One of the major reasons for introducing new levels of cataloguing was dwindling resources. Many respondents had difficulty commenting on the timeliness of Canadiana records because of the variety of methods by which they receive them. Their perception of timeliness was influenced by that of their supplier. Federal government documents are clearly a concern. Canadian libraries expect that the National Library will provide timely and good-quality bibliographic records, in particular for federal government publications.
Scientific materials are of major concern to academic and large public libraries.
The new levels of cataloguing provide for reduced levels of treatment for older imprints, on the theory that Canadian libraries require cataloguing copy mostly for current titles. In general, this theory was upheld by the respondents, although some indicated a need for catalogue copy for older imprints received as gifts or when collections merge due to library closures. The need to maintain the timeliness of our records is reconfirmed. A number of resource-neutral or relatively inexpensive adjustments should be made to the levels of cataloguing to address some of the concerns expressed. Future efforts should be directed at increasing the proportion of Canadiana records that contain subject headings.