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  Vendor-Supplied Records Advisory Working Group

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Westlaw & LexisNexis Collections (Cassidy) 

General Information  Name of Vendor Contact Information Description Records Availability Test Records Availability Methodology for Creation of Records Customization Evaluation  Review Status Authority Control Fixed Fields Variable-Length Fields Subject Headings/Classification  Other Additional Comments

 

General Information 

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Name of Vendor

Cassidy cataloguing 

 

Contact Information

Cassidy Cataloguing Services, Inc. 

248 West Main St., Suite 2

Rockaway, NJ 07866

 

Ph: (973) 586-3200

Fx: (973) 586-3201 

 

Email: info@cassidycat.com 

 

Description

The following information appears on the Cassidy website (viewed 6/3/08):

 

Westlaw Collection I:

1,820 Treatises, Canadian Titles, Select Directories and Annuals 

(formerly known as part of the WLX E-Treatise Collection through Cassidy Cataloguing)

 

Westlaw Collection II:

Approximately 2,200 MARC21 catalog records to complement the Case Laws in your subscription to Westlaw

 

Westlaw Collection III:

Approximately 1,875 MARC21 catalog records to complement the Statutes and Restatements in your subscription to Westlaw

 

Westlaw Collection IV:

1,085 Law Journals and Law Reviews  

 

Westlaw Collection V:

1300 CLE Materials, Practice Guides, Administrative Reports and Legislative Histories

 

LexisNexis Collection I:

1,340 Treatises including Matthew Bender Titles and Selected Annuals 

(formerly known as part of the WLX E-Treatise Collection)

 

LexisNexis Collection II:

3,100 Primary Sources for U.S. and 50 States Cases, Statutes, Codes, Constitutions and Digests 

 

Monthly update service for all collections is also available. 

 

Records Availability

As of May 20, 2008, all Westlaw I and Lexis I records are available. Monthly installments of Westlaw IV and Lexis II records are now being distributed to subscribers.  As of April 16, 2009, Westlaw II, Westlaw III, and Westlaw V base installments are available.  Monthly updates of Westlaw II, Westlaw III, Westlaw IV and Westlaw V are available as part of the monthly update service.

 

Test Records Availability

Available on request. 

 

Methodology for Creation of Records

Donna Rosinski graciously shared with us Cassidy's thorough process: "When we start a project at Cassidy, Joni and the catalogers build records from scratch to make sure that we cover all bases. When we start a project after developing the initial template, if we have records for direct equivalents in other formats, we do use those records as guides for the new records, but we are careful to follow our template for the new format/project. After the records are created, they are proofed by a cataloger other than the one who initially created the record to help catch any proofing errors that the original cataloger may have missed."

 

"For the Westlaw and LexisNexis records, we are using print equivalent records as a basis for the electronic resource records, but we do have to create some records from scratch." 

 

Customization

Customization available, some for no additional charge. 

 

Evaluation 

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Review Status

All records available as of May 20 2008 have been reviewed.  

 

Authority Control

All records are sent for automatic authority control, so the headings are generally in good shape. The only headings that may appear in an unauthorized form are name headings that cannot be validated by machine. Example:  

 

 

Fixed Fields

All seem correct. All records have 006 and 007 fields for electronic format.   

 

Variable-Length Fields

Records include all required fields.

 

Most records have 530 notes for the print version, but very few have a corresponding 776 field (keep in mind, however, that 776 field is OPTIONAL).

 

WESTLAW COLLECTION IV: records for this collection of law journals and law reviews were cataloged as integrating resources and describe Westlaw as the publisher, departing from the CONSER-recommended aggregator-neutral record. Here are the descriptive fields from Cassidy's record for Yale law journal on Westlaw: 

245 0 0 Yale law journal|h[electronic resource]

246 1   |iWestlaw database identifier:|aYLJ

260     [St. Paul, Minn.] :|bThomson/West,|c[199-?]-

310     Updated eight times per year (monthly Oct. through June, except Feb.)

362 1   Print began with: Vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct. 1891)

500     Database updated as materials are received from publisher

500     Select coverage begins with 1891 (vol. 1); full coverage begins with 1981 (vol. 91, no. 2)

500     Title from scope content screen, viewed February 3, 2008

504     "The legal bibliography of the alumni of the Yale Law School. Arranged in the order of classes. 1825-1900": v. 11, p. 9-35

500     Edited by students and members of the faculty of the Yale School of Law

506     Full text available with subscription to Westlaw

538     Mode of access: World Wide Web

530     Also issued in print

525     Vol. 3-4 have a separately paged supplement containing "Memorabilia et notabilia."

550     Published 1891- by the School of Law, Yale University

710 2   Yale Law School

730 0   WESTLAW (Information retrieval system)  

 

Subject Headings/Classification 

All records have valid LC Subject Headings. A few invalid subdivisions were found and forwarded to Cassidy, who assured us that the headings will be corrected. 

 

Records do not include LC Classification numbers. 

 

Other

 

WESTLAW COLLECTION III: archived state codes (mostly annuals) were cataloged as monographs.  In most cases this could have been avoided since Westlaw often provides access to the historical materials from a link on the front page for each archived title with links to the individual volumes. 

 

WESTLAW COLLECTION IV: for those who already have records for HeinOnline journals and are concerned about duplication of records for electronic titles, note that by May 2008 (with approx. 80% of the Westlaw IV collection cataloged), 66% of the Westlaw IV titles were also available on HeinOnline. 

 

LEXIS/NEXIS COLLECTION II: archived federal and state codes and administrative codes (mostly annuals) were cataloged as monographs, resulting in 887 records for 103 titles. In most cases this could have been avoided since Lexis often has a front page for each archived title with links to the individual volumes. For a list of these titles see the following Excel file (note that the file includes FIVE tabs for Lexis 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 and a combined list): cassidy_lexis_2.xls  

 

 

 

Additional Comments 

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ym (5/14/08): Although we do not always see eye to eye on how to catalog certain materials, I know that Cassidy staff reach their decisions after much deliberation, and records are of consistently high quality. Joni Cassidy and her staff have been very responsive to issues brought up by the VBR group, and I hope the flow of information and communication will continue.