In January 2004 the Newberry staff began a multi-year Retrospective Conversion Project. During the Retrospective Conversion Project, catalog cards for approximately 725,000 titles in the Newberry's collection will be "converted" into online records.
Conversion of the Newberry's card catalog to online records will allow researchers to search 100% of the Newberry's catalog. Online records allow for sophisticated searching from anywhere in the world. All of the Newberry's newly created online catalog records will be loaded into the Newberry's online catalog, as well as regional (CARLI) and international (OCLC) databases.
The Retrospective Conversion Project will take approximately 3 years to complete. When the conversion project is fully underway, 20,000-25,000 titles will be added to the Newberry's online catalog each month. Editing and enhancement projects will continue for many years after retrospective conversion is complete.
The Retrospective Conversion Project will take approximately 3 years to complete. When the conversion project is fully underway, 20,000-25,000 titles will be added to the Newberry's online catalog each month. Editing and enhancement projects will continue for many years after retrospective conversion is complete.
Planning and implementation of the Newberry Library's Retrospective Conversion Project is generously supported in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the McCormick Tribune Foundation, and the Illinois State Library-Library Service and Technology Program.
After an extensive planning and bidding process, the Newberry signed a contract with Online Computer Library Center, Incorporated (OCLC). OCLC, located in Dublin, Ohio, is a non-profit organization that provides computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, digitization, and preservation services to 43,500 libraries in 86 countries and territories. OCLC was founded in 1967 and has been offering conversion services since 1976. Since that time, OCLC has converted more than 100 million records for more than 1,500 libraries worldwide. OCLC has a team of operators working on the Newberry's project in Ohio. To learn more about the Newberry and OCLC's partnership, see OCLC to convert Newberry Library holdings for worldwide sharing.
OCLC has a team of operators working on the Newberry's project. The operators look at every single card to determine if it is a card to be processed or skipped (for example, a card that has a code that indicates it is already in the online catalog is skipped).
For each card that is to be processed, the operator conducts a search of OCLC's WorldCat database to see if there is a matching record. WorldCat is the world's largest database of bibliographic information. It contains more than 52 million catalog records, representing over 450 languages.
During an extensive planning process, the Newberry constructed guidelines for what was to be considered a matching record. In order to be a matching record, it must meet these tightly defined guidelines.
When a matching record is found, OCLC edits it to meet the Newberry's requirements. This editing includes removing notes from the record that are specific to copies held by other libraries, adding notes from the Newberry's card that describe the specific copy that we own, adding headings for things like autographs, bindings and bookplates, and adding the Newberry's call numbers.
If no matching record is found, OCLC will create a new record based on the information on the card and instructions provided by the Newberry.
No, there will be changes. In most cases the online record will include more information than the cards. To see the added value of the online catalog records, see these comparisons of cards and online records.
When records arrive from OCLC they are available in the online catalog immediately. There are, however, some corrections, changes and additions that will be made to some of these records by Newberry staff. When batches of cards arrive back at the Newberry they may have one or more "flags" attached. These flags indicate a variety of issues, such as the need to verify information, add multiple copies to the online record, or compare minor differences between the card and its matching record. The Retrospective Conversion staff will sort through these flagged records to resolve problems and make sure that the Newberry's collections are represented as accurately as possible in the online catalog. Random checks of unflagged cards are also conducted.
Every record added through the recon project will have a 946 field with the phrase "OCLC RECON PROJECT." This field is not displayed in either the Brief View or Full View in the online catalog but can be seen if you select Staff (MARC) View.
Currently, two full time staff members are dedicated to working on the project. Both of these positions reside in the Collection Services Department. The project staff is responsible for overseeing the daily activities of the project and doing the editing and enhancement of the records.
The project staff also works with the Retrospective Conversion Advisory Committee (RCAC), a staff group formed to oversee project progress and provide guidance and assistance. The RCAC members are John Brady (Bibliographer and Reference Librarian), JoEllen Dickie (Special Collections Public Services Librarian), Hjordis Halvorson (Director of Reader Services), Lori Hendershot (Restrospective Conversion Assistant Cataloger), Alan Leopold (Director of Collection Services), Melissa McAfee (Vice President for Library Services), Katie McMahon (Reference Librarian), Heather Smedberg (General Collections Librarian), Jennifer Thom (Retrospective Conversion Librarian), Karen Zuidema (Principal Cataloging Librarian).
The RCAC serves as a standing committee to oversee the Newberry Library's Retrospective Conversion Project. Members of the Committee assist the Project Management Team by advising on issues of staff communication, record quality, and long-term "clean up" projects related to the Retrospective Conversion Project.
The RCAC reviews and advises on opportunities to improve the conversion process; monitors the timing, quality and costs of the Retrospective Conversion Project; and advises the Project Management Team on issues related to altering vendor instructions.
If you have questions about the project, find a record that you think has been incorrectly converted, or have a correction to make on the location or call number of a converted item, please send a message to: recon@newberry.org
The Newberry will retain the card catalog as a record of Newberry cataloging history. To learn more about the early history of cataloging at the Newberry see, Footnotes on the History of Classification .
There have always been Newberry materials that are not in the catalogs. For instance, genealogical card files, like the city directory file and the vertical file, were always separate from the main card catalog. In the past few years, these card files have been converted to online lists found at the Genealogy's About the Collections page.
Modern manuscript collections also have been under-represented in the Newberry card catalog, traditionally being represented by paper finding guides. In the 1940s the Newberry Library began to collect modern manuscripts documenting the history and culture of the Midwest. These holdings now number 500 separate manuscript collections. There are collection-level catalog records for a number of these manuscript collections, including Ayer, Wing and Midwest manuscripts, in the online catalog. In the Fall 2003, the Newberry was awarded an NEH grant, "Voices of the Prairie, Preserving and Enhancing Access to Midwest Manuscript Collections," to process and catalog some of these important holdings. To explore this material see the Checklist for American Modern Manuscript Collections.
No, the Retrospective Conversion Project is not an attempt to digitize the actual books, maps, and manuscripts. However, there are a number of projects to digitize items from the Newberry collections, for instance see the Newberry Library Digital Collection.