Date: 08 Sep 1993 23:58:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Julia C. Blixrud" <jblix@CNI.ORG>
Subject: Serial tables of contents

Cross-posted to PACS-L and SERIALST:

The Serials Industry Systems Advisory Committee (SISAC)
at its meeting next week will be discussing a request
for comment on a Book Industry Communications (UK)
project to test the use of a two dimensional bar code
representation of journal tables of contents.  The PDF417
technology can include about 2,000 ASCII characters and
the experiment will be using labels or plain paper to
test the scanning.  Data elements to be included in the
bar code are journal title, publisher, article title,
authors, and beginning page no.

Naturally, SISAC has already sent a recommendation
that journal article identification include the SICI
(Serial Item and Contribution Identifier, ANSI/NISO
Z39.56-1991), but there are other questions about the
possibility of bar coding tables of contents that were
raised by a SISAC task force that met last month.
(We are also aware that some journal publishers are also
providing tables of contents over the internet, and of
course we are aware of table of contents services.)

We seek some additional input from the library, systems,
and publishing communities,

1.  Would it be useful to have bar-coded tables of contents?
    Why?  Why not?
2.  If not bar-coded, in what other electronic format?
3.  What data elements should be included?
    Suggestions include: SICI, full text article title,
    authors, beginning pages, abstract
4.  What format should the data take?  ASCII? MARC? SGML?
    How should the data be delimited?
5.  Would data be stored?  Where? In bibliographic records?
6.  Do libraries have the staff resources to scan TOC data
    for each issue as it is received?
7.  Would system vendors be able to develop applications to
    receive and process TOC data?
8.  Would publishers be willing to supply bar-coded TOC?
    (N.B.  SISAC has worked hard to encourage publishers to
    include the SISAC bar code symbol for easy issue
    identification, but those bar codes are not yet universal.)
9.  Where should a TOC barcode be placed?  Current TOC?  Cover?
10. Is there merit in retaining information about the printed
    table of contents presentation?  (e.g., trade magazines
    usually organize their content pages under section headers
    and regular features or columns).
11. What is the relationship of article identification (i.e.,
    a bibliographic citation) to a table of contents (i.e., an
    organized presentation of information).

Too many questions for one message, I know.  But if any immediate
thoughts come to mind, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Julia Blixrud
SISAC Document Delivery Task Force Chair and
 de facto chair of the Expanded Table of Contents Task Force

--

   Julia C. Blixrud, Program Officer
   Council on Library Resources
   1400 16th Street, N.W., Suite 510
   Washington, D.C.   20036-2217
   Internet:  jblix@cni.org
     (202) 483-7474