A Library of Congress program that benefits virtually all libraries recently marked its 25th anniversary.
The Cataloging in Publication program began in July 1971 as a special project funded in part by grants from the Council on Library Resources and the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is now fully supported by Library of Congress appropriations and is administered by the Cataloging in Publication (CIP) Division.
The program started as a pilot with 27 participating publishers. Today it includes about 4,000 imprints (virtually all mainstream U.S. publishers), with annual production at approximately 50,000 titles. Since 1971 the program has cataloged more than 830,000 titles.
The Library established the CIP program to provide cataloging for those forthcoming U.S. books most likely to be widely acquired by the nation's libraries. If the Library could catalog the book just prior to its publication and if the publisher could print the cataloging information (CIP data) on the copyright page, then every library that obtained a copy of the book would benefit. They would have the cataloging information immediately available, saving cataloging resources for literally thousands of libraries and speeding the book's availability to the reader.
The CIP program has had a dramatic impact on library work. Most of the nation's 120,000 libraries have been affected by the program, altering their cataloging, acquisitions and ordering procedures and to some extent public services.
"The CIP data from the Library of Congress is of tremendous value in cataloging," said Bob Wolven, assistant director for bibliographic control at Columbia University Libraries, in a Library Journal article. "It allows a large amount of material to be cataloged inexpensively as it is received, simply by verifying and completing the CIP copy. Without this copy, research libraries would either have to invest in much more original cataloging, or as is more likely, would delay most of this cataloging until copy did become available. Since the books covered by CIP tend to be those most heavily in demand, this ability to catalog promptly is a great service to users."
In addition to providing cataloging data, the CIP program benefits libraries, book vendors and publishers using the the machine-readable version of the CIP data, which the Library's Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) sells. Large research and public libraries, bibliographic services and book wholesalers use the data to support a variety of acquisition, marketing and book processing services. CDS distributes these records weekly in the United States and abroad, thereby providing advance notice of forthcoming books worldwide.
The records are incorporated into a broad array of products and services - CD ROMs, printed indexes, online services, retrospective conversion services and approval programs - by private sector companies and not-for-profit organizations. Approval programs, for example, enable book wholesalers to support the unique collection development needs of libraries. By establishing a profile of a library's specific areas of interest, a book wholesaler can issue advance notices of forthcoming titles (weeks and sometimes months before the book is published) that fit the profile. This helps publishers and book wholesalers to disseminate information about their forthcoming books and it permits libraries to place orders before the book is published, thereby expediting book ordering for the library and, ultimately, service to the reader. CIP data make this possible.
The CIP data in the book also help public service librarians. When readers want to learn more about the subject of a book they are currently reading, an immediate point of reference is the CIP data in that book. The subject headings that are a part of the data provide reference to other subject areas of potential interest. The summaries provided in CIP data for juvenile titles also support public service functions by providing young readers and parents with a concise and objective summary of the book's contents, thereby enabling them to easily select books that meet their interests.
When SKP Associates surveyed libraries in 1991-92 regarding the value of the program, "Almost half of the librarians were able to estimate the savings their libraries receive from the CIP program. The average was $9,421, with a high of $250,000. The greatest savings were felt by academic librarians (averaging $31,148) and then public (averaging $16,319), with special and school falling lower on the scale."
"CIP is absolutely invaluable to small and elementary school libraries," said one librarian in the survey. "CIP makes our cataloging hum," said another. And "I can't do without CIP."
The CIP Division urges publishers to submit applications as far in advance of publication as possible. They cannot, however, submit them so early that the title, author, editor, translator, illustrator, series and other bibliographic elements are subject to change nor so late in their production schedule that the Library has insufficient time to respond before the book goes to press.
In 1989 and 1990 the demand for CIP data so exceeded the CIP Division's resources that some publishers delayed their print dates or went to press without CIP data. Thus the division imposed a one-year moratorium on admission of new publishers to the program, allowing CIP to streamline procedures and increase staffing. These measures resulted in an average of 5.5 workdays (from the time the application is received in the CIP Division to the time the completed data are mailed to the publisher) in fiscal 1995, with 94 percent processed in 10 workdays or fewer.
Another area that has troubled the CIP program is the failure of some publishers to send to the division a copy of the book immediately upon publication, a requirement for all participating publishers.
"Publisher compliance," according to John Celli, chief of the division, "is one of the biggest problems confronting the CIP program. Many publishers don't realize the problems unverified records create for the library and book vendor community.
"The publishing industry is a very dynamic one, with staff changes occurring frequently," he added. "The staff that were with a publisher when the company joined the CIP program five or 10 or 20 years ago in many cases have moved on to other companies. Their successors take over the day-to-day process of requesting CIP data, but they may not have an understanding of the program's policies. The publisher's obligation to send a copy of the book often gets lost in the shuffle."
A project is underway to send claims to especially delinquent publishers.
As the CIP program celebrates its 25th anniversary, it is preparing for the future with the development of an electronic system for producing CIP data.
