CHISHOLM - The Ironworld Development Corporation Board of Directors today announced that Minnesota Discovery Center (formerly Ironworld), a 660-acre museum, entertainment venue, research library and park in Chisholm, MN, will temporarily be closed to the public, effective Friday, November 20, 2009, at 5 p.m.

The Library commissioned R2 Consulting LLC to search and describe the current marketplace for cataloging records in the MARC format, with primary focus on the economics of current practices, including existing incentives and barriers to both contribution and availability.

Paired with the study online is a report of an internal working group indicating how recommendations from "On the Record: Report of the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control" may be implemented at the Library. Both reports are available on the LC website here.

R2 summarizes its 10 findings concerning Library of Congress cataloging and how it supports bibliographic-description needs across the U.S. and Canada. Below are the first five findings from the R2 Study. This should make for an interesting read! Read the other findings and the full report here.

1.
Library of Congress cataloging continues to be widely valued: Libraries, vendors, and cooperatives speak with their actions. There is heavy reliance on LC's output throughout all segments of the profession and industry. This is demonstrated by 500,000 searches per day against LC's Z39.50 servers and WebOPAC; by extensive re‐sale and re‐use of records distributed by the MARC Distribution Service (MDS); and by the variety and scale of use across all library sizes and types, and all vendor sizes and types. LC records are the cornerstone of the entire market. School and public libraries are especially reliant on them, but all market segments have built services on the foundation of inexpensive and easily obtainable LC records.

2.
The Library of Congress subsidizes portions of the market: LC catalogs many titles that ultimately are not retained in its collections. As a result, LC bears significant costs from which it receives no direct benefit, for activity that is not explicitly in support of its core users. The 1902 law that governs distribution of its records deliberately excludes the cost of production from the pricing for those records. There is no revenue to offset those costs, other than the value of the free copies of the CIP books provided by publishers. The market relies to a surprising degree on LC's willingness to bear these costs and forgo this revenue. If LC were to redirect its catalogers' efforts solely to materials deemed necessary by its users, CIP production would diminish significantly. Other organizations would need to assume those costs. At present, libraries and vendors enjoy the largely unrecognized benefits of an LC subsidy.

3.
LC records are significantly underpriced: Not only does LC bear a disproportionate share of the costs associated with producing records for titles it may not retain, the law governing its sale of those records allows only the cost of distribution (plus 10%) to be recouped. The cost of production is assumed to be part of LC's ongoing operations. Such low prices contribute to the impression that cataloging should cost less than it actually does.

4.
Cataloging backlogs continue to grow in many areas and market segments: As outlined in the library survey responses, non‐Roman languages, maps, and DVDs pose particular problems. But to our surprise, many libraries are also losing ground on mainstream materials such as English‐language monographs.

5.
There is adequate cataloging capacity in North America to meet the collective need: This finding surprised us, especially given the aging of the profession and imminent retirements. However, a conservative interpretation of survey data shown on pages 9‐10 strongly suggests that there are more than enough catalogers to handle everything. In the academic market alone, for instance, the survey indicates that more than 8,000 original catalogers are employed. If each original cataloger produced on average one record per work day (or 200 per year), that would indicate capacity for 1.6 million original records annually. Unfortunately, that capacity is not well distributed, disciplined, or coordinated, despite decades of experience with cooperative cataloging.

As part of these same changes, Minitex will continue offering OCLC-related training, but now you'll also have access to training provided by other organizations around the country. Note that Minitex will be implementing differential pricing; fees for registrants from the Minitex region will be lower than those for registrants from outside our region. We don't have many training sessions scheduled yet, but look for more as we move into Fall.

Here is the official announcement about OCLC training:

• Minitex and OCLC continue to work together on behalf of OCLC member libraries.
• We are pleased to announce that OCLC and Minitex will work together to provide you with expanded access to quality OCLC training and related educational offerings.
• Minitex has been certified to provide OCLC training--adhering to specific standards and use of OCLC-developed curriculum to ensure consistency of training objectives across all OCLC product and service areas.
• As an OCLC-certified training provider, Minitex makes its OCLC-related course offerings available on the OCLC Training Portal, a Web-based, customer-centered resource that allows you to locate and register for courses that meet your personal learning objectives.
• The Training Portal displays OCLC-certified courses from all Training Partners across the U.S. All of the courses listed on the Training Portal are available to anyone interested in learning more about using OCLC products and services.
• Social networking features available on the Training Portal allow you to join groups, add friends, bookmark courses and much more.
• The OCLC Training Portal will be accessible starting July 1, 2009, by visiting the OCLC Training Portal Web site.
• For questions regarding the OCLC Training Portal, call 1-800-848-5800, or email training@oclc.org.
• For questions specific to training opportunities offered by Minitex, call 800-462-5348 or 612-624-4002, visit the Minitex Training and Events Web page or email mino@umn.edu.

• Beginning July 1, 2009, OCLC members will contact OCLC Customer Support for all questions related to support for OCLC products and services. OCLC's teams of support professionals are available 14 hours a day, Monday - Friday, 6 a.m. - 8 p.m. Central Time, to assist you with your needs. These dedicated individuals will provide answers and information to help your library maximize the value of your membership and use of OCLC products and services.
• In addition to product support specialists, the OCLC Customer Support organization is also comprised of a specialized team of librarians focused on providing consultative and workflow support tied to the use and satisfaction of OCLC products and services.



• OCLC Billing & Ordering: Minitex will continue to offer billing and ordering assistance to your library for OCLC products and services.
• Technical Services: Minitex Bibliographic & Technical Services (BATS) will continue to provide non-OCLC-related services and support that your library receives from Minitex today. For example, BATS will continue to provide support for general technical services issues such as cataloging and workflow, and training in the areas of digitization and cataloging.
• Reference Services: Minitex Reference Services will continue to provide support for libraries participating in AskMN: The Librarian Is In! which uses OCLC's QuestionPoint, the Minnesota NetLibrary shared collections, and Minnesota's statewide subscription to WorldCat.
• Training: Minitex will continue to provide training on OCLC products and services as well as our other traditional topic areas.
• Minitex will also assist OCLC in keeping member libraries informed by communicating updates, enhancements, new product offerings, research, membership reports and other important information on OCLC member benefits.

More details about this change in support will be sent out within the coming weeks.

To contact OCLC Customer Support, call 1-800-848-5800 or e-mail support@oclc.org.

To contact Minitex BATS, call (800) 462-5348 or (612) 624-4002, or e-mail mino@umn.edu.