LCCN, December 18, 2013

ISSN 2324-6464

 

CIP, ECIP, and EPCN – What are they and what is the difference?

Part 2

 

by Schamell Padgett, Head, CIP Publisher Liaison Team 

and Karl Debus-López, Chief, U.S. Programs, Law, and Literature Division

We provided an introduction to the Cataloging in Publication (CIP) and
Electronic Cataloging in Publication (ECIP) programs in our last posting
(link).  Today we will dig a little deeper and discuss how the actual items
are ultimately received by the Library.  

Book Receipts: The Difference between ECIP and EPCN Books

In exchange for the metadata created by the Library of Congress for both the
CIP and Electronic Preassigned Control Number (EPCN) programs, the publisher
sends the Library one print copy of the book.   If the publisher
participates in the CIP E-book program, they also send us one electronic
copy of the book.  In fiscal year 2012, the Library received 104,203 books
through the CIP and EPCN programs. Books received via CIP or EPCN often
arrive at the Library prior to the copies received through the Copyright
Office.  In these situations, the CIP or EPCN book becomes the first copy
added to the Library’s permanent collections.  However, even if the CIP or
EPCN book is a duplicate and not needed by the Library of Congress for its
permanent collections, it is still put to good use.  The Library makes the
duplicate available to its exchange partners, other libraries through its
Surplus Books Program, and local school or public libraries that are able to
browse through our duplicates to select titles.

Approximately 95 percent of the titles received through the ECIP Program are
selected for the Library’s collections as they represent the “cream of the
crop” of the nation’s publishing output.  Most are categorized as “Priority
1” titles for the Library and receive expedited cataloging.  Since the ECIP
titles already have close to complete pre-publication records available in
the Library of Congress catalog, when the book is received at the Library,
technicians only need to update specific fields. They update the record to
reflect pagination, size, and other changes that may have occurred between
the time when the galley was submitted to the Library and the book was
printed by the publisher. After the record is updated, it is resubmitted
though the Library’s distribution channels so that the finalized record is
available for use by others.  

Compared to the ECIP Program, fewer titles are selected for the Library’s
permanent collections from the EPCN workflow—usually about 60 percent of
titles received through EPCN.  Still, this amount is comparable to that
selected from the materials received from the Copyright Office workflow.
After books are selected for the Library of Congress, librarians complete
the cataloging from the book in hand.  The end-stage processing is performed
expeditiously after the book in hand has been compared with the EPCN record
online. The partial EPCN record is already available and it only requires
the librarians to update the record by adding missing data elements. The
completed version of the book record contains all the elements you find in
any fully completed LC record: name authority records as needed, descriptive
and subject cataloging, call number, LC classification, Dewey Decimal
classification and Library holdings information.   The completed records are
then made available to other libraries across the nation through the
Library’s distribution channels.

Publisher Liaison Duties

The Cataloging in Publication Publisher Liaison Team in the U.S. Programs,
Law, and Literature (USPRLL) Division at the Library of Congress is
responsible for the initial receipt and inventory of more than 100,000
galleys and/or applications each year, received through the ECIP Program,
the EPCN Program, and the CIP E-books program.  Nine library technicians and
one supervisor make up the team.   As you might suspect, this is an enormous
amount of work for 10 staff to handle; but, they do a great job of keeping
up with it all. 

In addition to reviewing the ECIP galleys and the EPCN applications, the
publisher liaisons spend a large part of their day communicating with
editors from the publishing houses.  Each publisher liaison is assigned a
group of publishers according to the alphabet and is responsible for
answering phone calls and e-mail inquiries explaining ECIP and EPCN policies
and procedures and assisting with publisher compliance to the programs, such
as mailing issues or resolving discrepancies with complimentary books.
Publishers’ queries may include all sorts of topics, such as account access
issues; status checks of applications or issues regarding the processing
time; whether a publisher is to apply for new data for their new edition or
reprint; and purpose, eligibility and scope of the two different programs.
By processing most of the administrative work beforehand, this saves the
librarians’ time so that they can concentrate on cataloging.

We hope that this series of articles has provided you with a useful summary
of the purpose of the CIP Program and the differences between ECIP and EPCN.
We will be writing future articles on our ECIP Cataloging Partnership
Program and E-books program.  Should you have any questions about CIP, feel
free to contact Karl ([email protected]) or Schamell ([email protected]) or consult
the CIP home page for more information.

________________________________
 
 
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