June 15 2004 Meeting Minutes, Catalog Standards

Absent: Gretchen Brissette (UMPI), representative from Machias

I. Minutes: May 19 minutes were accepted without change

II. Serials Solutions update:

a. Maintenance of monthly load records: The system receives three types of files monthly (1) new records, (2) records that need adjustments and (3) records to be deleted. Laura has been putting the ‘records to be deleted’ into a review file (file 202); the file grows by 50-60 records per month and now contains 146 records. Those records are currently suppressed. The question is: how long should we keep these records before deleting? Laura would like us to look at the file and get back to her with suggestions. A number of questions were raised:

Do we own the records? (yes)

Does Serials Solutions have a recommendation? (yes, delete)

If a library reinstates a title in the file won’t Serials Solutions overlay it anyway? (yes, after about 30 days)

Would Serials Solutions overlay a suppressed record? (yes)

Laura asked that we mull over the situation and email her with comments and suggestions; she will post these on the library support page.

b. Elimination of electronic links in print serials: During the planning stages for Serials Solutions it was decided to create a new material type (e-serials) for the Serials Solutions records and to suppress the links existing in the paper serial records. Has the situation changed? There seems to be some question about the desirability of suppressing these links. Do multiple access points confuse patrons? What happens with passworded journals that have passwords imbedded in the print record? Who is going to do all the work? Should it be done? What should be done about titles (free) that have electronic access as part of the subscription but are not part of Serials Solutions? USM has instances where the paper record link works and the Serials Solutions link does not. Lynn expressed the desire to discuss this at a face-to-face meeting. Points to consider:

Clarify patron confusion between print and electronic serials

Give examples of electronic records outside Serials Solutions

USM problem titles

How to handle passworded titles

Matter tabled for now.

[As an aside, it was decided that for future meetings everyone should have computer access to URSUS and library support during the meeting]

c. Migrating attached records from print records to electronic: When new records are loaded an item record is created and suppressed to facilitate scoping, this is looked at as a place holder. Libraries can safely transfer order records for electronic titles to the new bib records for electronic serials if they wish.

d. Including print or government document serials to A to Z lists: Do we want to include print holdings and/or government documents in these lists? We will consider print first and table government documents for now. Several libraries expressed interest in doing this. A number of questions arose:

Would the lists be integrated?

Can it be campus specific?

What is involved in maintenance?

Serials Solutions does not include holdings, or links to URSUS records. Laura will find sites that have combined lists so we can see how they are presented.

e. New features: It is now possible to adjust date ranges. Sharon has done some and reported that the interface is user friendly and quick, the process is time consuming but doable. Another new feature is an overlap analysis statistical package that is very powerful

f. Other issues:

III. Material type mergers: Laura received no negative comments and actually very few comments at all regarding the proposed material type mergers so will go ahead. She will sort changes to be made to bib records into review files so we can update the codes.

Laura wants to include a definition of realia in URSUS. Lynn suggested that she use the definition found in the AACR2 glossary. Laura will put this on the library support page for discussion.

The committee agreed to add Thesis as an additional material type

VI. FYI:

a. Status of Connexion: There is no end date for Passport yet. It is possible to search Worldcat from Milcat through remote search (this capability is also available in Milser, Milacq, and Milill). We can establish individual Worldcat accounts. Laura will put up a training module for us to study. Question: how does holdings information get into OCLC? Laura will explore this and get back to us. (update: no automatic update of Worldcat holdings available. Group will discontinue pursuit of this feature at this time. LG 6/04).

b. Suppression code for checkin records: We now have a suppression code for checkin records (scode3 = n). Sharon explained how Orono had used this new code.

c. Authority control: The directors have approved funding for renewal of the OCLC authority control contract. We need to revisit updating the standards document with regard to authority control. There is a rumor that OCLC is planning to cease its authority control program. They will accept no new accounts after July 1, 2004 and will be reviewing and reevaluating the service over the next 18 months. We are fine for now. If we have to resume doing our own authority work it should be easier since the database is now in good order.

V. Standards for quality of 856 fields in URSUS: We need to reintroduce Peggi’s draft of several months ago about how to deal with 856’s that are not direct links. Laura needs examples to put on the library support page so we can discuss this at our next meeting.

VI. Other: Don’t forget to vote on cataloging enhancements list.

The next meet me call will be sometime in August (email Leslie with preferences), too many people were going to be unavailable to meet in July.

Leslie is looking for dates in late September for the in person meeting, possibly September 24. Email Leslie with suggested dates or conflicts.

Respectfully submitted,

Sheila Bearor

Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library