-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Serials and the Internet
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 10:23:41 -0800
From: Julie Iliff <anjmi@uaa.alaska.edu>
Organization: Consortium Library at UAA

Dear Serials Catalogers,

I am new to this list.  We are just beginning to explore cataloging
serials on the Internet, and I am hoping this will be a good place for
some ideas and answers with regard to these Internet serials.

We have found seriality to be one of our most difficult cataloging
problems in dealing with Internet resources, especially with regard to
maintenance of added and changed URLs.

I would be most grateful for some input on how you are dealing with
these issues ... especially if you can provide me with examples.

Here is our logical path so far...

1)  We have decided to create a monographic record whenever appropriate
and feasible (i.e., often a serial title will have distinctive titles
(and differing subject headings) for each issue.)

2)  If there exists a contents web page, listing the various issues, we
prefer to use that.
856 42     $3 List of issues:  $u http://www…

3) If there is no such contents web page, the Acquisitions Librarian
contacts the agency webmaster and requests an intermediary page.  (We
have not experienced much luck with this!)

4)  (Worst Case Scenario - which would appear to be the most common
scenario with serials.)
Since there is, to the best of our knowledge, no way of inserting URLs
into the serials checkin boxes/claiming program in our local DRA system,
we are then left to list the URLs to each issue individually.

Inherent Difficulties With Listing Each URL Individually (as an item
record):

a) Most serials have lots of issues!  (We made the decision to limit to
ten URLs, as that's what will fit on one screen.)

b) URLS vs. PURLs.
It is our experience (at least in Alaska) that the PURLs take longer to
load.  Additionally, it has been our experience that the PURLs are a
misnomer - good in theory, but not "persistent."  Therefore, having a
PURL often simply means that it take longer to get to that "404 not
found" error message.

We made the decision to limit to ten URLs (total) in DRA.
On OCLC for those items with both a URL and a PURL for each item, since
other catalogers tend to prefer the PURLs, we decided to create an 856
for 10 URLs and 10 PURLs, alternating with URL first and PURL second,
from most recent issue on.  However, in DRA, we decided to edit out the
PURLs, since we have found the PURLs to be slower.

c) Serials tend to have the most dynamic (i.e., changing) URLs out of
types of materials with which we have experimented.  For example, the
Acquisitions Librarian initially found 11 serial titles with their
respective URLs to the issues.  Out of the 11 serial titles, only 3 of
the titles made it to the Technical Assistant without a change in the
URLs.
Included are some of these obvious (and common) maintenance issues:
1) Links that become broken links.
2) New issues that need links added.  (How does one know, if there is
nothing in the DRA claim system to alert the Technician, that a new link
to a new issue is needed?)
3) Sometimes, the web publisher simply uses the same URL for a new
issue.
An example:
Originally, the cataloger cataloged the issues like this:
856 40  $3 2000: $u http://www…
856 40  $3 1999: $u http://www…
And then for the year 2001, the web publisher decides to only post the
most recent issue, using the same URL that was used for year 2000, and
completely cuts off 1999 and 2000.  For 1999, we would get an error
report to alert us that it was a dead link.  However, for the 2000 /
2001 change, we would not be notified of a problem, because as far as
the computer knows, there is no problem - the URL still works.  (It just
does not point you to the place indicated by the note.)

d)  When a paper serial dies but either continues or is reborn as an
Internet serial, my inclination is to close out the old paper record and
create a new Internet record.  Is this what most are doing in these
circumstances?

TIA!

Julie Moore Iliff
Cataloger
Alaska Resources Library and Information Services
Anchorage, Alaska
907.786.4628