Fénix 16, 212-242

PROBLEMAS DE ORGANIZACION y ADMINISTRACION DE BIBLIOTECAS 231 information about volumes that are in other Iibraries, I originally said that Ii– brary A was in Lima and that its librarian could telephone 01' visit other libraries. This would imply that perhaps the other Iihraries were also in metropolitan Li– ma. Suppose, however, that the other libraries were in Arequipa, Trujillo, Puno, 01' Iquitos, An union catalog could be established no matter hQW distant the member libraries were from each other. In fact the union catalog is appropriate DS the means for the removal of distances between participating Iibraries. y ou can see how conceivable it is that a group of medical libraries attempt to establish an union catalog 01' that the libraries in an university establish an union catalog 01' that the public libraries establish an union catalogo What would prevent two 01' more of these union catalogs from merging? It does not take much imagination to see a true nationa] union catalog being established. My point here is that a national union catalog is certainly feasible, and desiderable. Perhaps, however, it will take more than a Iaw lo establish a national urrion catalogo I believe that a national union catalog will come, instead, from the desires oí peTsons like Señorita Olivera and yourselves to have certain types of information al your libraries. Each oí you will need to make overtures to other Iibraries to Iorm cooperativo union catalogs, and perhaps then the national union catalog will occur as a culmination of these smaller union catalogs being merged together. y know of two union catalogs in the Lima area that are now in the process oí being established. This is not to say that there are not others wich you may know of. The Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos has established an union catalog which has been receiving author cards from each of the twelve partioipating Iibraries since the first of April. The personnel of the Biblioteca Central, where the union catalog is located, issues a mimeographed Iisting of the titles that are reccived at the union catalog every two weeks, It is planned that twice ayear these listings will be cumulated and printed in the Boletín Biblio– gráfico. The Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería is presentIy planning to have three of the faculty Iihraries establish an union catalog via their IBM 1620 computor. Once this project is completed, the whole library system will be inc– luded. I personally have great expectations for this last, computorízed project hecause I believe that the success at Ingeniería will indicate the method that should be used for the eventual national union catalogo 1 will mention one last point. In the establishment of an union catalog two types de information are possible: that which pertains to the current adquisitions of the participating libraries, and that which pertains to the titles that are already in the catalogs of the participating libraries. An union catalog can be established easily and with minimal cost by specifying on an arbitrary date that all the parti– eipating libraries will send to the union catalog one extra author card for each of the titles that they catalogo If it desired to have a copy of the cards that are already in the catalogs of the participating libraries, the cost of the project rises, Perhaps a special fund must then be created to reproduce this retrospective cataloging. One can expect the participating Iibraries to absorh the cost of send- Fénix: Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú. N.16, 1966