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The Digital Tables of Contents project creates HTML-encoded Table of Contents (TOC) data and makes these available on the World Wide Web where the data may be viewed through a Web browser accessing the Library's online catalog at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catalog or through searches conducted using Web search engines that have indexed the data. The process cross-links the TOC to underlying catalog records so that both the catalog records and the linked TOC may be viewed as a result. Following a TOC link to the catalog a researcher can conduct additional searches for related information. At present more than 2,800 TOCs have been created and linked, and more that 500,000 hits have been recorded on the TOC files section of the Cataloging Directorate Web pages.
For information regarding the Digital Tables of Contents project readers may contact Bruce Knarr, project chair at bkna@loc.gov
With the permission of the American Library Association, this project has added the annotations with reviews from the "Outstanding reference sources" sections of the May 1999, and 2000 issues of American Libraries, to LC bibliographic records. The team is currently at work on the items noted for 2001. For information regarding the Reviews project readers may contact Bruce Knarr, project chair at bkna@loc.gov
BEOnline+ (Business and Economics Online) began as a pilot project in 1996 and later became BEOnline+, which provided both bibliographic and direct access to selected online resources, enabling Library users to enjoy improved access to Internet information in addition to more traditional data obtained from searches of the Library's catalogs. The initiative is now the responsibility of the Library's Special Cataloging Materials Division, where it will continue to be expanded and where it is already incorporated into the regular Cataloging Directorate processing work flow. BEOnline+ has undertaken the important steps of recruitment and initial training for this project, and staff already trained are contributing cataloging to this effort.
Interested parties may visit http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/business/beonline/ for current status and future developments regarding this project.
The BECites+ initiative is designed to substantially enhance traditional printed library bibliographies not only by placing them on the Web in electronic form but by including annotated citations, tables of contents, indexes, and back-of-book bibliographies or resources cited therein. Reciprocal links are made between all of these data files and to and from the online catalog record for each title in the bibliography as well as to the electronic bibliography in which it is cited. This cross-linkage results in enhanced information retrieval, as each of the links connects a searcher to other related resources and to an electronic bibliography or guide to materials on the same or similar theme. Finally, links to pertinent online journal indexes, other related web resources, and to applicable subject headings in the Library's catalog are also included. Some of the titles available or currently in progress include Business History, Thomas Jefferson, and Genealogy / Immigrant Arrivals.
More information about BECites+ may be found at http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/guide/
BEAT supports the Library's Electronic Cataloging-In-Publication (E-CIP) program, where the team has been instrumental in helping to implement a Tables of Contents component where TOC data are added to body of the catalog record. With the strong support of the Director for Cataloging and the use of automated editing techniques developed by team member David Williamson, recent statistics show cataloging staff now adding TOC data for about 32% of the E-CIP materials. The hope is that ultimately TOC data will be reflected in as many as 50% of E-CIP titles. This activity is ongoing and is separate from BEAT's other TOC initiatives described elsewhere in this report
Information about the CIP program may be obtained at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cip/cip.html
With Area Studies representation on the Team, BEAT supports the Area Studies Portals initiative. This project is designed to provide access to online resources for all international regions of the world. Portals are created using OCLC's Cooperative Online Resource Catalog's (CORC) Pathfinders, and each country's page has subject categories that are linked to CORC pages. To date, more than 700 Pathfinders have been created. The utilization of CORC in this reference initiative is an example of the utility of this facility that BEAT has enthusiastically supported at the Library, and of the benefit derived from the exchange of information and ideas that has been characteristic of the broad-based membership of the team.
Portals to the World opened on November 1, and readers may access the main Portals page at http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html
The project determines which, from among social science monographic series titles of the "working paper/discussion paper" type that LC has (of those within scope for the project) are available in electronic form and adds the URLs to the LC catalog records for these series. By linking to these electronic versions, LC provides timely, comprehensive, and cost effective access to these series. A particular value added by this project is that the access (links) to the electronic versions frequently provide the researcher with significant information resources that offer full-text access to many of the titles in these series.
Some examples of the information found through the links that the project provides are available http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/beat/analytics.html
ONIX (Online Information eXchange) is a means of representing book industry product information and is being used by some publishers today to communicate that data electronically. As with the digital Tables of Contents initiative noted elsewhere, links are made from the TOC data to the catalog record, and the reverse, and researchers can move from the TOC to the Library's online catalog where they can search for additional material. To date the project has created more than 10,000 ONIX TOC records, and links to these from the catalog are being made in ongoing fashion.
A fuller description of the ONIX TOC project as well as brief descriptions of the other BEAT TOC initiatives can be found in "Cataloging Electronic Resources at LC" in Volume 9, no. 12 of LC CATALOGING NEWSLINE (the Online Newsletter of the Cataloging Directorate Library of Congress) November 2001.
With the Director for Cataloging and with approval of the Cataloging Management Team, BEAT principals will create an action plan reflecting important initiatives for BEAT involvement arising from recommendations of the Conference. A revision of the draft plan is expected shortly, and the text of entire Library of Congress current draft Action Plan, Bibliographic Control of Web Resources, is available at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/bibcontrol/draftplan.html . The plan stems directly from the recommendations made during the Library's Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium, November 15-17, 2000.
The creation or promotion of use of new or better tools for catalogers is a major focus of the BEAT Team. In keeping with that key objective, the team will support the expansion and the use of the existing capabilities of a program ( MINARET) by which LC Classification is made available to LC staff catalogers online that now extends to the provision of classification correlations in bibliographic records between Decimal (DDC) and LC Classification (LCC) numbers. Using the Library's own database of catalog records, the goal is to foster wider use of this MINARET capability for real-time search and retrieval of classification number correlations between DDC and LCC and the reverse for use in appropriate areas of LC catalog work.
NewBooks has now been approved as a Library of Congress Cataloging Directorate initiative and is designed to provide the library community and the general public with a rich source of information about soon-to-be-published and just-published books. Under the program participating publishers will provide information about forthcoming books and the Library of Congress will in turn will make information available on its web page as well as through "New Books records" (which are not traditional catalog records) to be distributed by the LC Cataloging Distribution Service to libraries and booksellers worldwide. When accessed via the Library of Congress home page, a New Books record may include substantially enhanced information about the item, as well as other information or options. John Celli, chief of the CIP Division is the principal for this project and is also a BEAT Team member.
The New Books web site is http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/ecip/celli/welc01.html
This page updated December 18, 2001
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