Over 90% of our library’s collection is state government documents. State and federal document call numbers are stored in the MARC 086 field, which is not currently displayed in Vega Discover records. Call numbers are like a book’s address; without them, our users are not able to navigate our collection to find the resources they need. Imagine a public library catalog without Dewey Decimal numbers, or an academic library catalog that doesn’t display Library of Congress call numbers. It’s impossible to sort through a collection of thousands of documents without them.

While this issue directly affects government libraries like ours, it also impacts public and academic libraries. The catalog records that we create are used by a system of libraries (called “depository libraries”) that also hold state government documents in their collections. If this issue is not resolved, they would also be unable to use Vega Discover with its full functionality.

Call numbers are essential pieces of information that are required to create usable and accessible library catalogs. Our users, and library users across state government libraries, will be lost without this field properly displayed on the public-facing catalog.