Fénix 16, 212-242

PROBLEMAS DE ORGANIZACION y ADMINISTRACION DE BIBLIOTECAS 229 Although placing the union catalog in a specialized location lowers the cost for each participation library because each library only reproduces one extra author card for each cataloged title instead of x number to be sent to x number oí participating libraries. When each library received an author card from the other participating libraries, each participating library had a catalog of the participating libraries within its own locale: each library thus had an union ratalog, and its clientele had exce11ent service within the library. In the case of an union catalog away from the participating library, the prospect is different, Each library is back where it began: it must telephone, write, or visit the union catalog to obtain the information that is ueeded. Certainly librarian A obtains more information than was first postulated because instead of telephoning, writ– ing, or visiting four different libraries, in the case of the five libraries now being considered, librarian A only telephones, writes, or visits one locale, the union catalogo Yet what logical difference is it for her to telephone at different times Iour different places for four different bits of information or to telephone one place four times for those same bits of information? The case o writing for this information is similar. There is only a distinct difference when visiting is the method for obtaining the information. What I am saying here is that the librarian as library A has reverted to the situation in which we began this discussion; numely, she must telephone, write, or visit sorne external location to obtain sorne needed information. What great justification, then, for library A to participate in an union catalog? When library A participated with another library it had the co11ection of the other Ii– brary reproduced in its catalogo When it participated with two other libraries, library A, as we11 as the other two libraries, had an union catalog of the three lihraries in its own locale. In the participation, in an union catalog where a11 of the coopérating libraries send an extra author card to an external location, the information that is contained in the union catalog is outside oí the locale oí Ii– brary A and a11 of the other cooperating libraries. This is a deficiency that must not be ignored. The ideal, therefore, is to attempt to achieve what was available in the cxample of library A and library B exchanging author cards, namely, that a11 of the cooperating libraries have copies of the union catalog either in their cata– logs or within their buildings. This situation can be achieved by reproducing the information that is received at the union catalog, and sending is to subscríbers, Each participating library would have, in sorne form, copies of the information at the union catalogo Even non-participating libraries or perhaps individuals could also have copies of the information that is contained in the union catalog, for it is conceivable that this type of information would have a certain, sma11 sales value. To reproduce the information that is received at the union catalog two ~ypes of methods are possible: reproducing, in sorne manner, the cards themselves, or retyping of the information that is contained on the cards, The first method is the more mechanical and requires photography or xerography or a combination Fénix: Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú. N.16, 1966