Managing Vendor Records for Monographic E-Collections at a Medium-Sized Academic Library

Abstract

The rapid growth of electronic resources continues to challenge traditional methods of cataloging library collections, forcing a cataloging department to reevaluate its policies and procedures and implement changes. This chapter presents a case study of integrating vendor-supplied bibliographic records into a library catalog in order to provide timely and accurate catalog access to the library digital collections. The chapter discusses the benefits, issues, and challenges of batch manipulating and loading large record sets for these e-resources supplied by their vendors. It also describes the strategies and tools the bibliographic services staff has employed to solve the identified problems and improve the process. Further, it examines the effectiveness of the current e-record management policies and procedures. The chapter concludes with recommendation of solutions and a quest for future best practices in managing vendor-supplied records for e-resources.