The ATSRW project is designed to make selected web sites in theology
and religion accessible through local OPACs. The project is limited to
freely accessible web sites and does not include subscription databases,
e-books, or e-journals (unless the web site is a portal to these types
of works). The association based program distributes the labor-intensive
tasks of selecting the sites (collection development), creating
bibliographic records in OCLC (cataloging), and updating records to
reflect the dynamic nature of internet resources (maintenance). The
records will be available for purchase through OCLC as a WorldCat
Collection Set. Link
to online order form. Records are added quarterly as subsets.
Institutions can purchase subsets individually or create a standing
order to receive subsets as they are added to the collection set.
Significant changes in web sites (i.e. title or url changes) that
require revisions to the records will be reported on this web site.
Institutions can edit local records or purge subsets from their OPACs to
be replaced with an updated version.
Scholarly Web Sites have become increasingly numerous in the past
decade, but efforts to provide access to patrons through conventional
methods are problematic. Much
of this is due to the fluid nature of web sites that resists traditional
methods of bibliographic control. Although
multiple approaches have been implemented to aid patrons in finding
relevant web sites in their research interests, none has emerged as a
tool that would be equally viable for both patrons who are computer
savvy and the more traditional library patrons. Until such a tool is
created, many of our libraries will rely on multiple methods of access
to the Web in the hopes that most of our users will find one method or
another fruitful.
The argument for creating MARC records for web sites and downloading
them into local OPACs rests on the undisputed role of the library
catalog as the essential tool for directing researchers to scholarly
resources. Items in a library's collection (physical and virtual) are
selected, collocated and given subject analysis to aid the researcher in
finding resources in diverse formats. Many web sites are valuable
resources that will be missed if they are not included among the other
formats found in our libraries.
The ideas for this project were first proposed at the 2001 Annual
Conference of the American Theological Library Association. At the 2003
Annual Conference, a group of interested members formed a listserv.
During the following months, the groundwork was laid to establish a
collaborative project. Negotiations with OCLC resulted in the acceptance
of the project as a WorldCat Collection Set. The 2004 annual conference
provided the setting for a workshop in cataloging electronic web sites
and a roundtable to discuss the project and recruit participants.
The project listserv will serve as the communication tool as the
project continues to evolve. Three groups will divide the responsibility
of selecting, cataloging, and maintaining the integrity of the
information in the records (periodically review for valid url's and
changes to the title, content, etc.). All ATLA members will be invited
to participate as a member of one of the three groups or through
submission of web sites to the selector group to consider for inclusion
in the collection set.
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Religion Web Sites Project
