In response to the messages relating to aggregators, I'm forwarding this
on behalf of Karen Calhoun and the PCC Aggregator task
force.

Jean Hirons
CONSER Coordinator
Library of Congress
jhir@loc.gov
202-707-5947
fax 202-707-6333

Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases

Following lively discussions at the November 1998 Policy Committee and
SCA/CONSER Midwinter 1999 meetings, Karen Calhoun and Jean Hirons (LC)
prepared a charge for a new SCA task group
(http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/aggregatortg.html) to carry forward
automation aspects of the work of the former CONSER task group on
aggregator databases. The Policy Committee approved the charge in early
1999 and work proceeded quickly during the winter and spring months. Task
group members are John Riemer (University of Georgia, chair), Jeanne Baker
(University of Maryland), Matthew Beacom (Yale), Karen Calhoun, Eric
Celeste (MIT), Ruth Haas (Harvard University), Jean Hirons (LC), and
Oliver Pesch (EBSCO).

Task group members (John Riemer, Karen Calhoun) presented interim reports
at the BIBCO Operations Committee meeting in April
(http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/aggupdrpt.html) and at the PCC
Participants Meeting in June.  Other members (Jeanne Baker, Jean Hirons)
spoke about the work of the task group at NASIG and AALL.  To date, the
task group has 1) defined the MARC content of vendor records, 2) completed
a demonstration project with EBSCO, 3) met with other interested vendors
(Bell & Howell and CIS), 4) sent a letter to OCLC encouraging timely
release of new WorldCat Collection sets for journals in aggregator
databases.  The group is currently consulting with Bell & Howell on plans
for a record set for ProQuest Direct.  A final report is expected by the
end of calendar 1999.

************Additional comments:

Hopefully the interim report (URL supplied above) will be more informative
than the SCA meeting notes from New Orleans cited by Crystal Graham.  The
excerpt from the SCA annual report provides an update--the task group has
finished the demonstration project with EBSCO (though testing of loading
is still very much under way at various libraries) and has engaged in
further (post-ALA) discussions with Bell & Howell (Proquest) and OCLC
(WorldCat Collection Sets). Both organizations appear to be making good
progress toward enhancing their offerings to help libraries provide access
to full text journals in aggregations via the catalog.

Also of potential interest to list readers is a preprint of an article
about the innovative solution to the aggregator problem at the University
of Tennessee--Knoxville by Bill Britten and others.  I have Bill's
permission to provide you with the URL of the preprint at
http://zuma.lib.utk.edu/h2h/.  In addition, Jean Hirons recently alerted
me and John Riemer (chair of the PCC task force on aggregators) to the
fascinating response of the med library at Yale Medical School to this
problem (it is more of a collection development tool, perhaps, but well
worth contemplating) which may be viewed at http://gnujake.med.yale.edu/.

--Karen Calhoun
SCA Chair