From: "Bremer,Robert" <bremerr@oclc.org>
Subject: OCLC Interim Policy for Cataloging Remote Access Electronic Serials
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 17:30:28 -0500

CONSER has adopted a new policy to create single records to represent
remote access electronic serials which happen to be available from
various aggregators or providers.  Multiple records were previously
created whenever a remote access electronic serial was available through
different aggregators or providers.  The change in practice concerning
the number of records for remote access electronic serials does not
change the option of utilizing the corresponding print version record to
note the availability of its online counterpart.

The guidelines concerning the content of the "CONSER aggregator-neutral
record" will be worked out this spring and OCLC practice will change to
coincide with CONSER practice.  However, to reduce the number of
multiple records which will need to be collapsed after the guidelines
are finalized, CONSER recently announced an interim policy for
cataloging online versions of electronic serials.  OCLC member libraries
should follow the policy outlined below when working with either CONSER
or non-CONSER remote access electronic serial records in WorldCat.

If there is no record for an electronic serial and you are not opting to
use the print version record, create a record for the electronic serial
based on the publisher's web site, if readily available, or otherwise
based on the version to which you have access.

If there is a record already in WorldCat representing the electronic
serial, use that record even though it may only cite an aggregator or
provider other than the one to which you have access.  If there are
multiple records already in WorldCat representing the electronic serial,
choose one of the records, preferring a CONSER record when available.
After selecting a record, you may add the URL to the master record as
permitted under your OCLC cataloging authorization or report the
addition of the URL via one of the error reporting methods outlined in
section 5 of Bibliographic Formats and Standards <
http://www.oclc.org/bibformats/en/quality/ >.  For existing
records, do not add notes, added entries, etc. for the aggregator or
provider.

Robert Bremer
bremerr@oclc.org