Association of Research Libraries (ARL®)

Nancy Duxbury

Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing, Simon Fraser University
and University of British Columbia Press

Why Catalogs on the Internet?

Much more than a marketing tool, an online catalog is a press's main presence on the Internet and the hub of its electronic communication. It promotes both a press's books and the press itself, and promises a range of benefits to the press and its customers. The descriptive information placed in an online catalog can be more substantial and more useful than that in print catalogs and brochures, promising improved title marketing, according to Kathleen Ketterman, marketing manager of Indiana University Press, and Peter Milroy, director of UBC Press. Lisa Freeman, director of the University of Minnesota Press, says that an online catalog can make the press's interest in e-issues known to gopher developers and others on computer networks (including librarians), introduce the Internet and gopher technology to press staff, be used as an in-house reference tool, diminish demands on customer service staff, and, ideally, generate sales.

Showing the university community that university presses are "hip to the e-world" is important. This perception makes an online catalog an important acquisitions tool. Online catalogs encourage active press participation on the Internet, and are key to further electronic network projects. Already, some presses offer book chapters, journal article abstracts, and digitized images through their catalogs.

At this time, fifteen university presses have established online catalogs:

Edinburgh University
Johns Hopkins University Press (JHUP)
Harvard Business School
Harvard University Press
Lehigh University Press
MIT Press
Princeton University Press
Rutgers University Press
SUNY Press
University of Arizona Press
University of British Columbia Press
University of Chicago Press
University of Illinois Press
University of Minnesota Press
University of Nebraska Press

As well, several commercial publishers have online catalogs, including Addison-Wesley, Meckler Publishing Company, O'Reilly & Associates, and Prentice-Hall.

How does one find them?

Online catalogs are accessed via a telnet command or a gopher menu. Telnet access requires the user to know the exact computer address of the catalog. Gopher access only requires the user to know the university's name and geographical location, although some presses are buried under multiple menus and/or located in categories not always intuitive to the user.

What does the catalog teach about the press?

Online catalogs typically offer information about the press itself, books and journals published, and ordering information. Press information, such as mailing addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, contact names, and brief descriptions of editorial programs are available, although the amount of information available varies. UBC also offers detailed information directed at potential authors, including a description of the university press publishing process and format guidelines for submitting manuscripts and electronic files.

What book information is offered?

Most online catalogs contain all books in print, although MIT and Harvard list only recent titles (1992-3). Book information is most commonly organized by subject, with titles listed alphabetically either by author or title within each category. As well, many contain a category for "recently published" books. Catalogs either have individual files for each title or list a number of titles in a file, which the user browses through until the searched-for title is found.

All catalogs contain basic information such as the names of authors, full book title, ISBN numbers, sales restrictions if any, number of pages, format (paperback/cloth), price, and perhaps details about the type and quantity of illustrations. Most presses offer a description or summary of each title as well. Author profiles, review quotes, and tables of contents are available in some catalogs.

What journal information is offered?

Only MIT and JHU Presses mention journals in their online catalogs, and offer basic information such as title, editor, frequency of publication, a short descriptive blurb, addresses, and ordering information. JHUP also offers the table of contents and abstracts of articles via gopher and FTP prior to publication.

How does one order press publications on the Internet?

All presses offer basic ordering information and note means of access to the press, such as phone, fax, e-mail, and regular mail. UBC, Minnesota, MIT, and ORA accept orders via e-mail. In lieu of an e-mail ordering system, JHUP and Harvard offer an electronic ordering form which can be printed out and mailed or faxed to them. UBC offers an order form which can be e-mailed to the press.

Locations of online catalogs

On September 19th, Chuck Creesy of the Princeton University Press linked all the press catalogs above through a menu on the Princeton gopher, and Bruce Barton of the University of Chicago Press shortly followed suit.

http://pup.princeton.edu/
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/

Other gopher sites that take readers to the university press catalogs are:

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/teachtech/about-ccat.html (University of Pennsylvania Center For Computer Analysis of Texts); ); and http://library.usask.ca/ (University of Saskatchewan Library).

In October, Bruce Barton also assembled the first Jughead index for all university press gophers, making the records searchable by words and combinations of words. The Jughead is available through both Chicago and Princeton.

Nancy Duxbury UBC Press/Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing, Simon Fraser University (duxbury@sfu.ca Duxbury) has spent the 1993 summer semester in an internship at UBC press developing an online catalog and completing her Master of Publishing Degree from Simon Fraser University. She is beginning a Ph.D. in Communication at SFU this fall.