I am sharing the following minutes with members of SERIALST. I
hope that enough of the members are intersted in union listing to
spark some queries and discussion.

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Date:     April 29, 1992

To:       Members of the OCLC Union Listing Users Group OULUG

From:     Johanna Bowen, Serials Librarian - SUNY at Cortland

Re:       Minutes of the meeting held at ALA midwinter in
          the San Antonio Public Library, Jan. 27, 1992

NOTE:  NEXT MEETING, ALA,  MONDAY JUNE 29, 6pm - 8pm

     Location will be listed in ALA program as an UNO event

Brief Minutes:

A. Decided upon the following topics for the annual meeting:

          -Discussion of Offline products and their use in
          libraries.  What use is made of Fiche, CD-ROM, paper
          products?

          -What is the projected participation in the Union List
               in 3 years?         5 years?

          -Discussion of the existence of regionally approved
          notes.

          -General discussion of current Union Listing problems.

          -Report from OCLC.

B.  General discussion topics in San Antonio included:

          -New union lists are still starting up and facing the
classic choice of whether to build an LDR for each format a title
is held in or to attach all holdings for all formats of a title
to the record for the original, paper copy of a title.

          -A serious consideration for the future of union
listing will be the effort and cost to individual libraries of
maintaining their holdings in a local system and on OCLC.  Staff
have to learn and  use different holdings input standards.  The
goal is to have the ability to upload  consistent holdings
information using the data from an initial maintenance update.
An example of the different workflow necessary for a serials
staff member would be: (1) Search PRISM for bibliographic record;
(2) Use FIRST system for LDR on OCLC; (3) Create a local holdings
statement in a local system's format eg. NOTIS or VTLS.  Every
subsequent change to holdings information requires keying in data
on at least two different systems and having familiarity and
proficiency with the protocols of at least two different systems.

C. Report by Linda Arnold of OCLC Resource Sharing.
     Linda introduced Chris Grabenstatter whose assignment at
OCLC will include responsibility for managing the implementation
of US MARC Format for Holdings and the move of the Union List
Subsystem to PRISM.

     OCLC has a goal of providing a seamless integrated system in
which an LDR can be created in Cataloging mode in PRISM.

     ILL will migrate to PRISM first and will include links which
will allow ILL users to look at Union list displays and the NAD.
Creation and editing of LDR's will remain in FIRST system for
some time after that date.

     SULOP offline products were not expected to change until the
migration of Union Listing to PRISM but a new product is
available.  CD-ROM versions of union lists are available from
OCLC, in addition to paper, fiche and tape.

     Linda Arnold would like to hear from anyone who bought and
has used the USNP National Newspaper List (3rd). She is
interested in who is using it (ILL, Reference or Cataloging?) and
how it is used.

     The new field "pres" was discussed.  This is the
preservation field. OCLC is waiving the profile charge to belong
to the KPMP (Keep, Preserve, Maintain and Protect), the
preservation union list group. This very specialized field and
topic is explained in greater detail in the "OCLC guide to
preservation data" and the "Union List: users manual."

     Chris Grabenstatter wanted us to include information and
informal discussion of "USMARC format for holdings" in our future
meetings. Libraries with OPACS and automated Serials control are
already using different protocols and procedures and formats.
How will we analyze our work flow and patterns to contribute any
helpful information to OCLC design plans.  We need to know how
many people are retaining and updating at the level 3 (summary)
or level 4 (detailed) information.

     If union listers are to contribute to the dialogue on
implementation of holdings formats they must be aware of events
which involve the standards tools and Format tools necessary for
implementation. Everyone is waiting for the completion of Z39.71.

     Although very few union list queries have been seen on the
major listserver the group wondered whether SERIALST would be a
good forum for union listers to get rapid advice and to share
experiences?

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Ed. note:  SERIALST welcomes discussion and commentary on Union Listing,
particularly in regard to USMARC Holdings Format and standardizing methods
for exchanging holdings data between local systems & the utilities!  It's
true, there hasn't been much discussion about Union Listing on SERIALST
lately -- but that doesn't mean we've never addressed this topic.  If
anyone is interested in some retrospective discussion on *Union Lists
and Holdings Format* (those are the keywords), check the SERIALST logs
for July 1991.  Much of the earlier discussion evolved out of issues raised
at OULUG and other union list forums at the ALA '91 Annual Meeting...
So, by all means, talk, and bring us up to date!!  -- Birdie