The key objectives of the Programme, as summarized on their website, are:
"- To ensure the continuation of essential processes and services, i.e. creating, maintaining and providing access to catalogue data;
- to make these processes and services more efficient and effective; and
- to provide a basis for future developments which will support the Library's strategic objectives and be in line with the Library's information systems strategy."
The Library of Congress Catalogs can be searched using four different methods: a) Word Search; b) Browse Search; c) Command Search; and d) Experimental Search System (ESS).
a) The Word Search's Z39.50 Gateway provides a simple search form for authors and title queries and an advanced search form allowing the use of Boolean operators (and, or, and not), with searches for subjects, names, titles, series, notes, and various numbers. Some of these records have direct links to digitized materials.
b) The Browse Search allows the user to browse and then select from alphabetical indexes for the Library's catalogs, including subject cross references. One can browse by subject, author (personal, corporate), conference, title, series, Library of Congress Classification (partial call number), Dewey Decimal Number, and standard numbers like the ISBN (international standard book number), the ISSN (international standard serial number), and the LCCN (Library of Congress control number).
c) The Command Search allows the use of commands which can be typed to search for words and to browse indexes for the Library's catalogs, and for additional non-catalog files. This method provides access to LOCIS (the Library of Congress Information System, which is the original mainframe-based retrieval system), with browsable indexes, word searches, Boolean combinations, various display options, set creation, and advanced features for limiting and refining search results. This method requires the Internet Telnet function (either Telnet or tn3270) in order to connect to LOCIS. The Telnet capability comes with most WWW browsers, but must be configured.
d) The Experimental Search System (ESS), currently located in the LC Web research and development area, supports relevancy-ranked searching of catalog records, as well as sorting and e-mailing search results. Special search features include analyzing results by subject heading and "browsing" the shelf for items with similar LC call numbers. Some of these records have direct links to digitized materials, including selected full-text, image, video and audio files, at the Library of Congress and elsewhere. This is a test system and results may not be all inclusive.
The catalog records relate to books (9,543,910 as of December 10, 1998), maps (171,756), serials (825,664), prints and photographs (68,135), manuscripts (10,698), music (209,142), visual materials (278,771) and software (6,318). As explained on the website: