Program for Cooperative Cataloging: BIBCO Records: Analysis of Quality

The Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) is an international program that brings together libraries that wish to participate in the creation and sharing of bibliographic records. These high quality records can be used by any library around the world without additional modification or change. Members of the cooperative adhere to a set of standards and practices that help eliminate extensive editing of records by participant libraries, thus allowing libraries to reduce the cost of cataloging. Even though the records submitted to the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) database by PCC member institutions adhere to the established standards, some libraries continue to verify the quality of the access points in these records. Many libraries outsource this process to outside vendors who automatically check these records against the Library of Congress (LC) Authority File. The purpose of this study is to examine the quality of the PCC records in light of the changes that were made by an authority control vendor. The author will analyze the changes made by the vendor to the PCC records and explain the reasons for those changes.