---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 02 Oct 1996 12:55:29 -0500
From: DAVID MURPHY <MURPHY@smtp.munet.edu>
Subject: Title Authority

Hello,
I hope you don't mind me butting in somewhat on this debate; I'm a
new member.

You talked about changes in title and keeping track of them, even if
you don't carry the previous older titles.

We visited this question some time ago and there were two diverse
opinions: a) we shouldn't clutter up our catalog with stuff we didn't
have, even if, in cataloging terms, we ought to have a complete
record of a title in MARC.  In addition, patrons would simply be
confused even when a title changed and we did have the older title in
our holdings; and b) that we should stick to the full cataloging
rules and attempt to educate patrons on the whys and wherefores.  The
question for us really boiled down to, would the 780 field search in
our system in all cases?

We contacted our systems provider and their reply was yes, it had to.
And so our final solution was to maintain the 780/785 links when we
had the previous title, but to migrate information contained in a 78X
flield to a 9XX field when we commited ourselves to a title that
previously had changes, none of which we had; in our system the 9XX
field doesn't have to trace under a title search, but the information
would still be available should it be needed.

Sorry to be long-winded about this, but I remember this being a "hot"
topic.

Dave Murphy
Madonna University, Livonia, MI