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Christian Library Journal, March 2005
School Library Journal,
August 2004
Booklist - Reference Books
Bulletin
Reviewed by:
Christian Library Journal,
March 2005
Children's Catalog, 18th Edition
Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, 8th Edition
Senior High School Library Catalog, 16th Edition
Among the book selection tools for school libraries, the
most popular and most useful are the Standard catalog series published by
H. W. Wilson Company. For each title, new editions are published every
five years, with annual supplements for the intervening years. Each
catalog has two main sections. The first is a classified catalog, with
entries arranged in order based on the Abridged Dewey Decimal
Classification system for non-fiction titles, followed by fiction and
story collection titles. Each class number is followed by a short phrase
that identifies the subject. Each entry includes author (arranged
alphabetically under subject), title, illustrator, publisher, date,
pagination, price, grade level, Sears subject headings, ISBN, LCCN, and
award. The paragraph-length annotations with description and evaluation
are frequently quoted from standard review sources. If part of a series,
other titles in the series are listed.
Following the classified catalog is a combined "author,
title, subject, and analytical index" with entries interfiled in
alphabetical order. For each author, titles are arranged in alphabetical
order, with grade levels and classification numbers indicated. Related
titles refer to main title listing. For collected works, a contents
listing of stories included is appended here. Title entries (including
analytical titles within collected works) indicate author and
classification. For subject entries, author, title, grade level, and
classification are given. Other smaller sections include a directory of
publishers and distributors and a list of recommended web resources (both
free and by subscription). Annual supplements include newer titles, again
arranged in classified catalog format with a combined author, title,
subject, and analytical index. The double column format, with appropriate
white space is easy to use.
Each standard catalog is designed to represent a core
collection of basic, highly recommended titles for its level. Almost all
of the titles were in print at the time of publication, although a few
especially significant out-of-print titles have been included if more
recent suitable titles were not available. However, the authors do not
recommend weeding good titles discontinued from earlier editions unless
other more suitable recent titles become available. Although only English
language titles are included, some titles that are also available in
Spanish are so noted in their annotations, and are listed under the
"Spanish language editions" subject heading in the index.
These standard catalogs are selective rather than
inclusive. To give a sense of their scope: the latest edition of the
Children’s Catalog [CC] includes 6,738 titles and 6,421 analytical
entries; the Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog [MJHSLC]
includes 4,520 titles and 4,492 analytical entries; the Senior High School
Library Catalog [SHSLC] includes 5,321 titles and 9,123 analytical
entries. The annual paperback supplements vary from fewer than six hundred
to more than seven hundred titles, along with from fewer than three
hundred to more than five hundred analytical entries. Around 29% of the
titles listed in MJHSLC also appear in CC, and around 19% of the titles in
MJHSLC also appear in SHSLC. In spite of this overlap of almost half of
the titles in MJHSLC, the overlapping titles are included in this catalog
to insure that it represents a core collection for this level. A feature
of CC not needed by the other catalogs is its section classified as "Easy"
books. The earlier MJHSLC includes a select list of recommended
CD-ROMs which has been superseded in the more recent
catalogs by the list of recommended web resources. The analytical access
to collected works is a valuable feature. These standard catalogs have
multiple uses: as aids to selection for purchase, cataloging, curriculum
suggestions for teachers, etc. Other standard catalogs published by H.W.
Wilson for public libraries are the Fiction Catalog and the reference and
non-fiction Public Library Catalog. Any, or all, of the titles in the
Standard Catalog series are also available online by subscription on
WilsonWeb, updated quarterly, with additional searching features. The cost
for WilsonWeb varies with the number of professional teachers and
librarians served.
Review from:
School Library Journal, August 2004
Professional Tools—Each
of the H.W. Wilson Standard Catalogs, cornerstones for collection
development for decades, is a selective annotated list of recommended
titles arranged by Dewey Decimal numbers. Librarians using specific
evaluative criteria have chosen the books. Each catalog provides annotated
entries for thousands of books and other resources, offering data valuable
for collection development and maintenance, information verification,
selection and purchasing, readers' advisory, and general reference. The
standard catalogs can also serve as guidelines in weeding collections. An
annual paperback volume containing approximately 600 titles supplements
the basic, hardcover volume. A new master catalog is published every five
years. Author, title, and subject indexes are included.
These additional online
features make the catalogs even more valuable for collection development
and curriculum support: Entries link to additional review excerpts from
Wilson's Book Review Digest database. The review links in the
Standard Catalogs online are to citations, review excerpts, and full text
from Book Review Digest Plus, which incorporates all the book
reviews in all the Wilson databases—at no extra cost.
-
Retrieve records in machine-readable
MARC format.
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Instantly check your library's holdings
via a link to your OPAC.
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Search descriptive and critical
annotations for specific words.
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Search simultaneously all subscribed
Standard Catalogs or other Wilson databases.
At this time the MARC records
can be viewed, but not downloaded. By the end of
2004 Wilson will have a new
MARC record display that will allow customers to copy and save the MARC
records. Hopefully the MARC records can be saved in a file type that can
be imported into the popular school library media center automation
programs.
The Children’s Catalog includes fiction and nonfiction, story collections, picture books and
magazines for readers in pre-school through sixth grade. Both the Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog (grades 5-8), and
Senior High School Library Catalog (grades 9-12) includes
fiction, nonfiction, CD-ROMs, curriculum support materials, and
professional aids for school library media specialists. Entries in all
catalogs provide complete bibliographic data, price, subject headings, a
descriptive annotation, and evaluative quotations from a review when
available. The list of recommended Web sites includes both subscription
databases and free Web sites, including the publisher's name and phone
number, price, grade level, and URL.
Basic searching of the
catalogs is by natural language or Boolean operators. Advanced searching
combines Boolean searching with the option to narrow the term search to
one of over 25 options such as: author, reading level, physical
description, etc. In addition, you can limit advanced searching by dates
(enter years) document type, and physical description (both drop down
menus).
School districts with
centralized processing should subscribe to the online versions of these
databases. Individual schools would have to determine the extent to which
the catalog(s) would be used. Some factors to consider might be extra
funding to improve the collection, validation of the "worthlessness" of
the existing collection, improving specific and weak areas of the
collection, etc. The Catalogs are an established resource for evaluating a
collection in general, for timeliness, coverage, etc. They are especially
useful to schools with limited budgets—and pay for themselves easily—by
assuring that you don't spend money on anything that's not good. As for
weeding, just because a title drops out of one of the Catalogs doesn't
mean it should be weeded. That depends on many factors. But the Catalogs
can alert you to the existence of a newer or better book on the subject.
Reviewed by Terrence E. Young, Jr.
Review
from: Booklist - Reference Books Bulletin
Date reviewed: April 15, 2001
In the past five
or so years there has been an increasing tendency to convert our favorite
print products to electronic form, not always to the benefit of the user or
the products themselves. In addition, the cost of these products has often
been prohibitive for the libraries that own the print versions. Wilson has
recently converted its widely used Children's Catalog and Middle
and Junior High School Library Catalog into slick Web products and at a
price that should be affordable for most of the print subscribers: the price
for one simultaneous user is the same as the cost of the print
versions, although the online charge is an annual fee.
Children's Catalog,
Electronic Edition contains records from 8,000 fiction and nonfiction
works, story collections, picture books, and magazines for children from
preschool through grade six, encompassing the seventeenth edition of Children's
Catalog (1996) and its four annual supplements. Middle and Junior
High School Library Catalog, Electronic Edition contains records for
6,000 fiction and nonfiction works and collections for grades five through
eight from the eighth edition of Middle and Junior High School Library
Catalog (2000). Both electronic versions will incorporate future annual
supplements and new print editions.
Searching is available at
several levels, including Browse, Search, and Search Plus (Boolean), with
links to records in either citation form or full display. It is possible to
limit and sort the records using a dozen different fields, including not
just author and title but also Dewey number, subject, document type,
language, series title, and year of publication, although it takes a
sophisticated user to accomplish some of the possible limits. Searches can
be conducted in just one of the catalogs or in both; in the latter case
results are displayed in one combined list. All items include abridged Dewey
cataloging for author, title, and subject, with links to MARC records. Where
possible the records are also linked to excerpts of reviews of the books
from Wilson's Book Review Digest. Links are also available to a
library's holding at no additional charge. Records can be saved, e-mailed,
and printed.
One of the best searchable
features available in Children's Catalog is reading level, supplied
by the book's publishers. Although not all the records contain this
information, it is extremely helpful to be able to identify books by topic
and age level at the same time.
The navigation bar is always
available, with an option to view a search history and combine or refine a
search. In addition, the user can open Adobe Acrobat versions of the print
catalogs, allowing one to page through the Dewey classifications to identify
specific subject headings. A minor drawback is that Wilson's Help index is
not database specific, although one can find particulars by clicking on a
Database Information icon.
The Board is not always excited
about the advantages of an online product conversion over its print
counterpart, but these databases are recommended to librarians and libraries
at all levels. They are easy to use, economical, and make so much possible
for anyone working with children's literature and collection development.
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