Policy

Part 1: Overview 

        This cataloging policy for items related to space exploration and the legality behind it exists because cataloging policies for these items do not exist except at the NASA libraries.   Our collection contains various materials across multiple media and subject areas to give an overview of issues and research within the realm of space exploration. Academic and law libraries should have specific collections and policies for these collections devoted to space exploration due to space exploration seeing a revived interest. These kinds of collections would be useful for both the public and academics with the privatization of space flight and the announcement of a space force. Our materials that we will catalog will include: 

• Book: The Little Book of Space Law by Matthew J. Kleiman  

• Audiobook: Space Chronicles by Neil DeGrasse Tyson 

• E-book: Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon by Colin Burgess, Kate Doolan, and Bert Vis. 

• DVD: In the Shadow of the Moon 

• Journal Article: Who is an astronaut? The inadequacy of current international law by F. Lyall (Science Direct)  

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Part 2: Policy 

        Our library is committed to obtaining the highest quality material for researchers in the fields of space exploration and space law. We strive to catalog this collection in a way that makes this collection accessible to the average researcher who wants to learn more about space exploration and the legality behind it. We will also publish the metadata records in our online library catalog to ensure that patrons have access to the materials and have an easy way to search our collection. We will devote a specific page of our website to these materials to make the collection more accessible in our online catalog. 

        We have decided to keep our assignment of location for these materials together. Even though the collection consists of several formats of material, researchers will want access to these materials as a whole and they should be kept together for ease of access. In other words, the collection will be cataloged by subject within the LC cataloging system, rather than be spread across the library stacks. We believe that this will allow patrons to have access to the entire space exploration/space law collection without having to go to several floors within the library or several libraries across campus. Our online material, such as journal articles, will be located on the library website, but a note at the collection site will mention that other materials within the collection, such as journals and eBooks, are available online. This list will include the titles and subject terms for all online materials.  

        We will thoroughly look through each material to decide the specific subject headings for the particular item. Subject analysis is particularly important for content relating to space exploration and space law since there are so many different subject areas and topics covered within the collection. Thorough subject analysis will bring the proper content to our patrons for their research needs. 

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Our Collection 

        Our collection will be dedicated to materials within the field of space law and space exploration (e.g., legality of spaceflight, history of spaceflight, the Space Race, the science behind spaceflight, etc.)

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For books, audiobooks, and e-books: 

We will include the typical field in basic MARC 21 and RDA records, but will also include: 

• Edition: Since space exploration and the legality behind it are ever-changing as humans further explore the universe, it is important to understand if the content is in its original state or has been updated. 

• Physical description fields: We include many formats within our collection to get a full picture of space exploration and its legality 

• Subject headings: The fields of space exploration and space law are vast and cover many topics. Example subject headings include Space law, Space exploration, Astronauts--United States--Biography, Manned space flight--Forecasting, and Space flight history to the moon--History. 

• Local fields: Our library staff and patrons will want to know where to find the particular items in the collection. 

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For audiovisual materials 

        We consider audiovisual materials to be an important part of the collection to show video and audio from spaceflight. All audiovisual material in our collection will revolve around the theme of space exploration and the legality behind it. We will include, in addition to the basic MARC 21 and RDA records: 

• All involved in the production of the film since some involved in the production of space films, such as Ron Howard, are well known for their movies and documentaries about space and spaceflight. 

• Media format since patrons need to know what type of material to look for when searching, and know where to find that material (e.g., if it an electronic audiovisual material it will be online, versus a physical DVD which will be on the shelf with the rest of the collection.) 

• Local fields, since the librarians at our library and patrons will want to know where to find the particular item in the collections 

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For journal articles/other serials: 

        Journal articles and other serials about space exploration and its legality will demonstrate scholarly work and popular magazines, such as Life and Time, that cover various topics related to space exploration. We will include, in addition to the basic MARC 21 and RDA records:  

• Contributors beyond the author, if there are any, to ensure that all contributors are accounted for and that researchers can find scholarship by individuals of interest to them. 

• Notable individuals interviewed for the article, if any, to ensure that the articles appear in catalog searches for the interviewees. 

• Subject headings about the concepts and topics covered in the article to ensure that researchers can easily locate the materials, even sources that might only provide some information about their research topic. We want our patrons to be able to fully research their topics. 

• Local fields, since the librarians at our library and patrons will want to know where to find the particular item in the collections 

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Part 3: Procedures and Issues 

        We copy cataloged every item except the journal article. We added areas that we thought might be beneficial to our use group of spaceflight and space law researchers. For the book, we only added a series title for the book’s series. For the audiobook, we enhanced the record by including the type of recording and the recording medium in the RDA record to help patrons better locate the item and know the medium of the item. In the MARC record for the audiobook, we added the name of the narrator, Mirron Willis, in the added entry personal name 700 field. For the e-book's RDA records, we added the media type and carrier type since these would differ from a typical print book since the item we cataloged is an e-book. We also added astronaut Eugene Cernan as a contributor since he wrote the foreword to the book. For the MARC e-book record, we added different media and carrier types than the copy catalog since our media type is an e-book rather than a print book. Furthermore, we added Eugene Cernan as author of the foreword and kept the subject term “Astronauts--Soviet Union--Biography” since the LCSH recommended to not change the subject to “Cosmonauts,” even though the USSR’s space voyagers were called cosmonauts rather than astronauts. We chose this to maintain authority, even though “Astronauts” does not properly reflect the proper title of cosmonauts that the USSR called its space voyagers and even though our research patrons might become confused or misdirected by the subject heading. Researchers at our library might get confused if they saw Soviet Union astronauts as a subject heading since experts in the field of space exploration and space law know that the USSR’s space voyagers are called cosmonauts. Other alterations to subject headings for other items were considered to better tailor the RDA and MARC records to our user group of space law and space exploration researchers. We also added some summaries and notes that did not exist in the copy catalog to help our user group better understand the manifestations and their contents. Since our user group is more research-focused and knowledgeable about the subjects within our collection than typical users, we thought that more specialized and specific subject headings, notes, and summaries were essential in our catalog. 

        For the DVD’s RDA record, we added an edition designation since it was the first edition of the DVD; also, content type and more contributors were added for the DVD. In the DVD’s MARC record, we added the language field to the 008 field, an edition statement, more subject topical terms, content type, and added personal names and corporate names in the 700 and 710 fields to show all who worked on the DVD project. Having more contributors in our record will demonstrate the authority of the DVD, justifying its inclusion in our collection. Furthermore, adding all of the interviewees’ names, all of whom were astronauts, as contributors into the records will allow for researchers to use this item when doing research on the individual astronauts in the DVD documentary. Lastly, for the journal article, there were no MARC records for the article so we did not copy catalog and enhance the RDA or MARC records, but created these records. We cataloged the journal article as a computer media type, online resource carrier type, and text content type since the journal article is a text from an online academic journal website, and RDA and MARC specify to place online materials as computer media type and online resource carrier type. Since we could not copy catalog the journal article, we found certain parts, such as publication place and some of the leaders, more difficult to find since some of that information was not readily available from the publishing company or within the article itself. Furthermore, catalogers tend to catalog less individual journal articles than entire journals since patrons tend to look through journals for articles.