Is anyone out there coding $7 in the 7xx linking fields of their
serial records?  Does anyone know the reason behind the existence
of this subfield in the 7xx fields?  Plans for future use?  Will
it ever become required, as opposed to optional data??

At the University of Vermont, many our serial records come with
$7 (in place of $a) when we download records into our NOTIS system
from OCLC.  After the recon process, we found some records had come
with $7 and some with $a (we're not sure why some and not others).
As a result, our input for 7xx fields is very inconsistent. We
are currently thinking about using these fields in producing cross
references to earlier and later titles on a printed periodicals
list, but our data is so inconsistent ...

I'm very curious to know what (if anything) other sites are doing
with subfield 7 in the 7xx fields and whether or not CONSER has
plans for validating this subfield in the future.

Thanks for any information.

Birdie MacLennan
Serials Cataloger
University of Vermont