University Library Displaying Microfiche Cataloging System

The University Library this week displayed sample entries from its new microfiche catalog, which will list the Library system's recently acquired books, and sought public reaction to the catalog's design.

Designers of the system are seeking feedback from now until March 27 before making the catalog available at 130 University locations in July.

The microfiche system consists of a reader resembling a portable television set and several hundred sheets of microfilm the size of index cards.

Microfiche is the first step in a "historic advance for Harvard" that may eventually render Widener's huge card catalog obsolete. Oscar Handlin, director of the University Library, said this week.

Easier Than Thou

The catalog will mean that "a researcher doesn't have to walk over to Widener between seven and five. It can be midnight from across the river," Marilyn Weissman, editorial librarian, said.

The catalog will list 400,000 of the University's more than ten million volumes at first, and steadily increase its listings as new books are acquired. The microfiche system will cost approximately $200,000, Handling said.

Ultimately, Handlin said, the microfiche catalog itself may be replaced with a computer catalog and circulation system. "The long-range plans are full of dreams. It all depends on technology and money," he added.

The new catalog will replace the current Widener Union Catalog II, consisting of most books acquired by the libraries since Widener switched to the Library of Congress classification system from its own in 1975.

Strength in Diversity

Standardizing entries from different libraries has proved difficult, Handlin said. "We have different libraries which grew up differently, and each one has its own system," he added.

Edward H. Minar, Robbins Library of Philosophy librarian, said Robbins could not contribute to the new catalog because "we don't have the resources to change that completely."

Heather E. Cole, Hilles and Lamont librarian, said that some users might at first resist the new technology of the microfiche catalog. But in the long run, she added, "it'll make the libraries easier to use."