Minutes of theALCTS -- Serials Section
Committee To Study Serials Cataloging

American Library Association 1995 Midwinter Meeting
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Monday, February 6, 1995

Members present: Norma Fair (Chair), Ann Ercelawn, Marguerite Horn, Margaret Mering, Ann Vidor
Interns present: Joe Altimus, Carolynne Myall
Liaisons present: Jean Altschuler (CC:DA), Regina Reynolds (LC)

Agenda Items

Minutes distribution

The recent problems of getting the Committee's minutes mounted on the ALCTS fileserver were discussed. N. Fair will send a letter to Karen Muller expressing the Committee's concern with the recurring lack of timeliness in getting the minutes mounted on the ALCTS fileserver. N. Fair will also revise the Guidelines for distribution of the minutes to specify how the minutes should be submitted electronically to the ALCTS Office. The intern or committee member who submits the minutes will also be directed to wait four weeks for the minutes to be mounted on the fileserver before contacting the Chair to follow up on the problem.

Report on Committee recommendation to revise AACR2 12.3D1

N. Fair reported that Judy Kuhagen at the Library of Congress responded that LC's assumption is that serial catalogers have already been interpreting the rule in the broader sense of "designation" instead of the narrower sense of "numbering," but they would not oppose forwarding the recommendation for revision. N. Fair subsequently forwarded the recommendation to CC:DA and found out from Frank Sadowski that the recommendation was on the CC:DA agenda. J. Altschuler reported that CC:DA had considered the recommendation and decided that the proposed change would be cosmetic, as the intention of the rule is obvious. As a result CC:DA is not forwarding the recommendation.

LC/NSDP Report (Regina Reynolds)

LC and CONSER will implement the variable field changes of format integration on March 1, 1995.

LC revised the RI for rule 25.5B last summer, making the directions less prescriptive for the choice of qualifier.

LC's treatment of Shepard Citations publications as monographs in editions will change to serials as each title is recataloged in the next few years. Cataloging will be based on the first bound volume.

LC seeks input from serialists in an effort to develop cataloging guidelines for electronic serials. The key questions are multiple electronic versions and the use of the MARC 856 field. Recent recommendations of the CONSER Electronic Resources Task Force are that the CONSER project should include electronic serials and that CONSER and LC should propose multiple electronic versions solutions, RIs, rules and MARC proposals, as needs are determined. CONSER should also investigate technological developments, such as URNs (Universal Resource Names) and the use of TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) headers in catalog records.

Some electronic serials will be mounted on the LC servers in a prototype project. The project will include some English language titles that are freely distributed electronically. The project will be concerned with issues such as the archiving of the titles and the decision of whether to catalog titles that are only temporarily stored.

NSDP has cataloged about 170 remote access serials as part of the ISSN process. alirs of NSDP records should remember that NSDP is not always aware of multiple electronic versions when a particular version is cataloged.

ISSN applications are available online through LC Marvel, as well as information about ISSNs. An interactive application form for ISSNs is in development.

A fixed field medium code has been approved by the ISSN directorate, to identify various media (text, remote access, CD-ROM, braille, etc.). The code will not appear in ISSN records until the next phase of format integration is implemented.

Some countries have decided to charge a fee for the assignment of ISSNs. NSDP will not charge such a fee.

The LC Serial Record Division is working on an internal reorganization that will probably result in NSDP becoming a U.S. non-government imprints cataloging section.

CONSER Report (Jean Hirons)

The CONSER Editing Guide (CEG) and CONSER Cataloging Manual (CCM) have both been revised, and the revisions will be available in early February. A CEG update later this year will include the new core, minimal and full record definitions.

LC is setting up a task force on the cataloging of conference publications. The task force will include both monographs and serials people.

The CONSER Policy Committee will look at restructuring membership guidelines sometime this year.

A PCC/CPSO task force on documentation will be examining all LCRIs for chapter 12, so please submit suggestions to Jean Hirons (jhir@loc.gov).

Ann Ercelawn asked when the CEG or CCM will be included in the Catalogers Desktop product. Jean responded that probably late this year they would appear.

CC:DA Report (Jean Altschuler)

CC:DA discussed the Committee to Study Serials Cataloging's proposal to revise rule 12.3D1 (No designation on the first issue of a serial). The proposal to change the word "numbering" to "designation" in the second sentence, was determined to be largely cosmetic and it was decided not to pass it on to the Joint Steering Committee for consideration.

A CC:DA task force is being formed to review guidelines for publishers of conference proceedings and to consider possible rule changes resulting from the 1994 Preconference on the Bibliographic Control of Conference Proceedings.

The Communication and Outreach Task Force is drafting a pamphlet introducing CC:DA to the library and non-library communities. The task force is also developing guidelines for submitting rule change proposals to CC:DA in paper and electronic formats. All documents are to be finalized at the 1995 annual conference. They will be distributed in paper and electronic formats.

Brian Schottlaender will be replacing Janet Swan Hill as the ALA representative to the Joint Steering Committee.

MARBI Reports

A. Ercelawn reported on the Saturday MARBI meeting.

Proposal 95-1 addressed changes to field 856 (Electronic Location and Access) in the USMARC bibliographic format. Subfield $u will not include the term URL (Uniform Resource Locator), which preceded the actual URL. The URN will go in a numeric field at the record level, not in the 856.

Discussion Paper 80, to define a component item entry field in the USMARC bibliographic format, was also discussed. The Paper is available on LC Marvel.

There was an announcement that an electronic version of the concise MARC formats is available on MARVEL.

J. Altimus reported on the Sunday MARBI meeting.

Proposal 95-2, to define subfield $v for form subdivision in the USMARC formats, was discussed. Concerns about implementation were expressed, and some minor changes to the proposal were introduced in order to clarify the scope of the subfield and resolve conflicts with other MARC fields that contain form subdivision information. The committee voted to pass the proposal on with minor changes.

Report on Serials Cataloging Institutes (Ann Vidor)

Publicity for the Institutes has gone out, but ALCTS is experimenting by only distributing an electronic brochure. A. Vidor advised those present to spread the word that a printed brochure and registration form will not be distributed. A. Vidor will send an electronic brochure/registration form to anyone who requests one from her. [A. Vidor voiced concern about the lack of a printed brochure at the Serials Section Executive Board meeting. The Board felt there should be more publicity and Julia Blixrud conveyed this at the ALCTS Board meeting. ALCTS agreed to do more publicity and a printed brochure has recently been sent to ALCTS members and other publicity has been done.]

Usefulness of reports from other meetings (CC:DA, MARBI, NASIG, etc.)

There was agreement that there is great value to having reports from the CC:DA and LC/NSDP/CONSER liaisons. Those reports provide a prompt for the Committee and the audience to ask questions and receive more elaborate comments from the liaisons as appropriate. Some questioned the value of reports from NASIG meetings. The value of MARBI reports varies in relation to the topic. The Committee agreed that MARBI and CC:DA will continue to appear on the agenda, and that those reports would continue to vary in length depending on each meeting's relevance to serials cataloging. The LC/NSDP liaison and CONSER reporter may provide printed copies of their reports in the future. Reports from NASIG meetings were considered to be of less value to the Committee and will not routinely appear on the agenda.

ALA Goal 2000

N. Fair introduced this topic to inform those present about it and to start the members thinking about what contributions the Committee could make toward the goal.

Discussion topic: Cataloging of electronic serials and use of tag 856

M. Mering moderated the discussion. She began by posing three questions: What are electronic serials? What types are being cataloged? and What are the issues in cataloging electronic serials?

Discussion on the nature of electronic serials revealed agreement that listservs are not serials, but that electronic publications such as ACQNET are serials because they result from an editorial process on various sources. Digests of listservs were identified as possible serials because all of the messages of a day are delivered in one package. One person wondered if serial catalogers are the best equipped for handling electronic publications that fall into such gray areas. Interactive serials were cited as another type of electronic publication that falls into the gray area.

Discussion about the cataloging of electronic serials revealed that:
--A few catalogers present had cataloged electronic serials
--Very few institutions are archiving electronic serials
--Multiple versions of electronic serials are causing problems in cataloging (ca talogers generally believe that users want fewer records)
--No cataloger present had used the MARC 856 yet

A question about the use of the 538 and 856 fields was answered by referring to OCLC's Technical bulletin 206. J. Hirons also reminded those present that CONSER and LC serial cataloging would reflect format integration starting on March 1, 1995, so notes about system information would then appear in the 538 field instead of the 500. R. Reynolds ended by wondering if the definition of a serial is adequate given the new publishing practices. She believes that it is a good question for the Committee to consider.

The discussion topic of title changes was postponed due to lack of time.

Topics for 1995 annual meeting

Several topics were identified for possible inclusion in the summer agenda: --Cataloging of electronic serials
--Revision of Chapter 12 Rule Interpretations
--Format integration
--AUTOCAT and SERIALST will be reviewed to find topics of current interest
* * * * * * * * * * Summary of the ALCTS Serials Section Committee to Study Serials Cataloging, Monday, February 6, 1995

The Committee revised its guidelines for the distribution of minutes to provide a timelier method of distribution. The Chair will write to Karen Muller to express the Committees concern over the frequent delays in loading minutes to the ALCTS fileserver. The Committee took no further action on the proposal to change the wording of Rules 12.3D1 after learning that CC:DA has decided that the proposed change would be cosmetic only, and will not forward it for further action. The Committee heard reports from liaisons from the Library of Congress and CC:DA, as well as brief reports of events at the MARBI meetings of February 4 and 5. Ann Vidor reported on the progress toward the Serials Cataloging Institutes to be held in Atlanta and San Francisco later this year. The Committee discussed the value of reports from CC:DA, MARBI and determined that their value varies from year to year, but they should always be given time on the agenda. Reports from NASIG meetings will not routinely appear on the agenda. An exchange of ideas among the Committee and the audience about the cataloging of electronic serials showed that there is still relatively little experience in cataloging them. A number of questions were posed about the nature of electronic serials and the adequacy of existing cataloging practices and rules to cope with them. The Committee identified several topics for the Annual meeting, including cataloging of electronic serials, title changes, revision of Chapter 12 Rule Interpretations, and format integration.