Sender: Rare book and manuscripts <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
Thank goodness for Harvard's committment to restore its full OCLC
listings. How many Libraries don't have the resources to do this type of
updating?
So, I would like to address this short essay to the professional
Librarians and IT specialists on the ExLibris list.
As an individual who does bibliographic research and non-fiction writing I
need a reference (data base) that will tell me where I can find any copy
of the text of a specific edition of a publication, and separately a
reference (data base) that will tell me where I can find a specific copy
of a specific text [for example, Henley?s personal copy of VOCABULA
AMATORIA marked up for a revised edition which never appeared].
The NUC was apparently created to satisfy my first need, and its on-line
evolution as OCLC was more accessible but less complete. The current
incarnation as WorldCat/FirstSearch has been shown to be even less
complete.
RLIN seems to have been created to satisfy the second need, but at this
point I don?t know what aggregating reference provides this information.
Special title studies, such as those by Owen Gingrich and Jay Gertzman,
give censuses of where specific copies of titles are, but not every title
has a comprehensive study and many of these studies can not be consulted
on line.
We seem to have taken a giant step backwards at a time when computers and
the Web should be making these data bases more expansive and complete and
accurate and accessible. At least if an item is part of the Google Books
program, or to a lesser degree the Gutenberg Project, then you are in
luck. (Last night, using Google Books, I was easily able to consult, in
under 30 minutes, from the comfort of my home computer, articles on the
Cavallucci LEXICON that appeared in "Della illustrazione delle lingue
antiche, e moderne e principalmente dell" .by Cesare Lucchesini - (1819),
"Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres: contenant 1o, Un nouveau"
... by Jacques-Charles Brunet - (1860), "Le Bibliophile belge Tome
II"-(1845), "Bulletin du bibliophile et du bibliothécaire", J. Techener-
(1865) and "Neuer Anzeiger für Bibliographie und Bibliothekwissenschaft"
-(1845).
So here is my wish list.
1. To have the entire contents of the printed NUC and Supplements as part
of Google Books (as digital images of each page and a ?plain text?
version) and/or a reasonably priced DVD. An advantage of Google Books is
that it has a self-contained search feature for literally every title and
author in its data base, within the limits of its OCR ?plain text?
program. Who has to consult whom to make this happen?
2. Online updating of the printed NUC (ala OCLC) using the same standards
used by the NUC. Why would not philanthropic organizations such as the
Gates/Buffet Foundations be interested in funding this project for the
educational betterment of the world's public?
3. Re-establishment of a separate RLIN type data base that would be an
aggregation of the electronic catalogs of every library which follows
standard cataloging practices AND indicates special features of its
holdings (e.g. provenance, annotations, associations, special binding
features, etc). in the appropriate MARC fields.
Thank you for reading this and I wish you all a wonderful Holiday.
C.J. Scheiner
-------------------------
> NUC (100:384) shows that Cavallucci's 1790 "Lexicon vocum quae a
brutis..." is held only by MH (Harvard).
> Robert Beasecker
>>>> <cjscheiner@POL.NET> 11/21/2007 6:10 AM >>>
> Could some one with access to the printed or microfiche version of the
> NUC check its citation for Cavallucci's LEXICON VOCUM (1790) and tell
> us if it indicates a holding library?
> If it does, then perhaps we still need to consult the NUC in addition to
WorldCat/FirstSearch.
> Thank you.
> C.J. Scheiner
> ----------------
>> But what really puzzles me is the situation revealed by C. J.
>> Scheiner's recent query regarding copies of Cavallucci's LEXICON
>> VOCUM. This comes up as another unlocated listing in FirstSearch and
>> WorldCat even though the book being described is at Harvard
>> (Houghton) and easily found in Hollis. Is this a fluke, or are there
>> many other records from Harvard (or other long-standing OCLC
>> libraries) which appear in their own online catalogues but are absent
>> from (or unlocated in) FirstSearch?
>> Jim Hinck
>> www.vialibri.net