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

76 The University of California Libraries
departmental offices and even individual faculty members' offices to
have such terminals, so that some bibliographic research and listchecking
can be done even without leaving the office. The goal of
"immediate" availability to this level is thus easily achievable.
Campus. Most of the advantages cited earlier apply at the campus
level. All users on a campus will benefit from having information
on all works located at that campus, especially if the campus
is decentralized, and all users will benefit from having the catalog
up-to-date and accurate. The fact that the system will provide much
faster and more efficient searching will also help realize the goal
of same-day access to materials held on campus.
Regional and Systemwide. From the regional and systemwide
point of view, such a system is more than merely beneficial--as
pointed out earlier, it is essential if all materials in the University
library system are to be used as one collection, and it is for
this reason that library policy groups have consistently emphasized
that the union catalog project must have top budgetary priority. For
materials placed in regional facilities, as discussed in Chapter X,
it is also important that effective bibliographic access be provided
if the potential usefulness of these materials is not to be lost
completely.
State. At the state level, the on-line UC system will also have
important implications for CSUC, for other segments of the state
higher education system, and indeed for all types of libraries. It
is doubtful that a large number of terminals can be added in other
institutions without seriously degrading the response time of the
system, but the data base created for the on-line union catalog
system will be made available to CLASS (the California Library
Authority for Systems and Services), and will undoubtedly form the
largest part of the bibliographic data base proposed for that organization.
All members of CLASS--public libraries, special libraries,
and private colleges and universities, as well as other segments of
public higher education--will thus benefit directly from the investment
made by the University in constructing and maintaining its data
base.