Treffer: Adaptable Network Cooperate Catalog for Complex Information Objects. From Single Library to a Consortium: Sharing the Management and Distribution of Information Resources.

Libraries faced with the challenge of cooperative cataloging must maintain a high degree of unification within the library network (consortium) without compromising local libraries' independence. This paper compares a traditional model for cooperative catalogs achieved by means of a Union Catalog that depends entirely on replication of data between the local libraries and the Union catalog, with a more advanced concept, the Virtual Cooperate Catalog (VCC) that includes an engine that enables a unified search and retrieval of records across diverse local library catalogs and systems. The two models are in fact complementary in their achievements. The ALEPH500 library information system contains a special component, the ALEPH-Net proposes a flexible model that can be tuned in order to achieve the best balancing between virtuality and the reality of data: a Network Cooperative Catalog (NCC). The basic conceptual and technological elements that underline the NCC consist of a distributed database design, links to other records, and an "Expand" option. (AEF)