At 01:43 PM 10/23/97 -0700, Kathleen Thorne wrote:
>[...]  We decided to use Level 3 of the ANSI standards rather than Level 4,
>because we needed to report holdings changes in Level 3 for our union
>list and couldn't stand to do the whole thing twice, each time in a
>different format. [...]
>Level 3 is a whole lot easier on personnel than Level 4, where you must
>be issue specific.  [...]

I agree that Level 3 is easier.  Unfortunately--at least as far as it
concerns the ease/difficulty of recording holdings--we decided against
using Level 3 at Northwestern (except in rare circumstances where using
Level 4 makes for a monstrously large record or is just nearly impossible).
 Our reason for not using Level 3 is that our institution is accustomed to
detailed holdings lists; if we used Level 3 we would still need to include
notes detailing which parts were missing for incomplete volumes, so there
would be very little real savings in such cases.  If a library is not as
concerned with detailing the gaps in the public record and/or other methods
are used for that (notes in item records, whatever) I would definitely say
go with Level 3.

Kevin M. Randall
Head, Serials Cataloging Section
Northwestern University Library
Evanston, IL   60208-2300

email: kmr@nwu.edu
phone: (847) 491-2939
fax:   (847) 491-7637