Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 14:05:17 -0500 (CDT)
From: cameron campbell <cc21@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU>
Subject: CONSER Core Record Proposal

It was with great interest that the serialists at the University of Chicago
met to discuss CONSER's proposal for a core record.  The group included
serials catalogers from the main and law libraries, serials orders and
recording staff, the Head of the Cataloging Department and the Head of
Technical Services.  Our interest in this issue is prompted by several facts:
first, we make very heavy use of CONSER records in our cataloging activity;
second, these records receive minimal review and thus any changes in their
content might prompt revisions in our policies, procedures and staffing
assignments; and third, these records support our orders and check in
operations.  Moreover, although we are not a CONSER library, we do follow the
CONSER cataloging guidelines quite closely and have some interest in
participating in this program.

The overall reaction was positive.  We are also interested in seeing
similar guidelines for serials in other formats (microforms, computer files,
A/V, etc.) as soon as they are defined.  The following points address specific
issues which the proposal raises:

1.  The law catalogers expressed some concern over the loss of the nature of
entire work codes (008/24), especially since the subject heading
simplification discussion currently underway may recommend dropping form
designations. This fixed field could be used in limiting searches by category
of legal publications.

2.  We would very much like to see the 074 and 086 fields added to the
proposed fields since the GPO item number is extremely helpful for our
serials orders and check in staff and the SuDoc numbers are often an access
point for patrons who have consulted the Monthly Catalog.

3.  We feel that since the current frequency is already coded and maintained
in the MARC Holdings Format (which we use in our system) there is little need
for the 310 and 008/18-19 fields in the cataloging record.  This becomes
another redundancy which would require maintenance.

4.  We are also assuming that any 515 type notes which might affect holdings
information for ILL, reference and claiming purposes will be added to the
note subfields in the MARC Holdings Format (subfields x or z as appropriate)
; e.g., "Vol. 10 not published" or "Publication suspended 1939-1945."  We are
also assuming that 580 notes are considered essential to identify a serial
and its relationships and therefore these would be made as appropriate.

On the whole, we felt that the core record as proposed--with the addition of
the 074 and 086 fields--would serve our needs quite well and we would in fact
adopt it as our standard with the understanding that additional information
would be added as we felt necessary for our local needs.

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Cameron J. Campbell
Asst. Head of the Serials Dept./Head of Serials Cataloging
The University of Chicago Library
1100 East 57th Street, Rm. 220
Chicago IL 60637
(312) 702-8769
email: cc21@midway.uchicago.edu
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