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

V. Identification and Location 77
National. On the national level, there is currently an immense
amount of discussion and debate about what is generally referred to
as "the emerging national network." The papers on the topic number
in the dozens, and whole conferences are held on the subject. For
the most part, however, what is envisaged is a means of sharing bibliographic
information between libraries, or systems to which libraries
belong. Most of these systems are based on on-line cataloging or
technical processing systems, and are not designed for users of libraries.
For the near future, then, the user is likely to identify
and locate material on the national level by consulting a member of
the library staff, who will then use a terminal connected to one of
the national cataloging systems to find the needed material. The
user may then initiate a request to borrow the item by interlibrary
loan, although as noted in the next chapter this method of delivery
has many deficiencies.
Indirect use of technical processing systems, however, is not the
only means by which users of the UC libraries can rapidly identify
needed materials which may be located elsewhere in the country. As
discussed in Chapter VII, there are a number of specialized machinereadable
data bases made available by commercial or governmental
institutions, and these may be searched either directly by students and
faculty members, or used with the assistance of library staff members.
These on-line services help materially in identifying both monographs
and periodical articles that users may need, but because the
data bases are incomplete (particularly for older materials), it will
still be necessary in the foreseeable future to rely on more conventional
tools as well; that is, on catalogs in book form and bibliographies.
These include the National Union Catalog (in its various segments),
the national Union List of Serials, and the supplementary New Serial
Titles, and a host of more specialized bibliographies.
International. Outside of the United States, the two countries
most active in developing machine-based bibliographic services are
Canada and Great Britain. The National Library of Canada has given
"top priority" to the creation of a national bibliographic data base
capable of interfacing with other national data bases," 22 and has
22
National Library of Canada, Annual Report of the National Librarian,
1975/76, p. 8.