Cornell University Library has received an $830,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to digitize the remaining records in its card catalog and add them to its online catalog.

The project is expected to make known to the world at large more than a quarter of a million bibliographic records for items in Cornell's collections, including a large number of humanities and social science titles in such areas as bibliography, political science and religion.

"Putting our social science and humanities holdings online is a critical step in raising the visibility and use of Cornell's outstanding collection, which is one of the largest in the country," says Cornell University Librarian Sarah Thomas. "The online catalog is a vital link between the traditional and digital library."

With close to 7 million volumes in its collections shared among 19 unit libraries, Cornell University Library (CUL) is one of the 10 largest academic research libraries in North America. Beginning in the 1970s, CUL began converting records from card to machine-readable format, and since 1983 all records for newly acquired materials have been added to the library's online catalog. However, more than 276,000 bibliographic records for items in Cornell's collections exist only on paper cards filed in traditional, heavy wooden cabinets. That means those titles have no electronic bibliographic record in national or international databases.

Increasingly, Cornell librarians are finding that if it's not online, it's invisible. They report that most undergraduates, and even some scholars, ignore the card catalog when conducting research, and they worry that, without an online record, researchers and scholars outside the university community may not be aware Cornell has certain items in its collections. But as CUL has converted its holdings and made them widely known through its online catalog and international bibliographic databases, such as Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), WorldCat and RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network), there has been a significant increase in their use. For example, after the library converted the catalog records for its extensive collection of pamphlets and documents relating to the French Revolution, there has been a dramatic rise in international visitors eager to consult those unique resources.

With the support of the Mellon Foundation, CUL will convert all its card catalog records for titles classified according to the Library of Congress classification system. The resulting online records will highlight some of Cornell's most valuable and unique books, including material housed in the library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. The subject areas encompassed by those titles include bibliography; geography; the history of science, medicine and technology; social and political science; and religion.

The card catalog conversion project will be completed early in 2005. For more information, contact Karen Calhoun, assistant university librarian for technical services, at (607) 255-9915 or ksc10@cornell.edu .