Library of Congress Web Site Home
to Wealth of Technical Services Resources

For nearly a century, libraries have taken advantage of catalog records provided by the Library of Congress (LC), first by purchasing catalog cards, now by downloading electronic MARC records. What many librarians aren't aware of is that the Library of Congress has an array of resources for library technical services staff available on its Web site.

First and foremost is the LC Online Catalog at catalog.loc.gov/, a single integrated database with approximately 12 million records representing books, serials, computer files, manuscripts, cartographic materials, music, sound recordings and visual materials. Searching aids for users, such as cross-references and scope notes, are present. You may browse the catalog by title, subject, name (personal, corporate or meeting) or call number. Keyword searching is also available. You may download MARC bibliographic records directly from the LC site, at no cost, to use in your local catalog, though authority records are not yet available.

LC staff have also created a Z39.50 gateway to the LC Online Catalog, lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/, and have provided a list of library Web sites that may be searched through the Z39.50 interface.

But there's much more than MARC records at the Library of Congress's Web site. LC's Acquisitions section (www.loc.gov/acq/) has information about the library's collection development policies, exchange programs, overseas offices and Cataloging in Publication program. You can find information about the LC Surplus Books Program at lcweb.loc.gov/acq/surplus.html, through which surplus library materials are made available to educational institutions (including full-time, tax-supported or nonprofit schools, school systems, colleges, universities, museums and public libraries), public bodies (agencies of local, state or national government) and nonprofit tax-exempt organizations.

The library's Cataloging Directorate maintains information about its programs and services at www.loc.gov/catdir/, which includes links to CONSER (Cooperative Online Serials Cataloging Program), PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging), the Online Catalog and the Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO).

LC is home to CONSER. The CONSER Web site, at www.loc.gov/acq/conser/, contains resources and links to resources that serials catalogers have found extremely useful. Excerpts from the CONSER Cataloging Manual and CONSER Editing Guide and other documents on serials cataloging issues and CONSER policies and practices are available. Module 31 of the CONSER Cataloging Manual, concerning the cataloging of electronic serials, has become a popular site.

CONSER itself is a part of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC), an international cooperative effort to provide cost-effective cataloging that meets accepted, established standards. Core record standards, which many libraries find to be useful guides, are available at the PCC Web site at www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/, which also contains information about its programs for cataloging monographs (BIBCO) and serials (CONSER), as well as two programs to provide authority records, NACO (for name authority records) and SACO (for subject authority records). From the SACO page (www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/saco.html) you may link to the Subject Authority Proposal Form, through which you can submit your own proposed subject headings to the Library of Congress. (It may be your chance to leave your mark on the big red subject heading books.)

The Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO — the people who bring to you LC Rule Interpretations) provides at its Web site (www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/) news on changes or proposed changes in cataloging policy and practice at the library, as well as cataloging tools and documentation, information on name authorities, subject headings (including the weekly lists of new and changed subject headings) and an outline of the Library of Congress Classification, as PDF files.

The Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) (www.loc.gov/cds/) develops and markets cataloging products and services, such as the LC Subject Headings and Subject Cataloging manuals, the Classification schedules, LC Rule Interpretations and MARC format documentation and code lists. Many of these resources are also available on the Cataloger's Desktop and Classification Plus CD-ROMs. CDS is also testing Classification Web, a service that will provide Web access to the Library of Congress Classification scheme.

Since the Library of Congress "wrote the book," so to speak, on the MARC formats, it's no surprise that MARC documentation is available at lcweb.loc.gov/cds/marcdoc.html. While the complete MARC 21 formats (one each for Bibliographic Data, Authority Data, Holdings Data, Community Information and Classification Data) are only available for purchase in print, the booklet Understanding MARC: Bibliographic is also available at lcweb.loc.gov/marc/umb/. This is a well-written introduction to MARC for those new to machine readable cataloging. The Concise MARC formats, abridged from the complete documentation, may be found at lcweb.loc.gov/marc/. This is the home page of the Library of Congress' Network Development and MARC Standards Office. MARC code lists and the latest news on the development of the MARC formats are at the site, as well.

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February 27, 2008
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