Union Catalogues Will Cease After Libraries Computerize

The University will catalog all new acquisitions in microfiche form starting next year.

Within ten years a contralized computer system will replace this microfiche catalog, requring about half of the University's libraries to use more expensive procedures, Oscar Handlin, director of the University Library, said Tuesday.

The two Union Catalogs at Widener Library contain records of all University holdings, but only listings in Union Catalog Number 2 (UC2) are recorded on magnetic tape compatible with the planned computer system.

Individual libraries have resisted the conversion for intellectual and financial reasons, Handlin said.

William MacDonald, a cataloguer at Countway Library at the Medical School, said Tuesday Countway had not switched to the UC2 system in the past for "political reasons," but would not elaborate. "There hasn't been any push lately to get people into UC2 as opposed to UC1 that I know of," he said.

Handlin said all University libraries will comply with the change bcause in the long run the gains will offset the costs. He added that outside grants may defray the costs of conversion.

"Some libraries, which 70 to 80 years ago began to use a system that was good for their needs, now all of a sudden have to switch to a common system and they were reluctant to do so," he said.

The Law School Library, which comprises 10 per cent of the University's holdings, will convert to a computer based system by July 1981, Robert Berring '74, acting librarian, said Tuesday.

Berring, a member of the Union Catalog Planning Committee that includes representatives from most University libraries, said the change won't save money, but standardizing the system "will make it easier to participate in national cooperative matters."

The library's adoption of new Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules in January 1981 would have required it to re-evaluate its cataloguing system anyway, he said, adding that the UC2 issue "helped us focus our attention quicker."

Libraries serving the graduate faculties other than Arts and Sciences--such as business, medicine, and law--are funded by their respective faculties, and they had delayed the switch because of the costs involved, including computer use and cataloguing standardization.

After all libraries have converted to the UC2 system, the University will close and copy Union Catalog Number 1, Carol Ishimoto, chairman of the planning committee, said Tuesday. Then both Union Catalogs and the Widener Catalogs that occupy much of the second floor of Widener will be eliminated, she added.