# Presentation: 444587

## The Uses and Usefulness of TOC Data

- John D. Byrum, Jr.
- Chair, Bibliographic Enrichments Advisory Team

## Discovery & Retrieval

- “We must provide more information online about what our print collections hold, so that potential users of our holdings can more easily discover the treasures they contain.”  Roy Tennant, Lj, Dec. 15, 2001

## Enabling Subject Access

- “The limited number of subject headings assigned to monographs as well as the practice of providing a more general subject heading for a monograph that covers several more specific topics resulted in very inadequate subject access to monographs.”  Vinh-The Lam

## Entry level Vocabulary

- 505 and 520 notes account for the largest percentage increase in the number of unique words in bibliographic records, with an average of 15.5 new subject terms per record. Calhoun and Markey, 1987
- If a bridge to bibliographic records is established, key-words would provide  effective access to controlled vocabularies.  Bates and others. 1980s.

## DTOC Hits on Web

## TOC Survey Results

- August-December 2001

## How did you find this TOC file?

- Catalog record		216 (61%)
- Internet			130 (37%)
- TOC Files			 10   ( 3%)

## Was this TOC information useful to you?

- Yes				301 (83%)
- No				57  (17%)

## Did you click on thelink to go to the bibliographic recordand related links?

- Yes			211 (58%)
- No			150 (42%)

## Did you look through the Library of Congress catalog record thatlinks to this TOC? 

- Yes			106   (58%)
- No	             78   (42%)
- (n/a				181)

## Did you try any of the links for related authors, subjects to lookfor related items in the LC catalog?

- Yes				46	(37%)
- No				78   (63%)
- (n/a				236)

## Were these links useful to your research interests? 

- Yes				53 (67%)
- No				26  (33%)
- (n/a				278)

## How do you describe yourself?

- Student/Researcher	213	 (58%)
- Casual user			53    (14%)
- Librarian				83    (23%)
- Other					17    (  4%)

##  User Comments:

- I'm going to take the book out of the Brooklyn Library and I already found out it is available.  If the book I wanted were checked out and not available, I might find this TOC file really helpful.  For today, it just confirmed that I should go to the library ASAP and get the book, since it is dead on what I want.
- TOCs are good...beats having to go to the library to  just see whether you want the book.
- TOC was very useful in determining whether this book had information on my specific subject.

##  User Comments:

- Confirmed that this is a book I want to see.
-  It was nice to finally get into a web site that I can access information directly without finding advertisements.
- Putting links like TOC speeds up the searches and are better than letting the search engines rumble though thousands of similar phrases.
- Very useful, but would have been more useful if the TOC had been in the catalogue record of my local OPAC.

## User Comments:

- I look for them [TOCs] on book seller web sites all the time.  I find TOC incredibly useful.
- I was able to decide that I needed the book.
- I decided not to check out the book.
- Nice, but how do I get access to the contents of the book?
- I hoped it was a full text version of the entire book.  That would have been a happy surprise.

##  User Comments:

- The TOC availability was quite useful.  If only the full text was online as well.
- At least abstract of paper should be displayed.
- Should provide a brief summary of the book.
- Particulars regarding price of the book, name of publisher etc. also could have been included for the benefit of prospective buyers.

## Librarian Comments:

- Please experiment with including the table of contents in tag 505 [librarian]
- Prefer to have TOC in the MARC record so that it will be available for searching in out OPAC
- I'm copy cataloging a book right now.  The link to this TOC saves me the effort of retyping the TOC in the local system.  [It] saves time!
- Found it while cataloging the book.  Saves me doing analytics!  Will be as helpful as people are willing to realize it CAN be.

## Librarian Comments:

- I found the TOC to be very helpful.  My company often borrows books from other libraries.  As a corporation, we are watching our budget.  TOCs help me decide if a book would be worth the charges that I will incur with an ILL
- I have started a TOC collection for books for further review.  Thanks!  [Selector]
- As a collection development librarian, I find a review of the TOC a good index to the content level and focus of the publication.

## Librarian Comments:

- We were interested in purchasing this book, but had little information from advertising blurb.  This makes the decision to purchase the book much easier (takes out the guess work).
- Gave me more info on sections contained within the book, making a decision on how relevant the book was to my needs.
- [Translated from Spanish] It lets me order this item and helps in cataloging material when the TOC is present.

## Librarian Comments

- With our Australian dollar at an all time low, it costs us an average $120 to buy a book from oversees.  TOC is the best way to get the most use out of the items we do buy.  Keep up the good work!

## And One Final Comment:

- You are all beating with the best drums! How enriching.  Thank you.