>In the days of the card catalog, only the cataloging dept. changed the
>catalog -- now everyone is authorized to do so.
>
>   a.  What percentage of your staff is authorized to update the
>       bibliographic records in your opac?

Only the technical services staff (and a few selected others, e.g. Systems
Office, etc.)

>   b.  Do you limit the update of bibliographic records to the cataloging
>        dept. or any other specific group?

Yes, just the Catalog Dept.

>   c.  Are student assistants allowed to update bibliographic records?

Only student assistants in the Catalog Dept who are allowed to do copy
cataloging (at the moment there aren't any - budget cuts)

>   d.  What kind of quality control do you have (if any) for changes made
>       in the bibliographic records?

We run a weekly report of all the new headings which have been added to the
database (which did not merge with existing headings).  Call numbers are
checked by the shelf cards - which we are still ordering and filing.

>   e.  Who is responsible for authorizing who may be passworded for
>       working in the bibliographic records?

Head of the Catalog Dept. and the Systems Office.

>Please -- I'm getting desperate: all my time lately seems to be taken up
>with trying to sort out the ghastly mess our database is becoming (and all
>I have to worry about are the serials....)  If any dept. or individual
>disagrees with the way an item is cataloged or tagged, that item record is
>mysteriously changed by the fairies....

The "fairies" have attacked us too, but I think it is different.  For us, a
number of different call numbers have been attached to some of our
periodical records (but we do not classify our periodicals, since we shelve
by title).  I think this is because in the original match/merge of our OCLC
archieval tapes with our old CLSI circulation records resulted in some
"mis-matched" records which can only be identified as we come across them.
This involves detective work with our shelf list, OCLC, opac and just
plain luck!

>Thanks for the help.  Advice will be gratefully accepted!!
>
>                      --Kathleen Thorne (kathleen@sjsuvm1.vm1.edu)
>                        Serials Cataloger
>                        San Jose State University

Kathleen - you are not alone!  We have similar problems although we have a
different online catalog (Geac Advance).

-- Mitch
  _^_                                                 _^_
( ___ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-( ___ )
 |   |                                               |   |
 |   |     Mitch Turitz, Serials Librarian           |   |
 |   |     San Francisco State University Library    |   |
 |   |     Internet: turitz@sfsu.edu                 |   |
 |   |                                               |   |
( ___ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-( ___ )
   V                                                   V
       Rule #1: Don't let the small stuff upset you.
       Rule #2: It's ALL small stuff.