Never the Twain Shall Meet? Collaboration Between Catalogers and Reference Librarians in the OCLC CORC Project at Brown University

SUMMARY. In the spring of 1999, the Brown University Library became a participant in the CORC project. The reference department had two goals that had been difficult to achieve due to time constraints and workloads. One was the creation of subject pathfinders by reference librarians; the other goal was developing a mechanism for alerting our end users to quality Web sites and print sources. In addition, the catalog department had the goal of exposing more staff, both professional and paraprofessional, to cataloging Internet resources. The ease of creating bibliographic records and the ability to develop pathfinders in the CORC Project has helped break down the reluctance of reference librarians to “catalog” records and has fostered collaboration between cataloging and reference staff. A plan of implementation and training was put into place. The plan involved the establishment of a small team of volunteers from cataloging and reference who developed procedures and guidelines for the project. Workshops were set up to teach reference staff Dublin Core cataloging basics and pathfinder creation. The reference staff met regularly to create CORC records with guidance and review by cataloging staff. Reference staff is using their subject expertise to create pathfinders in this new medium without needing to learn the intricacies of HTML. Efforts are now underway to export CORC records and pathfinders onto the Library’s local Webpac and library Web. It is anticipated that this project will result in a greater number of subject pathfinders available for the end user, increased access to Web resources, and improved collaborative functionality between cataloging and reference staff. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678, E-mail address: < getinfo@haworthpressinc.com > Website: < https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href=" https://www,HaworthPress.com "> https://www,HaworthPress.com >]