POLICY STATEMENT

This policy presents and explains the procedures and regulations followed in cataloging, classifying and indexing Arab information sources to serve the university's objectives in the current and future educational and research process for faculty members, students and researchers; as cataloging, classification and indexing serves these goals.

BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION

The cataloging process is performed at libraries to create metadata of information resources. It is a combination of actions needed to develop, manage and maintain a catalogue of bibliographic records of library holdings. The catalogue, a database of books, journals, reports, thesis and other items is created, maintained and updated regularly following relevant standards and guidelines as the standardized cataloging and classification activities at Central Library provide a foundation to easy access and retrieval of library holdings in Arabic.

SCOPE AND PURPOSE

The policy applies and governs the cataloging and classification practices at the Central Library.

The main purpose of this policy is to define and present the policy, procedures and regulations for cataloging, and classification of Arabic information resources in Central Library at Prince Sultan University.

PRINCIPLES OF THE POLICY

The Cataloging units at the CL-MC and CL-CW follow with international cataloging standards, including emerging standards and processes for bibliographic and authority records recommended for materials available in Arabic Language.

The cataloging staff at PSU Central Library review cataloging policies and procedures on a regular basis.

The staff catalog library materials quickly and accurately and perform original and copy cataloging of library items in all formats.

The staff maintain quality control of records (bibliographic and authority work) in the database for users to access and use library materials.

DEFINITIONS

Cataloging: It is the process of providing technical descriptions of information sources in order to make them easily accessible to students, faculty members, and researchers. Cataloging is divided into two parts, namely descriptive cataloging and objective cataloging.

Objective Cataloging: It is concerned with the objective description of information materials through subject headings related to the information material, or by content classification number related to its specialization; To gather similar content in one place for easy access.

Descriptive Cataloging: It is concerned with describing the physical details of a book (such as title, author's name, publication data...)

Indexing: It is the process of preparing indexes or preparing index entries that lead to accessing information within its sources. This process includes examining the

RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

The cataloging units at CL-MC and CL-CW are responsible for creating, and updating cataloging policy.

The policy will be shared with cataloging librarians at both the campuses

PROCEDURES FOR HANDLING POLICY VIOLATION

Cataloging and classification are considered very important tasks at libraries. It requires consistent adherence to cataloging rules. In cases of violations of rules and policy, data should be corrected as soon as possible with the consent of Library directors.

REFERENCES