to make sure the
library is still getting quality work and not over paying. The costs should be checked
carefully at the outset, and reviewed from time to time, to make sure that the library
really is saving money by using outsourcing. But in the long run, partial outsourcing
can be of use to libraries. Total and complete outsourcing, however, is probably not
a good idea. It is best to have in house staff to take care of those materials that the
vendors cannot do (such as the occasional book received from B&T that they could not
find a suitable record for copy cataloging, or items from vendors that do not offer the
services that B&T does), and to eyeball the items done by vendors to catch problems
as they arise. Also, as the case in Hawaii has shown, collection development should
not be completely outsourced. Local librarians should have some say in what items
are ordered, even if the vendor does pre-selection.
Yes, outsourcing can be a useful thing. Vendors can save libraries money, which
is especially helpful in this economic downturn, but there will always be a need for
technical services professionals in libraries. While cataloging may be outsourced, and
trained catalogers employed more frequently by vendors than by individual libraries,
ideally there should still be room for professional catalogers in libraries for many
years to come.
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