THE FUTURE OF LOCAS
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040356 |
| Pages | 42-45 |
| Date | 01 February 1986 |
| Published date | 01 February 1986 |
| Author | Tony McSean |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
42
TOE FUTURE OF LOCAS, by Tony McSean*
Introduction
This article is based on a paper presented to the LOCAS User Group
meeting, held at the British Library on July 16th, 1986. It sets out
the future for our LOCAS cataloguing service after the expiry of the
present service guarantee in March 1988, giving both an outline of our
intentions both for LOCAS and for cataloguing services in general, and
also providing some of the historical context in which these
intentions have been formed.
This paper refers entirely to the LOCAS cataloguing service provided
by the British Library Bibliographic Services (BLBS) to organisations
outside the British Library.
LOCAS: the next few years
In 1984, during the course of a large scale consultation exercise with
LOCAS users, the British Library guaranteed to maintain the current
LOCAS service, in substantially its current form, until at least
March 1988. After a review of the LOCAS service, which has been
carried out over the last 9 months by the staff responsible for
operating and supporting it, we are now in a position to announce what
will be happening with respect to LOCAS after that date.
LOCAS will cease to be a mainstream British Library Bibliographic
Services (BLBS) product from March 1988. We will continue to provide
the current services within the British Library, but the external
LOCAS service will be taken out of the BLBS price list from the end of
the financial year 1987-88. The future of the remaining LOCAS Unions
will be subject to separate negotiations between BLBS and the Union
coordinating bodies.
There will be no complete external cataloguing service from the
British Library to replace LOCAS. We will instead be concentrating
our efforts on improving and expanding our record supply services,
providing libraries with the bibliographic data they will require for
use with online stand alone systems.
No new LOCAS customers will be implemented. No further efforts will
be made to market the service.
LOCAS will not necessarily close for existing customers in March 1988.
We will discuss the service needs of individual users, and provided
the user is able to accept certain conditions, LOCAS will continue to
be available until they are able to make alternative arrangements.
* Tony McSean is Head of Marketing and Support, British Library
Bibliographic Services
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