The study group believes that current cataloging and authorities
work should be supplemented in a cost-effective manner by outsourcing
much of the routine authority work. After careful study of the
capabilities and limitations of Unicorn as well as current
workflows, we make the following recommendations:
Engage a vendor, specifically Marcive, to supply authority
records for new cataloging and provide updates to our current
authority file. The service should include names, Library of
Congress Subject Headings, and Medical Subject Headings but exclude
series authorities. The service should not include vendor updates to
our bibliographic records. Marcive's service will provide two types
of authority records-updates to existing authority records and new
authority records required by current cataloging. The first type
should be loaded into the system monthly, the second more frequently.
Obtain from a vendor a basic MeSH authority file based on headings
in all Biomedical records except periodicals and the Historical
Collections. Again, the study group recommends Marcive as the vendor.
Advise the Information Services Advisory Group to revisit the
subject search options available to the public on Acorn. The study
group recommends separate search options for LCSH, MeSH, and, if
desired, a combined search of all subject headings.
Continue to lobby Sirsi to fix the blind references problem in
Unicorn. In the meantime, change the "Error, Sorry no items were
found using the cross reference you picked" message to a more useful
and meaningful one.
