June 25, 2007
Baker & Taylor Records Being Added to OCLC WorldCat
Baker & Taylor, a leading supplier of materials to public libraries, is now adding records to OCLC WorldCat. Baker & Taylor (B&T), provides books, music, DVDs and video games, as well as support for collection management and technical services, to libraries around the world. The titles are being added as part of an agreement between Baker & Taylor and OCLC to partner in providing bibliographic records and expanded technical services to schools and public libraries.
The Baker & Taylor records are from two sources:
- B&T's cataloging file, containing full and CIP cataloging MARC records from the Library of Congress as well as full cataloging MARC records, produced by Baker & Taylor's MLS Catalogers when no LC record existed.
- B&T's product file, containing brief non-MARC records used in the B&T Order Processing System. These records are converted to MARC by an OCLC mapping process.
Added product file records are very brief and are coded as abbreviated records (Encoding Level 3). They are not created by or examined by a cataloger. This provides customers using the new Baker & Taylor/OCLC Cataloging Plus service with access to the OCLC number early in the acquisitions workflow.
OCLC encourages member libraries that acquire one of these titles to upgrade and replace the record and receive credit on its OCLC bill for upgrading that record. As Baker & Taylor catalogers are performing cataloging services for customers, they will also be upgrading these records.
