First, for me as a user/ researcher, the ideal catalog would reach beyond our own collections and even beyond a local consortium. I’d like to know if another library had made a digital copy of a text to which I could link. Also, I’d want to know if a regional, non-consortial library had a print copy. In some instances, I would find it more efficient to drive to a close library or call a colleague if I only needed some quick bit of information, or if I didn’t know whether a text was worth requesting via ILL.

Second, will your group look at the way we incorporate MARC records into this service? I ask because of a problem commercial binding units encounter. When we pull data from the catalog into our binding software, we pull from the bib record. Because catalog records’ tiered nature, we don’t get any item-level information such as branch library, volume number, or copy number. Granted, we have the volume (monograph, journal) in hand and can add it. Furthermore, this may affect too small a group: I don’t know if other areas of the library run into similar issues, or if it’s just Binding. But since you’re reconceptualizing the catalog, I thought I’d put it on the table.

nice project….