Remote Electronic Resources and the OPAC: Illustrated by the Unisa Library Experience.

This paper describes the Unisa (University of South Africa) Library's experience with cataloging remote electronic resources, including electronic journals, electronic text files, online databases, digital images, Unisa campus Web sites, and mailing list discussions. The first section discusses the decision to add bibliographic references for remote electronic resources to the OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog), policies and criteria supporting this decision, resulting changes in workflow, standards, and the bibliographic description of these resources. Providing access to the intellectual content of remote electronic resources is addressed in the second section, including subject headings, form/genre terminology, classification numbers, and summary notes. The third section covers keeping URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) up-to-date, including the use of a linkchecker, and the development of URNs (Uniform Resource Names), the PURL (Persistent URL), and the DOI (Digital Object Identifier). (MES)