---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 16:34:00 EST
From: dej@LIBRARY.ATT.COM
Subject: holdings conversion

The AT&T Library Network will be upgrading its holdings to conform with
the USMARC holdings format. One of the difficulties we've encountered is
in obtaining publication pattern data for the titles that we hold so that
we can also do predictive check-in. Initially and perhaps, naively, we
thought that we could purchase this data (that is, the information that
would typically go in the 853-855 fields, including frequency and
regularity, enumeration and chronology captions, number of units per
higher level, calendar change, etc.). The people that we've talked to tell
us that no one has come up with a comprehensive set of publication
patterns to date, although Faxon may provide such an offering in the
future.

I've recently learned about the SERIALST group and this is an attempt at
broadening our search for this information. If not commercially available,
is there an established group of libraries that is exchanging this kind of
information?

In Gail McMillan's "Retrospective Conversion of Serials: Implementing the
MARC Holdings Format", that appeared in Vol. 9, no. 3 (1992) of Technical
Services Quarterly, there's a reference to a project between Virginia
state library, OCLC and Virginia Tech's University libraries that involves
converting MARC holdings to union list information. Are publication
patterns being collected as a by-product of this effort?

We could only imagine how big this job would be if we were to start from
scratch. After reading Gail's article I have a better understanding of how
BIG.  On the positive side, the article ends on a high note saying that
coding holdings does not have to be as onerous as it used to be in the
early '80s. We certainly hope so. The question is, what's available out
there that will make our conversion easier or "less onerous"?

Also, I'm aware that this group may have discussed many issues related to
holdings, on-line check-in and other related topics in the past but being
new to the group, I've missed all this discussion. I would like to browse
this information, if archived. Is sending a "INDEX SERIALST" command and
then requesting the appropriate files, the right way to do this? Can I do
more than one GET in a single mail request?

Any information, pointers, past experiences and advice are appreciated.
You may send mail directly to me and I'll collect the information and post
to SERIALST, if sufficient interest in this topic.

Thank you,

Delma Puttress
AT&T Library Network
Internet: dej@library.att.com