Subject: tc-list Re: OCLC and ARLIN

From: "Harold P. Scanlin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 10:09:28 -0500

Petersen asked about OCLC and (A)RLIN:

> On OCLC:  I'm still curious what this is.  If Lincoln is out there, I'd
> appreciate a clarification.   Rod, are you sure this is the Ohio system,
> augmented?  At Penn State, we have access to "RLIN" (the acronym is
> something like "Research Libraries Interlibrary Network"), which is what
> our Interlibrary Loan Dep't uses.  It has a very broad sweep (only
American
> libraries, however, but all the big ones), but its format is clearly
> different from that of OCLC.  It seems odd (and a waste of resources) to
> maintain two, essentially identical, catalogues (OCLC, RLIN, and whatever
> else may be out there [Worldcat, Library of Congress, etc.]).  Is OCLC on
> the web and, if so, what

OCLC (= Online Computer Library Center; It used to be "Ohio Consortium . .
. ," or something like that before it became a global service for online
cataloging) provides online cataloging essentially following Library of
Congress and MARC(2) format.  It also offers ILL services.  It includes LC
records and seems to offer quick access to CIP (Cataloging in Publication)
data from both US and other countries.  OCLC is a service which has been
available to subscribing libraries, although I know they have been working
on a public access system, available for a fee on the Internet.  Their
website should provide further information. 

(A)RLIN offers more extensive bibliographic annotation, especially useful
for earlier works and those for which full bibliographic description is
important.  In the case of Pasor, ARLIN records, if they exist, would be
particularly useful.  Unfortunately our ABS Library is not at present a
member of the RLIN system.  My (educated) guess is that OCLC has more
records than ARLIN.

Due to extensive renovations at Bible House here in NY, the ABS library is
not currently accessible, so I am not able to see if ABS has the NT's.  It
should be open again in March, so if anyone wants me to check later, let me
know offline.  Meanwhile, the published catalog of the Landesbibliothek in
Stuttgart would be quite helpful if they hold any of the testaments which
purport to refer to Pasor.  I, too, doubt if Pasor actually contributed
editorially to the NT's in question, but the editions probably only take
note of Pasor's lexicographical work.

Harold P. Scanlin
United Bible Societies
1865 Broadway
New York, NY 10023
[email-masked]