ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 12 / C&RL News “Ask at R e fe r e n c e ” fo r b a c k lo g g e d b ook s B y R u b y M iller Assistant Director fo r Technical Services Trinity University Library a n d B a rb a ra J. F ord Associate Director Trinity University Library How to avoid user frustration as arrearages grow. Cataloging arrearages or backlogs have been dis- cussed in the library literature from the 1940s to the present. Considering the continuing relevance of the subject, this report on a program at Trinity University to make the backlog accessible through the public catalog may be of interest. Background In th e M em oranda on Library Cooperation, published by the Library of Congress in 1941, H er­ bert A. Kellar listed accum ulated arrearages of u n ­ cataloged books and pam phlets as a problem . He noted th at, according to one calculation, 20% of the holdings of research institutions were uncata­ loged.1 A 1951 m eeting of the ALA Division of C at­ aloging and Classification discussed cataloging a r­ re a ra g e s a t U C L A , Y ale, th e U n iv e rsity of Pennsylvania, Brooklyn Public, C olum bia, and the L ibrary of Congress.2 Lucile M. Morsch from the Library of Congress observed: “W e must find some way to live w ithin our means, in other words, to catalog each year all the current acquisitions, or otherwise organize them for service in such a way th a t the m aterials will never be considered a cata­ loging arrearage.”3 At the same program , M aurice 1H erbert A. Keller, Memoranda on Library Co­ operation (W ashington, D .C .: L ib rary of C on­ gress, 1941) , 21. 2Journal o f Cataloging and Classification 7 (Fall 1951):89-109. 3Lucile M. Morsch, “Cataloging Arrearages in T au b er sum m arized the solutions to arrearage problems and discussed “the growing concern of li­ brarians generally w ith the need to adapt, tailor, and modify traditional methods of organizing m a­ terials w hen these methods are too complex to p er­ m it the reasonably prom pt assimilation of m ateri­ als acquired into their collections.”4 In 1968 George Piternick sent a questionnaire on cataloging arrearages to a sample of Association of Research Libraries members, and in 1985 Grace Agnew, Christina L andram , and Jane Richards ad m in istered a n o th er q u estio n n aire. P iternick concluded in his 1968 study th a t “some type of per­ m anent cataloging below ‘LC standard’ for mono­ graphs had little appeal for the great m ajority of li­ braries now operating w ith arrearages.”5 By 1985 Agnew, L a n d ra m , an d R ichards found w id e­ spread concerns about arrearages.6 They identified two m ajor strategies for coping w ith them : placing the backlog in a public area while providing mini- the L ibrary of Congress,” Journal o f Cataloging and Classification 7 (Fall 1951): 103. 4Maurice F. T auber, “Summ ary of Solutions to Arrearage Problem ,” Journal o f Cataloging and Classification 7 (Fall 1951): 107. 5George Piternick, “University Library A rrear­ ages,” Library Resources & Technical Services 13 (W inter 1969): 104. 6Grace Agnew, Christina L andram , and Jane Richards, “M onograph Arrearages in Research Li­ braries,” Library Resources & Technical Services 29 (October/December 1985): 352-53. January 1988 / 13 mal cataloging and allowing the items to circulate; or keeping the arrearage in storage and providing full cataloging for materials as time and funding al­ low. Over the years various solutions have been devel­ oped by libraries trying to deal with arrearages or backlogs. For smaller libraries, temporary back­ logs often develop while librarians wait for Library of Congress cataloging or when there are tempo­ rary increases in acquisitions. Nelsie Rothschild of Guilford College wrote in 1977 about a method for processing the backlog by temporarily cataloging all books which arrive before the Library of Con­ gress card sets.1 In 1984 Ellen Neville and Antonia Snee found that monographs do lose their useful­ ness with age and suggested that “to expedite the availability of materials to patrons in the face of backlogs, staff shortages, and economic con­ straints, less than full level cataloging should be given serious consideration.”8 In 1986 D onald Share of Rice University discussed management of backlogs and how a “reorganization effectively eliminated our cataloging backlog, since there was more time for experienced catalogers to work on member-copy or original cataloging.”9 Many libraries today have resigned themselves to some kind of backlog. In seeking to make the m a­ terials in the backlog available to library users, some have looked for methods that do not take a great deal of time. Most recently, the use of mini­ mal level cataloging has been discussed as a means to provide access to backlogs. Karen Horny out­ lines the issues and reactions to this method in a 1986 article.10 The situation at Trinity Trinity University’s library has been involved in an intensive collection development effort since 1980 when substantial sums of money for retro­ spective purchases were received. Prior to the infu­ sion of funds for retrospective purchasing, the li­ brary was staffed to acquire and catalog some 10,000 to 12,000 book and bound periodical vol­ umes per year. With the new emphasis on retro­ spective purchases, the University increased staff­ ing in both acquisitions and cataloging to enable the library to acquire and catalog 40,000 book and 7Nelsie P. Rothschild, “Arrearages: How One Library Eliminated the Problem,” Southeastern Librarian 7 (Winter 1977):235-37. 8EllenP. Neville and Antonia M. Snee, “Agingof U ncataloged M onographs,” in A cadem ic L i­ braries: Myths and Realities, Proceedings of the Third National Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries (Chicago: Associa­ tion of College and Research Libraries, 1984), 275. 9Donald Share, “Management of backlogs, ” L i­ brary Journal 111 (September 1, 1986): 161. 10Karen L. Horny, “Minimal-Level Cataloging: A Look at the Issues—A Symposium,” Journal of A c a d e m ic L ib ra ria n sh ip 11 (Jan u ary 1986): 332-42. bound periodical volumes per year. The initial em­ phasis was on acquisitions and it was expected that a cataloging backlog would develop. The increase in staffing in cataloging was to come later, and w ith the time necessary for training cataloging staff, the acquisitions rate exceeded the library’s ability to catalog. In anticipation of the backlog, a portion of the stack area in the library was closed off to house materials. The initial solution to handling the backlog was simply to organize the materials in the storage rooms. Shelves were designated for materials in various languages, for collections, and for regular purchases. Maps were then prepared showing w hat was housed on w h at section of shelving. These maps were periodically updated as materials were moved, cataloged, or withdrawn. However, this arrangement did not permit the finding of an individual title, and as the backlog grew, it became impossible to find a title in it. In an attem pt to pro­ vide some access, the Cataloging Departm ent and the Acquisitions Departm ent developed a system of numbering the titles, marking that number on the “on-order” slip, and refiling it in the title section of the on-order file in acquisitions. In the storage rooms the books were arranged in numerical order with a flag in each book to indicate its number. This permitted at least one point of access to the ti­ tle. As the acquisitions rate continued, the system of numbering and refiling titles in the on-order file in acquisitions became more time-consuming. As a way to improve access to the backlog, the assistant director for technical services and the di­ rector determined that the campus computer could be utilized to provide access to these titles by simply adding the bibliographic records for the titles in the backlog to the locally produced COM (Computer O utput on Microform) catalog. Trinity University Library has long had a machine-readable database of all its cataloged titles. The library actually main­ tains three separate bibliographic databases at the campus computer center. One database contains all the cataloged titles within the library; a second database contains all the United States government documents cataloged since 1976; and the third database, an OCLC processing database, contains all the titles searched and found on OCLC, but not yet cataloged. The bibliographic records for the ti­ tles in the backlog remain in the OCLC processing database until they are cataloged. Beeause these ti­ tles were not cataloged they had never been in­ cluded in the COM catalog. After discussion with the catalogers and reference librarians, it was de­ cided that even though these titles were not fully cataloged, the OCLC records would provide more access than the slips in the on-order file and would require less staff time. The following procedures have been developed to implement this expanded access to backlogged m aterials in storage rooms. The books, once searched on OCLC, are placed on the shelves in the backlog, first by language and then by OCLC tape When You Call MLS, The Whole Team Answers! Jay Askuvich Scott Schmidt Carl D orr General Sales Midwest Southeast Manager Lawrence Nagel Forrest Link Kim Anderson Lorraine Best West Northeast M ountain Plains Canada Midwest Library Service 11443 St. Charles Rock Road Bridgeton, MO 63044, USA Call toll-free 1-800-325-8833 Missouri librarians call toll-free 1-800-392-5024 Canadian librarians call toll-free 1-800-527-1659 January 1988 / 15 number. W ithin the tape num ber, the books are placed in accession n u m b e r o rd er. W hen th e OCLC tape is received, the uncataloged titles are added to the OCLC processing database. W hen the COM catalog is now produced, records from the O C LC processing d atab ase, the cataloged database and the U.S. documents database are merged, sorted and used to produce the COM cata­ log. Once a title has been cataloged, the biblio­ graphic record is automatically removed from the processing database and added to the cataloged database. The changes in the com puter center were minimal to add this database to the COM cat­ alog. “Ask at reference” The COM catalog in the Trinity University Li­ brary is form atted w ith brief entries in either a single-line entry or a two-line entry. For example, in the author catalog authors’ names are followed by an alphabetical list of their works. Full biblio­ graphic information is not available in most of the catalogs, although microfiche copies of the catalog w ith full bibliographic records are available if needed. Since the accession number is the local com puter control num ber for the titles, it was not thought desirable to print this number in the cata­ log since the processing file would be merged into the regular catalog at the time of COM catalog pro­ duction. After some discussion, it was decided to use the phrase “ask at reference” in lieu of a call num ber or accession num ber for these uncataloged en tries. T hus, access is p ro v id ed for lo c atin g known items th a t are in the cataloging backlog. “Ask at reference” items are not given subject ac­ cess, only author and title, in the public catalog. But, how does a patron physically locate a title when she or he finds an “ask at reference” call num ­ ber in the catalog? Ideally, the patron goes to the Reference D epartm ent and asks the librarian for help in finding a title th a t says “ask at reference.” The reference librarian then fills out a form. The patron supplies the author and title of the book, is told th a t it will be available at the circulation desk w ithin 48 hours, and is asked to check back at the circulation desk for the title. The form is then sent to the OCLC supervisor, who actually retrieves the title from the backlog and sends the book w ith a printed copy of the OCLC record to either a copy cataloger or the cat- aloger who does rush cataloging. The OCLC su­ pervisor notes the am ount of time spent in looking for a title, and the cataloger or copy cataloger notes the call num ber on the form and sends the book through processing to circulation w ith a copy of the “ask at reference” form. The average search time is 23 minutes for cataloging staff to find and retrieve the title in the backlog. Trinity has been utilizing this system for fifteen months and there have been 103 requests for titles from a backlog th at started at an estimated 25,000 titles and is estimated currently at 8,000 titles. The titles are requested by both faculty and students, w ith a slight majority requested by students. Most of the titles are in English, with a range of im print dates. These statistics do not support the 1984 study by Ellen Neville and Antonio Snee th a t materials lose their usefulness w ith age.11 At times patrons finding “ask at reference” in the call num ber field in the catalog assumed th a t the title was a very im portant one th a t was literally be­ ing held at the reference desk and w ere disap­ pointed when told otherwise. To respond to this misperception, other phrases were considered for the catalog, but a short data field limited choices. Some patrons were unwilling to w ait 48 hours to obtain a title and were assisted by reference librari­ ans in finding other materials to meet their needs. We also do not know how many patrons did not go to the reference desk to ask for help when finding “ask at reference” in the call num ber field and left the library w ithout locating the item they were seeking. Overall, patrons seemed quite pleased th at uncataloged materials could be made avail­ able relatively quickly for their use. Conclusion In summary, “ask at reference” provides access to a large portion of the cataloging backlog. How­ ever, the materials received after OCLC searching and updating of titles to the processing file are not available, nor are the titles th at are not found on OCLC and need original cataloging. There has been discussion about the use of minimal level cata­ loging for materials requiring original cataloging as well as discussion about placing the backlogged books in an open stack area to be available for browsing. The materials th at are generally not ac­ cessible through OCLC tend to be non-English- language items and esoteric English-language m a­ te ria ls . W e are now re v ie w in g th e d a ta an d considering making these uncataloged materials available for browsing in a public area. This simple approach to providing access to a backlog could be used by any library that has its ac­ quisitions or c a talo g in g backlog in m achine- readable form. It has not been very time-consuming for the Cataloging Department and has not added substantially to the rush cataloging load. It supplies patrons w ith titles identified by author or title searches of the public catalog which have been de­ layed in cataloging. The procedures help patrons take advantage of the library’s acquisition invest­ ment and at the same time give the library enough control to keep track of the materials temporarily backlogged. The reference staff has not found the procedures intrusive, but rather a good way to initi­ ate discussion with patrons about research interests and problems. We offer this evidence to the growing literatu re w hich describes the utility of making backlogs available to library patrons. ■ ■ 11Neville and Snee, 273-75.