Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal June 2004 Volume 2 (3)

Bibliography

One source for all

The Scottish Bibliography for Libraries is now available for trial use at the Scottish Cultural Portal. Mary Nettlefold brings readers up to date on this admirable project.

If you are involved in selection and acquisition of books for a Scottish library, what information do you use to inform your choices? In a public library environment, the chances are you are heavily reliant on information provided by your supplier, and in the academic or education fields, you will be more led by lecturers and/or teachers and the definitive courses, modules or curriculum.

Librarians in Scotland may, or may not, have identified Scottish publishing as an important source for selection. Those who have immediately meet the problem of finding relevant information – very few of Scotland’s 70-odd publishers are covered by the new title information provided by our main UK suppliers. Larger bookshops in Scotland, such as Waterstones, Borders and Ottakars, have substantial and attractive displays of Scottish titles, but they don’t provide the discounts and library servicing that finance and staffing levels in libraries now demand. And who has (or makes) time to go there to make selection notes?

But it’s no good blaming the suppliers. The sheer cost to them of chasing information from a large number of smaller publishers, from whom their discounts would also be limited, would far exceed any likely profit from potential sales. They are, after all, in business to be profitable, not to subsidize a cash strapped public sector.

We hear a lot from the Scottish Executive about the cultural strategy, and what can be more important to any nation, and the libraries within it, than the publications which represent the thoughts and inspirations of the people? It was from this belief, and the recognition of the selection problems, that the idea of a Scottish Bibliography for Libraries was formed.

What if, from a single accessible source, librarians, suppliers and members of the public could find either a single title, or a whole range of titles, either by subject, author, title or date of publication? And then, with two clicks, download the information for the library catalogue and e-mail the order to their preferred supplier?

The information should be full trade bibliographic, including images and continuously updated for price and availability, and also providing high quality MARC records to meet library requirements.

With this vision, the Scottish Publishers Association applied for funding from the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Funded Audience Development Project, and, last October, the project got under way.

The key players are equally important in the building of the facility:

• Scottish Publishers – without timely, comprehensive and efficient supply of their new title information, the bibliography will not exist. The Scottish Publishers Association has given priority to encouraging and educating this process through its members.
• Data aggregators – companies such as Bibliographic Data Services Ltd and Neilsen BookData take the publishers raw data and transform it to a consistent trade and library standard, with price, availability and distribution information. Supporting elements include imaging, Library of Congress Subject Headings, Dewey, and subject references.
• Librarians – the support and advice of SLIC, and all the individual librarians who have given time to discuss the project and give their input, has been invaluable. No bibliographic tool, however sophisticated, will be any good whatsoever if it does not take account of professional practice in materials selection and acquisition.
• Library suppliers – either by providing links from their own sites, hosting the bibliography themselves, or simply by accepting electronic orders, the library booksellers and suppliers will help to make this work by getting the books to libraries efficiently. Included here are not only the larger UK suppliers, but also smaller local bookshops who have consistently maintained stock and supply of Scottish publishing for their local library service.
• The National Library of Scotland – already hosts to the Bibliography of Scotland, which is both a current and retrospective research tool. The ultimate vision is that the current trade bibliography will link effectively with the retrospective information held by NLS to provide a major international research facility.

To date, all the key players have worked enormously hard and we have arrived at a crucial stage. Bibliographic Data Services hold a database of approximately 6,000 records dating back to 1996, and this is continuously updated from new publishers information on an ongoing basis. BDS links to Neilsen BookData mean that all of this information is supplemented with the rich record, including images, price and international availability. This database, in its present form, has been uploaded to the Scottish Cultural Portal, www.scotlandsculture.org to facilitate interim trial use of the material for research and selection purposes.

The database will also provide the information for the Scottish Publishers Association e-commerce site, which will launch as a trading site in early 2005. The search facilities and navigation of the site will be built with both librarians and individuals in mind, and it is envisaged that the trading links with main library suppliers will be established in preparation for the full e-commerce service.

The vision will have been achieved when librarians can source, select and acquire Scottish publications easily from their desktop, and the library user can do the same through the People’s Network in the library, or in the comfort of their own home whether that is in Aberdeen or Australia!

Mary Nettlefold is Project Consultant, the Scottish Bibliography for Libraries.

Information Scotland Vol. 2 (3) June 2004

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