MARC Link and OCLC have been awarded a joint contract for the conversion of the guardbook catalogue at Cambridge University Library.

The Greensleeves Project is Cambridge University Library's in-house retrospective conversion project. It was established in October 1994 as a pilot project to begin the conversion of the University Library's Guardbook Catalogue into online catalogue records.

The Guardbook Catalogue was begun in the 1860s, and contains material of primary academic interest held by the University Library published between 1501 and 1977. It consists of 1234 volumes, containing more than 2 million printed catalogue slips for over a million actual books and periodicals.

"Thanks to a generous donation of £800,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, augmented by £200,000 from the Isaac Newton Trust, the Library users can expect to see the entire guardbook catalogue online within the next four years," said Peter Fox, University Librarian.

"The Library's retrospective conversion project, the Greensleeves Project, has been working on the guardbook conversion for several years, but over 60 per cent of the pre-1978 General Catalogue still remains to be converted.

"The grants from the Mellon Foundation and the Newton Trust mean that this work can now be contracted out to a commercial conversion company, and thus completed much more quickly than would be possible in-house."

These records will considerably improve subject access to material catalogued in the guardbook catalogue.


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