What is the ZombieList?
The ZombieList will track the status and format of core business reference titles, as well as if the source is still active, reincarnated with a new name, format, or publisher, and if the title is asleep (not active). Based on the core bibliographies listed below, there are about 15,000 titles that have to be reviewed.
Ultimately, I see librarians, researchers, archivists, and historians cultivating a culture of awareness when managing heritage collections of business sources by knowing the titles, identifying where preservation copies of those titles reside, and working with monographs and other formats. It all starts with capturing the core business titles and divulging their status using the ZombieList.
How much time would it take to volunteer?
This past spring, I had a library intern look up 20 business titles to see if they could be purchased. She found that it took her around 10 minutes to determine whether a title was still available and 20 minutes to see whether it has moved to a new format. To confirm that the title is asleep may take one email or a longer span of detective work.
At this time there is no intrinsic value to the ZombieList. To recognize your achievement I will send you a certificate as being a contributor. As you complete more you can become an editor and even particle owner. Working on this digital scholarship project is a way to contribute to a greater academic study. I see the ZombieList as a powerful tool for research in history and business.
We would use the following sources to identify the core business titles. These books and additional editions are widely held in library collections.
Bibliography of Business Resources
Coman, E. T. (1949). Sources of business information. New York: Prentice-Hall
Daniells, L. M. (1985). Business information sources (2nd ed., rev). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Strauss, D. W. (1988). Handbook of business information: a guide for librarians, students, and researchers. Englewood, Co: Libraries Unlimited. (I have the list of sources and their status.)
Lavin, M. R. (1992). Business information : how to find it, how to use it (2nd ed.). Phoenix, Az: Oryx Press.
Moss, R. W. (2004). Strauss’s handbook of business information: a guide for librarians, students, and researchers (2nd ed.). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
Forte, E. J., & Oppenheim, M. R. (2012). The basic business library: core resources and services (5th ed.), Eric Forte and Michael R. Oppenheim, editors. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.
Ross, C. (2013). Making sense of business reference: a guide for librarians and research professionals. Chicago: American Library Association.
Staninger, S. W., Goshorn, S. R., Boettcher, J. C., & Reference and User Services Association. (1998). Key business sources of the U.S. Government. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, Reference and User Services Association.
Expected Results: 2019 will be dedicated to creating a structure on Zotero, coordinating the volunteers, assigning the topics/subjects, educating them about Zotero and using lean management to refining the process of entry. By the end of 2019 we will demonstrate the usefulness of the database to provide information on print serials and monographs as well as electronic sources, including status, format, and whether the source was sold and/or reincarnated; see Exhibit A.
The goal will be to have all volunteers assigned a subject with at least 50% of the entry done by the teams of volunteers or myself. We will open the ZombieList on Zotero in a Historic Business Collections page. Publicizing the project over the many listservs and conferences, it should generate additional volunteers and sources.
ZombieList© 2019Boettcher is a compendium of bibliography metadata with value added by volunteers putting the metadata in an Open structure with additional information of where the citation was presented (original source), then augmented by status, and relationships to other records. The ZombieList might evolve to a relational database where others can review the original and Zombied record; include contact information to purchasing access; learn which entry owns the current rights to the dead source; other value-added.
