Date: Tue, 07 Feb 1995 15:31:53 +1100
From: Giles S Martin <ulgsm@DEWEY.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU>
Subject: RE: Cataloguing records for remote-access electronic serials
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
X-To:         Jones Wayne <WAJ@ABS.NLC-BNC.CA>
X-cc:         CONSERlist <consrlst@sun7.loc.gov>,
 Emedia <emedia@vax1.elon.edu>, SERIALST <serialst@uvmvm.uvm.edu>,
 VPIEJ-L <vpiej-l@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu>

I read this message on the Emedia list, but at the risk of duplication I
am posting it to all the lists that Wayne Jones posted it to.

You need different bibliographic records if there are significant
differences in the hardware or software needed to view/read/use a
document.  For that reason, you would need separate record for the Word
and for the WordPerfect versions -- in each case you either need the
appropriate word-processing program, or a program capable of reading that
format.  Further, if you had the same file in WordPerfect version 5.1 and
in WordPerfect version 6, you would need dseparate records for each
version.  The formatting codes are different, you can have formats in WP
version 6 that are not available in WP version 5.1, and WP version 5.1
cannot read a WP version 6 document.

It's a pain, I know, having all those bibliographic records for the same
intellectual content.  I wish we could use some sort of multiple versions
solution, but a satisfactory multiple versions answer will need
substantial changes to the USMARC bibliographic format -- I don't believe
that you can do everything that people want to do in multiple versions
with the USMARC holdings format.

          ####    ##       Giles Martin
       #######   ####      Quality Control Section
     #################     University of Newcastle Libraries
   ####################    New South Wales, Australia
   ###################*    E-mail: ulgsm@dewey.newcastle.edu.au
   ###################     Phone: (049) 215 828  (Australia)
    #####      ## ###         +61 49 215 828 (International)
                           Fax:   (049) 215 833  (Australia)
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On Mon, 6 Feb 1995, Jones Wayne wrote:

>      Significant technical or access differences should also necessitate
> separate records. *Significant* ones only, though. For example, if a
> remote-access serial existed in Hypertext, ASCII, PostScript, Word, and
> WordPerfect versions, I would say -- keeping in mind that  my knowledge of
> PostScript is somewhere between nil and meagrely informed -- that there are
> 3 versions (and 3 records) here. One for the HyperText, one for PostScript,
> and one for the other ones. I don't think differences in text-formatting are
> alone enough to qualify for versions.