This question is for those that are using Innovative/Millenium Serials
with Marc Format for Holdings Data.    Ryerson has been running MilSer
for 3 years, and we now want to convert our retrospective holdings into
full MARC.  Currently they are free-text summaries (Lib Has 1971 to the
present) with no details about gaps/missing issues, etc.   We are in the
helpdesk queue waiting for an export profile to be set up.

Will 863 fields will be generated from the check-in cards when the
record is exported?    For our currently checked-in  titles we don't see
these fields display in MilSer, so we can't tell that they are really
there.  But my understanding is that this information is stored in MARC
format as the issues are received.

Do you display the 866 field to to the public (i.e. $a1976 to the
present.  $zsome gaps) rather than 863 fields containing the detailed
gaps?  863s in records with broken holdings create a cluttered display
that is difficult to read.  If you are displaying that information, do
your users like it?  Is there a way to suppress those fields from the
OPAC but retain them for reporting purposes?

I would also appreciate if someone could critique a test record that I
have created.  Does Millenium automatically generate the NISO standard
punctuation, or does the standard have to be manually input?

If anyone can be of assitance (or chooses to be!), we would be very
appreciative.  Having no experience with this format is rather
challenging; new questions are arising each day.  Even if anyone has any
hints or tricks to share regarding the implementation of MFHD into
Innovative, it would be a help.

You may contact me off list:  jschmidt@ryerson.ca

Thanks very much,

Jane Schmidt, Serials Librarian Intern
Collections Team
Ryerson University Library