The University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development (1977)

V. Identification and Location 65
in-process as well as permanently cataloged, which are at present
dispersed among many files in various locations." 12
2. It can be much more up-to-date than any other alternative:
card catalog, book catalog or microform catalog. (And there is some
evidence that scholars have been waiting for libraries to take such
a step primarily for this reason; in 1967, the American Council of
Learned Societies commented in a report that cataloging was too slow,
and that "clearly it is now reasonable to expect that research library
catalogs will eventually move from card files into computerized
form.") 13
3. It can be much more accurate, since corrections and changes
in headings can be made readily. "The imminence of widespread
changes in entries and subject headings makes this a particularly important
potential." 14
4. It allows for a system of automatic "authority control,"
that is, for insuring that consistent terminology is used for all
headings.
5. For the user, it allows faster catalog searching. Ohio
State estimates that "as many as seven or eight automated searches
can be completed in the same amount of time it takes to complete one
manual search." 15
6. It provides multiple access points (the terms under which a
search is made), not just the initial words of the headings chosen in
the cataloging process.
7. The access points may be combined to limit or define a
search more precisely using Boolean logic techniques.
12
Judith Corin, et al., "Final Report, Working Group on Public Catalogs,"
UCLA Library, 1976, p. 1.
13
American Council of Learned Societies, Committee on Research
Libraries, On Research Libraries: Statement ... to the National
Advisory Committee on Libraries, Washington, 1967, p. 28.
14
Corin, p. 2.
15
Ganning, pp. 63-64.