Page 71 - DLIS001_FOUNDATION_OF_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SCIENCE

Foundation of Library and Information Science

Notes The detailed input to an acquisition system covers:
New orders

Amendments to existing orders
Bookseller’s reports
Acknowledgment of receipt of items in the library

Two files are maintained in a computer-based acquisition system. One is the main file
containing records of all current orders. The second is a file with the names and addresses
of booksellers used by the library. A code number for each bookseller links the two files,
so that booksellers’ information is not repeated in the order file. The system prints out the
orders addressing the appropriate supplier printing of orders can also be done on special
pre-printed stationery that can be sent directly to the book-seller.

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Caution By checking with the date of entering the order record into the file; ‘chasers’ can be
sent to the booksellers, if no information regarding the order has been received within a
predetermined time.
When the item is received in the library, the order record with the bibliographic details
becomes the basis of the catalogue record. The edited record is merely added to the
catalogue file in an integrated system.

Other processes that can be performed by a computerized acquisition system are:
listing items on order, by author, department or subject;
new accessions listing;

notifying individuals who have recommended a particular book, about the receipt
of that book;

control of accounts;
production of relevant statistics to help management decisions.
2. Cooperative cataloguing: Cataloguing includes the job of describing, recording and
displaying details of the holdings of the library. Computers are used to aid in the production,
maintenance and updating of catalogues. The quality of the catalogue depends ultimately
on the cataloguer. In other words, initial input data is still the cataloguer’s work.
Bibliographic details are gathered from relevant sources or from the acquisitions system.
Usually there is one main or master file for the holdings of the library, and a temporary
file for cumulating the additional records, because printing the master file is done only
once in a while.
After initial input of the records, the computer can perform simple tests on the record
structure, and errors can be located and checked. The computer can be asked to generate
added entries, if required, which can later be sorted into the main file. Separate listings for
authors, subject and key points of access can be created. A postings file and an inverted
index help the computer search and display record relevant to a specific query.
Some of the library schools and other institutions have important collections of library
literature.

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