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Seema Sharma, Lovely Professional University Unit 10: Current Trends in Standardization

Unit 10: Current Trends in Standardization Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
10.1 Description and Exchange (ISBD, CCF, MARC)
10.2 Summary
10.3 Keywords
10.4 Review Questions
10.5 Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
Explain the current trends in standardization of public library
Describe the meaning of ISBD, CCF, MARC.

Introduction
Public library reference services are in the midst of the most revolutionary change in their history.
The new technologies have arrived. Even as recently as five years ago, the only “machines”
reference librarians commonly housed in their reference departments and used on a day-to-day
basis were 35 mm microfilm readers for back files of news papers and magazines. Today terminals
and fiche readers, printers and CRTs, COM catalogs and database searching, on-line catalogs and
on-line access to bibliographic utilities are seen in most of the public library reference departments
in the country. Integration and use of the equipment and the vast resources it makes available have
significant implications for staffing, training, budgets, public relations, indeed for all aspects of
public library reference service.’
Other current trends in public library reference service of importance are budget constraints in the
public sector; adapting to a greater percentage of growth than circulation services are experiencing;
use, training, and supervision of paraprofessionals; centralized dispersed organization of reference
service, including adult and children’s, subject specialties, physical locations, networks; participation
in management of reference service (the “professional bureaucracy”); and more realistic attempts
at measurement and evaluation of reference service.
(i) Database Searching: Next to the mechanization of the library’s catalogue, the mechanization
of reference sources generally, e.g., on-line databases is the most significant trend in public
library reference work. Many public libraries are just beginning database searching and
still treat it as a “special service,” often a fee-based service. Frequently only one or two
librarians on a large reference staff will actually do the searching and only “in-depth,” or
more extensive searches are done by this method. However, some public libraries have as
their goal, fully-integrated database searching. In these libraries, all reference librarians
are expected to be proficient searchers and to use the most cost-effective way to find
information regardless of format. The decision to use an on line search must be the reference
librarian’s, not the patron’s; therefore, fees cannot be directly passed on to the user. Librarians
do brief searches when appropriate as part of their regular reference duty “while the user
waits.” Longer or more specialized searches may be done as time permits or by reference
librarians with greater knowledge and experience of particular databases.

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