Serial Cataloging Fun Group meeting minutes
June 8, 2007
10:00- 11:00 a.m.
Library Training Room
Recorder: Renee Chin

Present: R. Chin (recorder), M. Christean, H. Cocks, B. Culbertson, S. Deng, K. Garvey-Clasby, C. Megowan, D. O'Sullivan, A. Tarango

Announcements:

• The most recent draft of the CONSER standard record documentation (5/31/07) is now available on the CONSER website.
• In the past week, there has been discussion on CONSRLST regarding the status of the unformatted >362 field in the context of the CONSER standard record. CONSER members recommended making changes to LCRI 12.3 indicating that it is not required to give the numbering in a formatted 362 field. Other members recommended that for new records, numbering should only be given in an unformatted >362 field, and that formatted >362 fields are not required when editing existing records. Be aware that details regarding the CONSER standard record are still being discussed and worked on.
• The DBO (Description Based On) note may start to include subfields in the future. New MARC fields are also being introduced for serials records.
• Melissa Beck (UCLA) will be presenting a training session on the CONSER standard record at ALA. Becky plans to attend the session and will report back to SCFG.
• Serials catalogers at UCSB received SCCTP training yesterday, conducted by Adolfo and Melissa Beck, courtesy of the UC CONSER Funnel. They are now officially doing CONSER serial maintenance and Margaret and Adolfo will be reviewing their records.
• Vicki Grahame is the new UC CONSER Funnel campus liaison for UCI.
• The TPOT editorial board identified 3 categories of documents that should be archived before the migration to Vignette: 1) Documents that are no longer being revised, 2) Procedures that need to be revised, and 3) Obsolete documents. Please start thinking about documents and procedures that we might want to archive.
  

Discussion:

1.Ordering of multiple 856 fields (Hanley and Renee)

There has been confusion recently regarding how catalogers should order >856 fields in serial records. The current instructions in the Composite serial record cataloging guidelines were not clear. As a result, the instructions were revised and SCFG agreed to accept the following order:

1. Full text (within each category, if coverages are the same, alphabetize by package name)

a) Most recent coverage
b) Moving wall
c) Static coverage (i.e., ceased coverage, backfiles, etc.) (if coverages are the same, alphabetize by package name)

2. Selected full text (within each category, if coverages are the same, alphabetize by package name)

a) Most recent coverage
b) Moving wall
c) Static coverage (i.e., ceased coverage, backfiles, etc.)

3. GPO access

2. NASIG 2007 Conference debrief (Margaret and Adolfo)

Margaret and Adolfo presented the highlights of their experiences at the 2007 NASIG Conference. To start, Margaret noted that past NASIG conferences usually held a spotlight on the "next big thing" (e.g., some hot topics from the past couple of years included SFX, wikis, and blogs). However, this year seemed to be an exception where the recurring themes seemed to focus on the appreciation of libraries and their missions; and, refining and simplifying processes in the face of new technologies. Below are some summaries of some of the sessions that Margaret and Adolfo attended and what they felt were the highlights of each:

Vision session : State of Emergency (Alternate title: The paranoia presentation)
Presenter: Karen Schneider
Both Margaret and Adolfo agreed that Karen Schneider's talk was the highlight of the NASIG conference, and possibly also the most controversial. In her talk, Schneider outlined the technological trends and events of the last decade (e.g., Hawaii outsourcing fiasco, Disney copyright ruling, Google Library Project, etc.) that led libraries down the slippery slope of leasing content instead of owning it, and the problems and challenges that libraries now face as a result. Schneider advocates that librarians need to return to being the "curatorial stewards of content." It is interesting to note that UC's participation in the Google Library project was mentioned as an example of this troubling trend. However, Adolfo pointed out there were "holes" in the story: The task of digitizing UC's vast collections in-house would be such a colossal undertaking that it's not difficult to understand why UC jumped at the opportunity, especially since one of the contract terms requires Google to provide in return, free digital copies of all UC materials scanned.

Session: Column People: What's their Future in a World of Blogs? The Role of Columnists in Academic Journals
Presenters: Allan Scherlen (Appalachian State University) and Bob Nardini (Coutts Information Services)
This session examined the way that blogs are causing the roles and lines to blur between columnists and bloggers. Are columnists becoming a thing of the past? An example of this trend can be illustrated by a serial publication that Margaret and Hanley recently worked on, called: Infoworld. Infoworld first began as print publication in 1980. It was simultaneously published in print and online for a few years, and is now an integrating resource in the form of a website. Faithful readers complained that previous features of the print version, such as columns, appeared to have been lost, but in actuality, the columns had morphed into blogs.

Session: Little Things Mean A Lot
Presenter: Bob Persing, University of Pennsylvania Library, Eve Davis, EBSCO Information Services, and David Horwitz, SAGE Publications
In a library world facing "big issues," we often forget that "little things mean a lot" and that they do make a difference. In this session, librarians, vendors, and publishers discussed and shared the "little things" (i.e., annoyances) that bothered them in day-to-day operations with each other.

Session: Successive Entry, Latest Entry or None of the Above? How the MARC21 Authorities Format, the Concept of a Work and FRBR Revitalize Serials Management
Presenters: Katherine C. Adams (Yale University) and Britta Santamauro (Yale University) Katherine Adams argued that OPACs don't work for serials and proposed a FRBR model for presenting serials in a meaningful way, both to the public and in a library catalog. Using the troublesome serial title we all know and love: The Atlantic monthly, as an example, she successfully collapsed 37 manifestations of The Atlantic monthly into one succinct "superworkspression record."

Session: It Takes a Community"
Presenter: Vicki Reich
Vicki Reich described two alternatives to licensing: LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe) and CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS).

Session: We all are Winners: Training Silents to Millennials to work as a Team
Presenters: JoAnne Deeken, University of Tennessee Hodges Library, and Paula L.Webb, Delta State University In the workforce today, there are four different generations working side by side: the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and the Millennials. This session offered explanations on the learning styles of each generation and how best to teach, manage, and/or work with them. Adolfo pointed out that SCFG is currently made up of all 4 generations (including our student assistants who are Millennials) and mentioned some of the challenges he had to be aware of as a manager working with staff representing all 4 generations.

 

Next meeting:
August 10, 2007
10:00-11:00am
Library Training Room
Recorder: Margaret Christean