5.0 RESULTS

The following results of the BLRIC study, with comparisons of some from the FIGIT study, are arranged under the following headings:

Background data

Current and planned retrospective conversion programs

Methods

Standards

Access - to items in libraries and collections

- to machine readable catalogue records

Supplementary data - non-print items needing retrospective conversion

- material which has never been catalogued

Notes

- As with the FIGIT study, several of the questions allowed for multiple responses. In those cases the totals given show the number of responses not the number of libraries. In other cases discrepancies in some of the figures are due to the failure of respondents to provide answers to particular questions.

- Precise figures appear in the 'totals' for the BLRIC study because many libraries were able to provide them; however, most responses were best estimates.

- 'Total titles' in stocks also include 'never catalogued' items

- 'Machine readable' is abbreviated to m/r in the following tables.

- The question numbers given in round brackets at the end of each Section and/or Table heading relate to the BLRIC study questionnaire. In the case of comparison with the FIGIT study the question numbers are prefixed with BLRIC and FIGIT and these tables are 'boxed'.

Response rate details

Questionnaires sent out 644

Returned as 'gone away' 8

Returned not completed 20

(for a variety of good reasons

e.g.library closed down)

Returned completed 322

National Trust 1

Completed questionnaire response rates

Public libraries 61%

Cathedral libraries 53%

All other libraries 45%

Overall response rate 53%

BACKGROUND DATA

5.1 Number and category of libraries responding to the survey and the total number of titles in their stocks (Q1 and Q2i)

Table 1

* 23 public libraries provided totals of the number of 'items' in their stocks instead of the number of 'titles' as requested. Estimates of the totals of their 'titles' were produced using the CIPFA Public Library Statistics 1994-95 actual (1996) and the formula described in Section 4.5.6. Using the same method it was possible to estimate the total titles in the 71 libraries which did not respond to the survey. .

** 'Other Libraries' included the following: broadcasting, business, charity, endowed, government funded institute, hobby and club, national special, NHS/public health, poetry, private, quango, record office, religious, research council, trades union, and five 'unclassified'.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Table 2 Estimate of the number of titles in the stocks of 71 public libraries which did not respond to the survey

45 public libraries with items in CIPFA Statistics totalling 25,813,000

50% adult fiction and children's books:				3 items per title		4,302,166
35% adult non-fiction:				2 items per title		4,517,275
15% reference stock:					1.5 items per title			2,581,300
						11,400,741	div.by 45=253,350
26 non-respondent libraries lacking CIPFA figures
				26 x 253,350		6,639,100
					TOTAL	18,039,841	titles

5.2 Number of m/r records already available in librares (Q2i and Q19i)

Table 3

5.3 Catalogue records needing retrospective conversion in the surveyed libraries and their percentage of the total titles in each library category (Q2i and Q12)

Table 4

5.4 Number of titles in special collections with the number of records already converted, currently being converted, and/or conversion planned

(Q2ii, Q19ii, Q29 and Q35)

Table 5 Special Collections*

	Total number of titles	Converted titles	Currently converting	*Planned conversion
Public**	4,925,107	1,116,373	320,413	411,795
Other***	2,127,112	374,222	225,630	332,771
Cathedral	75,084	34,300	380	3,000
	7,127,303	1,524,895	546,423	747,566

This table gives details of the number of titles and records for special collections which are included in the totals given in Table 3.

* Appendix D gives a sample of the lists which could be produced of special collections as a result of the data gathered in the two studies.

'Current' and 'planned' programmes were not mutually exclusive and there is a measure of overlap in the totals. It should also be noted that it was clear that in a number of instances the 'planned' totals given were best hopes rather than firm estimates.

**Using the same method of calculation as detailed in 5.1 above, it is estimated that the total titles for printed items in special collections in all the UK's public libraries is 6,900,000 and that 40% (2,800,000) of these are in local collections, with 5,300,000 catalogue records awaiting conversion.

*** Several of the 'other' libraries were unable to provide details of the number of titles in their special collections and the total is almost certainly higher than shown above.

5.5 Forms of library catalogue presently in use (Q3 by Q1)

Table 6

5.6 Libraries with more than one form of non-m/r catalogue - BLRIC and FIGIT figures compared (BLRIC Q3 x Q1 and FIGIT Q6 by Q1)

Table 7

Number of non-m/r forms

BLRIC	2	3	4	5
Public	25	3	1
Government Ministry/Dept		2
College/School	2
Learned society/professional	11	1
Cathedral	9
Subscription	3
Educational/research	1	1
Museum reference				1
Other	12	4	1
Total	63	11	2	1
FIGIT	2	3	4
Universities <1959	7	5	3
Universities 1960-89	3
Universities 1990-	2
Other HEFCE funded	2
Other Academic	22	4	1
	36	9	4

5.7 Material from which m/r catalogue records are/have been produced

(Q7 by Q1)

Table 8

5.8 Completed/suspended retroconversion projects (Q8 by Q1)

Table 9

CURRENT AND PLANNED RETROSPECTIVE CONVERSION PROGRAMMES

5.9 Estimated number of titles involved in these programmes

(Q29 and Q35 by Q1)

Table 10

5.10 Current retroconversion programmes: sources of funding and librarians' estimates of timescale (Q10, Q34, Q34m and Q32 by Q1)

Table 11

Sources of funding

5.11 Planned retroconversion programmes: sources of funding and librarians estimates of timetable (Q11, Q39, Q39m and Q40 by Q1)

Librarians were often unable to make a distinction between 'current' and 'planned' programmes of retrospective conversion because the programmes were ongoing and had to be budgeted for on an annual basis.

Many of those librarians with 'planned' programmes gave no indication of their expected source of funding, or the expected timescale.

Table 12

Sources of funding

	Definite plans for conversion	Current funding	Special internal funding	External funding
Public	45	22	7	4
Government Ministry/Dept	3	1	1
School/College	1		1
Learned society/professional	19	4	4	6
Cathedral	6	2	1	2
Subscription	4	1	1
Educational/research	7	3	2	1
Museum reference	4		2
Other	11	6	2	2
Total	100	39	21	15

	Less than 1 year	1 - 2 years	2 - 3 years	More than 3 years
Public	4	7	2	11
Government Ministry/Dept	2
School/College			1
Learned society/professional	2	4	2	3
Cathedral			1	1
Subscription				1
Educational/research	1	2		2
Museum reference				3
Other	2	2		4
Total	11	15	6	25

5.12 Number of libraries currently converting non-m/r records and/or upgrading existing m/r records of an inadequate standard (Q28 by Q1)

Table 13

5.13 Libraries which have retroconversion planned and do/do not already possess some machine readable records (Q19 and Q35)

Table 14

Planning Already have some

conversion m/r records

Yes No

Public 21 17 3

Government Ministry/Dept 4 4

College/School 2 1 1

Learned society/professional 14 7 7

Cathedral 4 2 2

Subscription 1 1

Educational/research 5 3 2

Museum reference 1 1

Other 8 6 2

Total 60 41 18

5.14 Titles in retroconversion programmes which are in languages other than English

(Q30 by Q1 and Q36 by Q1)

Table 15 Current retroconversion programmes

Table 16 Planned retroconversion programmes

5.15 Estimate of the number of titles in non-roman scripts

(Q31 and Q31i by Q1 and Q37 and Q37i by Q1))

Table 17 Current retroconversion programmes

Table 18 Planned retroconversion programmes

CURRENT AND PLANNED RETROSPECTIVE CONVERSION PROGRAMMES

Methods used

5.16 Libraries acquisition of m/r records from an external source - previous and current cataloguing (Q23 by Q1)

Table 19

5.17 Sources of/or creation of, machine readable records for retroconversion programmes

(Q10 and Q33 by Q1, and Q11 and Q38 by Q1)

Table 20 For current programmes

Table 21 For planned programmes

	Creation by own library	Creation by bureau	Bibliographic utility	Other means
Library categories
Public	25	2	4
Government Ministry/Dept	2	1
School/College	2
Learned
society/professional	12	4	1	1
Cathedral	4			2
Subscription	1
Educational/research	3	1	1
Museum reference	4
Other	8
Total	61	8	6	3

5.18 Means of obtaining records for conversion - BLRIC and FIGIT figures compared (BLRIC Q10 x Q33 and Q11 x Q38 and FIGIT Q25 and Q33 x Q12 andQ13)

Table 22

BLRIC	Created by own library	Created by bureau	Bibliographic utility	Other means
Current	84	5	17	3
Planned	50	8	4	2

Table 23

FIGIT	External Sources		Use bibliographic utility
	Yes	No	Yes	No
Current	83	24	66	20
Planned	42	13	35	13

5.19 Libraries which have contributed/ plan to contribute to the ESTC and the method of contributing (Q24, Q25 and Q27i by Q1 and Q26 and Q27ii by Q1)

Table 24 Libraries which have contributed Method

Table 25 Libraries planning to contribute Method

5.20 Libraries which have used/or plan to use published guidelines for retroconversion

(Q14 by Q1)

Table 26

Table 27 Libraries which have used/or plan to use published guidelines for retrospective conversion - BLRIC and FIGIT figures compared

(BLRIC Q10 x Q14 and FIGIT Q25 x Q40)

CURRENT AND PLANNED RETROSPECTIVE CONVERSION PROGRAMMES

Standards used

5.21 Bibliographic record format of those libraries with machine readable records

(Q20 x Q1)

Table 28

Table 29 Bibliographic record formats for m/r records of those libraries with

current programmes: BLRIC and FIGIT figures compared

(BLRIC Q10 x Q20 and FIGIT Q25 x 10)

Table 30 Bibliographic record formats for m/r records of those libraries with

planned programmes: BLRIC and FIGIT figures compared

(BLRIC Q11 x Q20 and FIGIT Q33 x 10)

Planned	UKMARC	USMARC	In-house	Other external	No response
BLRIC	32	1	32	10	25
					Other
FIGIT	36	6	7	3	3
Total	68	7	39	13

5.22 Levels of bibliographic description used by those libraries with m/r records (Q21 by Q1)

Table 31

Table 32 Levels of bibliographic description used by those libraries with

current programmes: BLRIC and FIGIT figures compared

(BLRIC Q10 x Q21 and FIGIT Q25 x Q11)

	AACR2 Level 1	AACR2 Level 1+	AACR2 Level 2	AACR2 Level 3	UKMARC recommended	Other recommended	In-house	Other
BLRIC	25	7	16	6	14	4	52
FIGIT	8	10	44	6	7	5	16	8
Total	33	17	60	12	21	9	68	8

Table 33 Level of bibliographic description used by those libraries with

planned programmes: BLRIC and FIGIT figures compared

(BLRIC Q11 x Q21 and FIGIT Q33 x 11)

	AACR2 Level 1	AACR2 Level 1+	AACR2 Level 2	AACR2 Level 3	UKMARC recommended	Other recommended	In-house	Other
BLRIC	19	7	11	5	11	3	42
FIGIT	4	5	26	4	2		7	5
Total	23	12	37	9	13	3	49	5

5.23 Libraries which would undertake retroconversion if resources/expertise could be made available (Q15 by Q1)

Table 34

ACCESS

To items in libraries

5.24 Access to libraries provided for external users and/or items or surrogates supplied

(Q4 and Q5 by Q1)

Table 35 Conditions of access

	free without restrictions	free subject to special criteria	on payment subject to special criteria	not at all, or only under exceptional circumstances
Public*	102	6	1	1
Government Ministry/Dept	4	17	3	4
College/School	1	4	2	1
Learned society/professional	12	28	17	5
Cathedral	4	15	3	1
Subscription		9	4	1
Educational/research	4	3	3
Museum reference	5	6	1
Other	12	23	10	3
Total	144	111	44	16

* One Scottish public library only supplied services to its own Council Tax payers

Table 36 Items or surrogates provided

	Yes	No
Public	112
Government Ministry/Dept	26	2
College/School	7	1
Learned society/professional	48	15
Cathedral	15	8
Subscription	8	5
Educational/research	9	1
Museum reference	9	3
Other	36	10
Total	270	45

ACCESS

To machine readable catalogue records

5.25 Are records, or will they be, available for use outside the library/organisation

(Q41i by Q1)

Table 37

5.26 How are/will these records be made available for consultation or downloading

(Q41ii by Q1)

Table 38

SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

Non-print items needing retrospective conversion

5.27 Libraries with catalogue records for non-print material (e.g. archives, photographs, slides, artefacts) which they wish could be retrospectively converted (Q.16 by Q1)

Table 39

Table 40 If YES, the categories of material involved

5.28 Number of records awaiting conversion for non-print material by categories

(Q16a-j by Q1)

Table 42 Total number of non-print records to be converted

SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

Material which has never been catalogued

5.29 Libraries which have titles which have never been catalogued (Q17 by Q1)

Table 43

Table 44 Number of libraries which have non-print items included in

the never catalogued material (e.g. archives, photographs, slides)

(Q18 by Q1)

Table 45 The number of libraries with non-print items which have never been catalogued by category of material

(Q18 by Q1)

5.30 Non-print items which have never been catalogued (Q18a-j by Q1)

Table 46

Table 47 Total of non-print records which have never been catalogued by library category

	Total
Public	5,604,724
Government Ministry/Dept	342,000
School/College	218,600
Learned society/professional	321,098
Cathedral	5,980
Subscription	33,350
Educational/research	65,080
Museum reference	526,010
Other	5,217,580
Total	12,334,422