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Center for Research Libraries

This year, the Cataloging Dept. at the Center for Research Libraries continued projects and restructurings begun in the previous year. Under dept. head Amy Wood's direction, catalogers greatly reduced existing backlogs while keeping up with incoming material. Part-time student and fulltime paraprofessional work in large-scale projects, such as cataloging the international doctoral dissertations, continued to free up professionals to focus on material requiring CONSER and BIBCO level attention. Upgrades in the Center's ILS software, continuing improvements in processing and circulation, and the introduction of "patron initiated borrowing" has seen an increase in usage of CRL's unique collection.

To keep abreast of the recent rule changes in AACR2 and CONSER, The Cataloging Dept. attended several training sessions on print and electronic serials hosted by the University of Chicago Library Cataloging Dept., our CONSER neighbors "across the Midway."

Last January, CRL hired Missy Roser to catalog newspapers for its International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON) project, a cooperative preservation and access project. Soon after receiving her CONSER training, Missy was promoted to project head, replacing the departing head, John Dorr.

Following Missy's promotion, Steve Early took over ICON project cataloging responsibilities, providing CONSER level records for newspapers filmed specifically for the project and for any still uncataloged newspaper holdings in CRL. In addition, Steve cataloged materials in the Center's Area Studies microfilm projects and, with student help, reduced South Asian serial backlogs. He also created PURL's for CRL-held remote access electronic items.

Sima Dukhan, the Center's BIBCO and NACO representative, continued cataloging Turkish materials with the help of fluent students, nearly completed cataloging the backlog of Russian serials deposited by member libraries, and eliminated the Department's "staging area" serial and monograph backlog.

The Dept. regrets the departure of our East Asia cataloger Xiao-Jing Lei. Her work on the dissertation project, newspaper cataloging, Wade-Giles to Pinyin conversion, and important Chinese language collections was invaluable. The Department has advertised to hire a Continuing Resources Cataloger who has CONSER cataloging experience and experience with serials check-in procedures.

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Columbia

CUL has successfully migrated ILS from NOTIS to Voyager in July 2003. The Serials Cataloger has served on two implementation teams that are Cataloging and Serials Teams, and has been involved with planning and giving training on cataloging and MFHD classes. One of the major challenges for Serials Team is the publication patterns' match and creation. In mid-July, 2003, CUL began a project to match publication patterns in Voyager to individual active journal titles. As of Sept. 19, all but 6 of our more than 20 check-in locations have completed this project. "Complete" in this context is of course a relative term. Several problematic journal titles have been set aside for further work, while other titles continue to require ongoing maintenance due to changes in publication patterns, titles mergers, splits and cessations. The 2nd half of the project, which is proceeding much more slowly, is to match all of the university's titles that come on an annual, or less frequent, basis.

From July to present, Serials Team has also been working on establishing serials workflow and writing the documentation for Voyager system. By next year, CUL may be more ready to consider joining the CONSER Publication Pattern Initiative to contribute new patterns and to update existing patterns in OCLC.

Since last year, we have greatly expanded the number of e-journal packages to ca. 36 in our contract with Serials Solutions. Serials Solutions loads MARC records based on the CONSER paper record and updates the holdings for these e-journal packages. We are pleased with the quality of the records, the timeliness of updates and our public services staff members are very pleased to have accurate holdings information.

A part-time Bibliographic Assistant was hired and has been working on the RECON and offsite cataloging for serials project. CUL has tried to recruit another Serials Cataloger three times, but has not filled the position yet. The position has been put on hold due to budget cut. Serials Cataloger has passed the review of CONSER training and become independent since last April. Serials Cataloger has trained Slavic Cataloger to catalog serials and to contribute CONSER records for slavic materials.

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Harvard University

This past year at Harvard University was fast paced as staff underwent intensive training and became familiar with the functions of our new integrated library system, Aleph. In many cases, workflow of materials needed to be rethought and adjusted to take full advantage of the capabilities offered by the new system. Harvard's contribution to the CONSER database this year reflects this environment of continuing challenges and changes experienced by staff in technical services. Our contribution was 2,550 titles, including original input, first-time authentication, and maintenance to existing records. In the CONSER Office, we said good-byes to several long-time staff members and welcomed Michelle Williams, our new cataloger, and Graciela Galup, our new library assistant.

In October 2002, Harvard implemented SFX. This service provides Harvard-affiliated researchers with a link from article citations to related article citations and abstracts in other databases, holdings information in the local on-line catalog and full-text for articles in journals licensed centrally by the University. The Harvard SFX project is ongoing, and new resources are enabled as they become available. Its direction and maintenance is overseen by a University-wide working group of librarians.

In November, we were pleased to have James LeBlanc, NACO Coordinator at Cornell University Library, provided a week of name authority training for Harvard staff. Jim prepared both beginning and advanced sessions and presented three separate workshops. He not only reviewed rules and Library of Congress Rule Interpretations for name authority work, but also customized his presentation to explore specific problems that staff had been encouraged to bring to these sessions. Over 90 technical services staff attended these well-received workshops.

Harvard Law Library reports that their CONSER work this past year reflects two major influences on their cataloging work: adjustment to Harvard's new online system, Aleph; and the demands of training and revising a new serials cataloger who started in April 2002. Because of Aleph's attributes (e.g., up-to-date publication patterns for check-in), many of the Law Library's older serial records have needed updating, resulting in bibliographic maintenance of CONSER records. Harvard Law Library's East Asian cataloger reports having updated many Chinese, Japanese, and Korean titles. The Islamic Law bibliographer also expects to be cataloging several new titles in the coming year.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

CONSER activity at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology slowed down in the past year when our CONSER cataloger, Ada Cheung, took her three-month special leave from September to December 2002 after she attended the NASIG Conference in June. Our CONSER statistics for 2002-2003 totaled 502, with 212 titles authenticated and 290 titles maintained. We created 55 name authority records and enhanced 13 existing ones.

A monograph staff member was added to the Serials Team beginning July 2002. His primary responsibility is to catalog serials electronic titles from aggregators. Two major serials cataloging projects were started in the past year. They were the cataloging of the LexisNexis Academic Universe titles, started in April and the cataloging of our Cavanaugh Serials Collection, which began in August. The cleanup project of ProQuest records that were supplied by the vendor in June 2002 was completed in January 2003. However, considerable manpower is still devoted to keeping the ProQuest titles and their full text coverage up-to-date.

Other significant events for our library included upgrading our staff computers to Windows XP, the implementation of OCLC Connexion and Innovative Millennium cataloging module in the past couple of months. We are also a test site for OCLC's new client software, Connexion.

Indiana University Libraries

On March 3, 2003, Indiana University Libraries created its first PURL through the CONSER PURL Project. Of the more than 100 PURLs we have created so far, only three have needed subsequent modification. The benefits of participating in the CONSER PURL Project have been immediate and apparent. We can now create PURLs for gratis electronic serials selected by our collection managers without fear that the link will die without our knowing it. We can also import bibliographic records in which other CONSER libraries have done the same with equal confidence. Whether a library follows a one-record approach, a separate record approach, or, as in our case, a little bit of both, PURLs ensure continuous access to gratis materials.

Indiana University continued its participation in the CONSER Publication Pattern Initiative. Although we had committed to creating 50 patterns a month, we managed to beat that commitment by nearly half again.

After CONSER decided to implement the aggregator-neutral record for cataloging of electronic serials in aggregator databases, Indiana University Libraries made the decision to purchase MARC records for electronic journals from SerialsSolutions. These records will be MARC records taken directly from the CONSER File, either for the electronic version itself or derived from the print version of the serial according to local specifications. In addition they will list the holding library and the dates of coverage available. We anticipate loading the file of more than 11,000 records into our local ILS shortly and will begin loading update files from SerialsSolutions soon thereafter. Using lists supplied by SerialsSolutions, we anticipate authenticating records for any titles in our aggregations that are currently lacking in the CONSER file. We look forward to providing cataloging records for electronic journals in this more focused and efficient environment.

With the opening of our Auxiliary Library Facility, IU serials catalogers have been busy providing technical support for the 7,000 volume a week fill rate, a good portion of which is serial. In the state-of-the-art preservation laboratory that is included at the site, volumes are disinfected and cleaned to prevent mold outbreaks. They can even be frozen to prevent damage after a flood emergency.

In September 2003, Indiana University Libraries opened the Information Commons, a 24 hour a day, seven days a week facility where students can access information on 250 computer terminals. For all but six of those hours each day, the students also have access to reference help. The result of a partnership between library and information technology personnel, the facility is an overwhelming success. It is often difficult to find an empty spot at one of the 250 terminals as late as ten o'clock in the evening!

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Library of Congress

Serial Record Division

Fiscal year 2002/2003 for the Library of Congress Serial Record Division (SRD) can be summarized by two significant activities: training, both the performing and receiving of, and planning for/implementing procedures for online electronic serials. Both activities had a significant impact on the outcome of the year in terms of staff activities and production. The departure (retirement, promotion, and reassignment) of many staff and the advent of many new staff, requiring several senior staff to be involved in training in some manner or other, effected production levels. These activities notwithstanding, the division had another industrious year, once again surpassing the previous year's statistics, and making it the most productive year since conversion to the ILS system.

Cataloging sections continued to improve their production - 12,203 vs 11,706 in FY02 reflecting a 4.25% increase. Figures for whole serials reflected a 7.75% increase over last year's figure. Most impressive was the surge in subject only – up 92.2% over last year. We will be able to attain self sufficiency as catalogers increasingly perform both descriptive and subject cataloging.

Many new staff were hired from outside LC, so we have actually replenished our numbers instead of depleting other areas of the Library. The new employees are enthusiastic and hard working - generating an energy level with the rest of the staff.

The year included several major e-serial purchases, allowing LC serial catalogers to get their first experience in cataloging this format. NSDP's experience with ISSN assignment for e-resources will be instructive as the division increasingly moves into handling e-serials. Approximately half the serial cataloging staff attended a session of the SCCTP Training Course for Electronic Serials. Several staff participated on both Acquisition and Cataloging Directorate teams to create policy and practice in e-resource handling.

The Library's membership in the Elektronische Zeitschriftendatenbank and subsequent selection project of online serials within this massive database necessitated important policy decisions governing the selection and cataloging of online serials. Procedures for cataloging of serials selected for LC from the Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek (EZB) Database are intended to be used as a guideline for other online serials acquired outside of the EZB Project.

SRD catalogers participated in several other significant initiatives this fiscal year – the introduction of Arabic vernacular to cataloging records, the testing of Unicode, and implementation of online electronic serials. SRD staff continued to provide training, review, and other support for new CONSER institutions.

In the final quarter of the fiscal year, the decentralization of serials check-in to the Anglo-American and European/Latin American acquiring divisions was completed. Processing of purchase, exchange, and gift material are no longer forwarded to SRD for check-in. Several staff members, via details and reassignments, assisted the acquiring divisions in getting accustomed to online serials processing.

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Library of Congress

National Serials Data Program

Summary: 2003 can be characterized as a year of challenges: learning, building/re-building, and solidifying for NSDP. Staff hired in 2002 are building their expertise in the new NSDP workflow and in ISSN policies, procedures, and LC cataloging. The U.S. ISSN center is re-building its knowledge base and its capability for excellence and productivity following many years of severe staff shortages and an influx of new staff. And, NSDP continues to solidify its team identity and interactions. The first full year under the new NSDP workflow (whereby titles are selected for the LC collection from ISSN requests and LC and ISSN processing is done at the same time) presented both logistical and productivity challenges. Additional challenges for NSDP were caused by the now-permanent delays in receiving mail and packages, and the seemingly infinite variety and mutability of online resources for which NSDP receives ISSN requests.

New Workflow: The logistical challenges included shelving; tracking; the need to maintain “first-in, first-out processing”; to answer publisher queries about the status of their requests; and to rotate NSDP work assignments. The productivity challenges were that a steep learning curve and the extra work required to comply with LC processing procedures and share in additional problem-solving and re-cataloging responsibilities slowed ISSN response times to unprecedented lengths and enlarged backlogs to unprecedented sizes. Various efforts have turned this situation around. Esther Simpson documented the new workflow through many revisions and, in recent months, Lois Rose was detailed to NSDP to provide LC cataloging expertise. Also, a production-only month push was made to reduce the backlogs. Staff responded which a commendable effort and have become more fully trained and more comfortable in the new processing procedures so that NSDP will end the year with excellent processing times and acceptable backlogs.

Regular Activities: Assignment of pre- and post-publication ISSN applications received mainly from publishers, the U.S. Postal Service, the Library of Congress cataloging workflow and other ISSN centers by post, fax (very common), and email continues. A new effort was made to request full issues from publishers so the titles can be considered for selection. NSDP's online form remains unavailable until a way can be developed to screen out applications for personal and ephemeral Web resources. Maintenance activities, i.e., adding incorrectly-printed ISSN in 022 subfield “y”, notifying publishers of incorrectly-printed ISSN, and adding ISSN for non-U.S. serials to Library of Congress records to be used as a quick look-up for check-in, have become a new part of the responsibilities of NSDP's technicians. NSDP is proud that this activity will result in more correct ISSN on issues and more effective use of the ISSN as a quick access point in the ILS.

AACR2 Revision: On Dec. 1, 2002, NSDP implemented AACR2 revised Chapter 12, including the revised major/minor change rules which are the same as those in the new ISSN Manual. The change went smoothly–training had been provided beforehand--with many fewer questions and problems than were anticipated.

ISSN Production: Between September 20, 2002 and September 22, 2003, NSDP assigned approximately [5000] new ISSN. [1290] of these ISSN were prepublication assignments. The number of total ISSN assignments is only around [3%] higher than last year’s total, despite NSDP’s being fully staffed, largely due to the challenges of the new workflow mentioned above and the fact that many of the newer staff have not yet hit their “productivity stride.” FY 2003 ended with greatly increased productivity during POM and FY 2004 will see renewed NSDP efforts in to become more efficient and productive. Other reasons for NSDP not realizing a higher productivity spurt because of increased staff are that ISSN assignments for e-serials (which are more time-consuming to process) are now being made one-by-one or in small batches, thus eliminating some of the efficiency gained in past years when publishers requested ISSN for all of their online journals at once. And, ironically, the new rules for major and minor changes have lowered the numbers of new ISSN assigned because various changes no longer need new ISSN.

Electronic Resources: During the period covered by this report, about 1000 of the ISSN assigned by NSDP have been to electronic resources. As noted above, e-resources are more time-consuming to process, because questions often arise about whether the resource is eligible for an ISSN, whether it is a serial or an integrating resource, whether it is published in the U.S., etc. Searching through the resource to find bibliographic elements also takes more time than finding such elements in a print resource. It is troubling to think that as the proportion of e-resources increases, productivity could decrease. This will probably be the case--at least in the short term-- until these publications become more stable, until staff become more used to dealing with them, and until more automated processing procedures are developed.

A special challenge relates to two problematic types of resources. An influx of ISSN requests for “blogs” has had to be put on hold pending discussion at the directors meeting. These largely ephemeral and personal resources meet the definition of "serial," making it difficult to refuse them ISSN until a general ISSN Network policy is promulgated. Integrating resources are also on hold because the OCLC system has not yet implemented MARC 21 Leader code "i,” causing a problem for the return of OCLC records to LC. NSDP has received a few groups of ISSN requests for databases and is investigating alternative means of creating records and sending them to the IC.

Other ISSN-Related Activities: The ISSN International Centre is preparing to load a large backlog of U.S. records into the ISSN Register which resulted when the IC became unable to process NSDP records. CDS was able to create a file of the missing records and make it available to the IC in March 2003. NSDP is looking forward to being able to find recent U.S. ISSN records in the ISSN Register and reassure U.S. publishers that their records are available in ISSN Online.

Revision of the ISSN Standard: ISO 3207 underwent its 5-year review by ISO (International Standards Organization) member organizations who voted in favor of revising the standard. To help NISO (National Information Standards Organization) decide how the U.S. should vote, NISO published an online survey. Regina Reynolds convened a meeting with stakeholders such as CPSO, Net Dev., CDS, CIP, CONSER, and others to provide input to the LC response. Key questions sought input on whether the scope of the ISSN should be enlarged to cover all continuing resources and whether separate ISSN should be assigned to different forms of the same serial. The U.S. community, including LC, was strongly in favor of a single ISSN to identify a title with the possibility of a suffix, if needed, to identify the medium. Regina Reynolds has been appointed as NISO representative to the standards revision committee.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A major new development this year for the MIT Libraries was the implementation of SFX in May 2003. An original serials cataloger took on the task of setting up the SFX Knowledgebase by identifying targets and activating electronic journals held by MIT, testing the SFX menus and display logic, and resolving problems as identified by the Libraries' staff and users. She also developed procedures for processing the monthly updates and worked with the Digital Acquisitions Section to determine cross-database procedures and communication workflow.

In addition to SFX, other digital resource management activities continued to be a major responsibility for the section. A serials copy cataloger continued to work half time on quality control and systematic maintenance of Vera, the Libraries' web-based listing tool for electronic journals and databases <http://libraries.mit.edu/vera>, and continued as a member of the team that resolves access problems reported by Libraries' staff and users. URL link checking resumed on a regular monthly schedule, wherein several catalogers review the reports of moved and failed URLs, update the URLs in OCLC and our local system, and report changes to be updated in other databases, such as Vera. Serials catalogers also participated in the process to develop a Cataloging Mission Statement <http://macfadden.mit.edu:9500/colserv/mission/catmission.htm>, which recognizes the expanding role of cataloging in the digital environment.

When the 2002 AACR2 Revision and related MARC21 revisions were released in December, the primary responsibility of cataloging integrating resources (generally print loose-leafs, electronic databases, websites) was transferred from the Special Formats Monograph Cataloger to Serials Cataloging. The few exceptions include monograph electronic resources and cartographic materials. An original serials cataloger developed and presented information sessions for serials and monograph catalogers, serials acquisitions staff, and processing staff about the changes in rules, the new concepts of continuing resources and integrating resources, and what constitutes major and minor changes. Another serials cataloger attended the SCCTP Workshop on Cataloging Integrating Resources at the ALA Conference in June to learn how to create new records and edit existing records for integrating resources using the interim guidelines, information that can be shared with the other serials catalogers.

The section focused more attention this year on the retrospective conversion of DDC-classed serials and journals in preparation for their remote storage. This is a long-term project that we hope to finish in the next few years.

David Van Hoy, MIT's representative on the Operations Committee, continued to serve as a member of CONSER's group of e-serials specialists. He also continued as chair of the PCC Standing Committee on Standards' Task Group on Conference Publications, which has now completed its charge.

Jennifer L. Edwards continued to serve as Acting Head of the Serials Cataloging Section, while the search for a permanent replacement was put on hold pending an organizational review of Collections Services. Lauren Moffa, a copy cataloger, resigned in August 2003.

National Library of Canada

CONSER Records Loaded

NLC loaded 3,203 Canadiana serial records describing various formats to CONSER. Records describing electronic serials comprised 420 of this total.

Standards

On 1 Dec. 2002, NLC implemented the new cataloguing rules (AACRII, 2nd ed., 2002 Revision) for continuing resources.

Amicus and Canadiana

NLC's bibliographic database Access Amicus is currently available free of charge on the Web. The Website is at http://nlc-bnc.caehome.htm.

ISSN Canada

From 1 July 2002-30 June 2003 ISSN Canada provided 1,861 pre-publication ISSN's to requesting Canadian serial publishers and registered 3,423 serials in the international ISSN database.

Meetings

John Clark attended the CONSER Operations meeting and Liz McKeen attended the PCC Policy Committee meeting.

News

On 2 Oct. 2002 the federal Minister of Canadian Heritage announced the merger of the National Library of Canada and the National Archives of Canada. The name of the new institution will be the Library and Archives Canada. The Act and Regulations to create this new institution are currently before the Canadian Parliament. NLC and the Archives are currently reviewing existing services, policies and workflows.

NLC wishes to extend a note of appreciation to Jean Hirons for her good and dedicated work to the continuing resources community. Problems were solved and many important and significant advancements were made in our field of librarianship during her tenure as CONSER Operations Coordinator.

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National Library of Medicine

NLM made some organizational changes this year, moving the Serials Bibliographic Maintenance Unit from the Serial Records Section into the Cataloging Section. This move, plus cross training of several monographic catalogers with specific language skills to catalog serials as well as monographs, has allowed NLM to keep its serial production rate up despite the loss of two highly experienced catalogers from the Section.

NLM's philosophy is that changing publication patterns are blurring the lines between serials and monographs and the more cross training we can do among catalogers, the better off both the institution and the catalogers will be. We anticipate that within in the next year many of the catalogers in the Section will be able to work with serials, integrating resources, and monographs, giving us much more flexibility in assigning staff where resources are needed.

NLM implemented the 2002 revision of AACR2 in December along with the rest of the PCC community, with just one exceptional practice from the new rules. Because NLM is an indexing agency as well as a library, some of the changes in chapter 21.2A2 (Minor changes) were considered to be too extreme. NLM believes some of these changes (most notably 21.2A2 c, i and parts of a) would not allow a user to properly recognize the current title of a journal from its citation, which would be based on earlier issues. Therefore, the following procedures are being applied when cataloging journals currently indexed by NLM:

If the journal undergoes a title change that is considered minor by current cataloging rules, but the change occurs in the first five words of the title and would affect the title abbreviation, NLM will close the existing serial bibliographic record in its own catalog, create a new serial record for the new title and assign a new title abbreviation to the journal. These records will NOT be distributed to CONSER, nor will they be included in NLM's MARC record distribution to licensees. Such records can be identified in LocatorPlus by the presence of a locally defined 999 field coded SMC (visible in the MARC view).

NLM 510s have been removed from OCLC records as part of an overall CONSER project deleting these fields. However, this information is still being kept up-to-date by NLM in its online catalog, LocatorPlus. Users can search LocatorPlus to find current information on which journals are being indexed by NLM in Index Medicus, Medline, and PubMed.

NLM staff has been doing a lot of work on both bibliographic and holdings records of its serials collection in support of projects undertaken by SERHOLD (NLM's union holdings for medical libraries) and DOCLINE (our automated interlibrary loan (ILL) request routing and referral system.). As a result of this work, medical libraries can now update their serial holdings SERHOLD and they are batchloaded on a quarterly basis into OCLC, eliminating the need for rekeying into OCLC. DOCLINE users can now immediately see which article requests they are submitting are freely available online, and avoid unnecessary print ILL requests.

In the culmination of a year-long process that began in May 2002, Diane Boehr and Alice Jacobs completed the development of a guide titled Integrating resources: a cataloging manual intended to be incorporated into training documentation for both BIBCO and CONSER. Prepared with the collaboration of Regina Wallen and Kathy Winzer of Stanford University Robert Crown Law Library who contributed to the areas covering legal materials, this manual was developed as part of the PCC endeavor to equip catalogers with the necessary tools to grapple with this new format and is the first to be shared by the two components of the PCC.

National Library of Wales

During the last year, CONSER operations at the National Library of Wales have developed significantly. Galen Jones from the National Library of Wales, travelled to Washington D.C. for the Annual Operations Committee at the Library of Congress in April/May 2003. During this time he received training and guidance from Maryvonne Mavroukakis, Les Hawkins and Jean Hirons. Particular attention was paid to improving name authority record submissions. We also worked on integrating resources and PURLS at his time. It was also a good opportunity to meet other members of the programme.

215 records were created during the period and 15 records were revised/updated. The National Library of Wales' Bibliographical Data sub-section concentrated on issues such as the handling of title and frequency changes. The single record approach to cataloguing and the aggregator neutral policy were also adopted.

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New York Public Library

The New York Public Library ended a serials retrospective conversion project which began in Oct. 2000. Close to 140,000 serials records were converted from cards to online. Roman alphabet serials on almost any subject in humanities were converted. Shelflist cards were sent to OCLC for retrospective conversion, and once converted the records are ftp'd and loaded by us into our local OPAC. The in-house staff is still doing work on some of the cards which were not converted by OCLC, or which were flagged because of some problems. The library has responded to the tasks at hand by reassigning staff and creating temporary positions. Some of the shelflist cards were discovered after OCLC completed their budgeted part, so serials staff is heavily involved in doing retrospective conversion, in verifying and ensuring correct linkage and in other quality control activities.

Problem resolution for RECAP (our remote compact storage facility) and for our circulation system became a major part of our activities this year. Because the library has activated circulation operations, all physical volumes must be barcoded and have item records in our local system. (The Library is in the process of selecting and preparing for transfer of an additional one million monographs using smart barcodes). If there is no bibliographic record, no item record can be generated. So the serials staff has been busily creating cataloging records when we have physical volumes but no record of it in our catalog. Also, when a barcoded volume does not have an item record, or there is some other problem, we have had to resolve the problem so that the volume can circulate. This is a very labor-intensive activity and because of its high priority, we have focused heavily on this task.

As a result, our statistics for CONSER have been lower than in the past years. From Sept. 2002 through August 2003 we authenticated 326 original titles, upgraded 55 existing records and did 454 maintenance transactions.

We had some staffing changes this year. A very experienced serials staff member left the library last December, when a very attractive early retirement offer was made. In addition to having long years of cataloging experience, we lost foreign language expertise with the retirement of our Scandinavian language serials cataloger.

The NYPL's Serials and Electronic Resources Cataloging Section successfully moved in Sept. 2002 to our new building within a buildings (aka South Court), and within two days we were set up to be fully operational. It is a tribute to the wonderful staff in the institution that the move went so well.

New York State Library

What most readily defines a "state" library -- and distinguishes it from a public or university library -- is its legal mandate to serve the executive, legislative and judicial branches of its state's government. To carry out this mandate, the New York State Library maintains extensive holdings in law and subjects related to public policy, and State and local history. The Library is also a depository for both New York State and Federal government documents.

In 2003, the New York State Library celebrated the 25th anniversary of its move to the new Cultural Education Center from the historic State Education Building. The Library has now been asked to come up with a renovation plan for the public and staff work areas. The library has been gathering information for renovation on these floors for some time and now will be proceeding with a budget proposal.

The library was granted a United States Patent, dated May 20, 2003, for the "Bulk Mail Container Unloading System, Apparatus and Method. This system has streamlined operations for the Talking Book and Braille Library.

The New York State Newspaper Project celebrated the microfilming of the three millionth page on October 8, 2002. Former New York State Library Director Peter Paulson was honored for his vision and leadership in the preservation of history in newspapers.

State Librarian and Assistant Commissioner for Libraries, Janet Martin Welch, was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Award of the School of Information Science and Policy at the University at Albany. The School of Information Science and Policy's Distinguished Public Service Award is presented each year to an individual who has had a career of exemplary public service in the areas of library, archival, and information services or in information management and policy. It particularly seeks to recognize those who have made such contributions in New York State. One of Ms. Welch's accomplishments has been the creation of the NOVEL Project.

The NOVEL Project is an electronic database system that enables libraries across New York State to give their communities online access to the full text of hundreds of journals, newspapers and other references. Participation is available to all member libraries of library systems in New York State to the extent permitted by negotiations and contractual limitations. Libraries may also choose to offer library users remote access to NOVEL Databases from their homes, schools or workplaces 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This project is currently supported with temporary Federal funds through a Library Services and Technology Act grant to the New York State Library from the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Due to a reassignment of duties in the library, Liza Duncan, Principal Librarian for Collection Acquisition and Processing, has agreed to take temporary responsibility for Collection Preservation and Restoration, Computer Applications, the Document Distribution Center, Interlibrary Loan, the Mail Room, Photoduplication, and the Talking Book and Braille Library.

There are still critical vacancies in the Cataloging Section, including one Senior Librarian and one Library Technical Assistant for the CONSER Project. New York State documents remain the highest priority and NACO headings are contributed for all New York State government bodies.

The unit has made much progress recently in handling backlogs of uncataloged and under-cataloged materials, which were recently identified by a Committee on Uncataloged Collections. Non-CONSER cataloging staff have been trained in basic serials cataloging and have started cataloging some serials outside of CONSER in order to help clear up backlogs. All current serials and New York State document serials continue to be cataloged by CONSER staff. An additional area being attended to, is the long-standing backlog of maps. Having established procedures for their preservation and storage, we are now cataloging New York State document maps.

The library has also recently purchased Sirsi's Hyperion Digital Media Archive, in which we will store all of the library's electronic documents as well as other images from our sister institutions (the State Archives and the State Museum). Staff will need to begin creating Dublin Core records to attach to some of these images. The details of those procedures are still being worked out in order to do much more cataloging of the electronic versions of New York State documents.

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Texas A&M University, College Station

Texas A&M University General Libraries is very proud to have been accepted into the CONSER program in early 2003. To introduce ourselves: with 9 affiliated campuses, Texas A&M University was founded in 1876 as the first institution of higher education in Texas. The university is a land, sea, and space-grant institution with a current enrollment of 44,618, making it one the nation's largest universities.

Current university library holdings include more than 2.9 million volumes, 5.3 million microform units, approximately 203,609 maps, over 21,000 linear feet of archival and manuscript collections, over 100,000 photographs, art collections, numerous artifacts, and material in virtually all forms of audiovisual media. The library contains approximately 42,304 (35,000 active subscriptions) serial titles. A member of OCLC, Texas A&M uses Endeavor Information Systems' Voyager as its integrated library system (previously NOTIS).

The collection is focused toward the traditional disciplines of the university, which are the fields of agriculture and engineering, and it is in working with serial titles in these areas where we expect to make our best contributions to the CONSER database. We are also expecting records for E-serials and integrating resources to be a great part of our contribution, as the university is ranked 4th nationally in allocations for electronic resources. Our current cataloging policy is to use the multiple-record approach, cataloging versions of a serial on separate records. We also expect to be also able to contribute many records for microfilm collections, another strength of this library system. We are currently working on a Chicano Serials film set, and have a collection of European women's periodicals to follow. In recent years the Slavic collections have also expanded exponentially and we also have a large backlog of Slavic language serials to process.

The full serials cataloging staff consists of 2 professional catalogers and 4 staff. The unit is responsible for original and copy cataloging for serials in all formats and for electronic resources, for holdings, and for series authority work. Unfortunately, we have currently have 2 vacant staff positions due to a hiring freeze, and staff are continuously balancing their own work and trying to cover the vacant positions, slowing down our ability to do CONSER work. We are currently advertising to fill one of our entry-level staff positions, which will free up experienced staff to do more CONSER activities. We are also training the Serials Acquisitions Unit to identify and process upon receipt incoming serial titles which have CONSER copy in OCLC. We are hoping this will also free serials cataloging staff to attend to more complex copy cataloging, maintenance, and original cataloging for CONSER.

Complementary to the University of Texas's beautiful telecommunications link into the Monterey campus of the ITESM, Texas A&M has installations in Mexico City (central valley). These installations, which we are happy to place at the service of our CONSER colleagues when needed, include a telecommunications network into Mexico City to transmit classes and hold virtual conferences, and classroom and meeting facilities. The possession of these facilities has permitted us to sponsor Spanish language presentations of the SCCTP workshops in Mexico. To date we have sponsored or co-sponsored 14 SCCTP workshops in Mexico, and 1 in Jamaica. We have pending an invitation to Cuba, and another to El Salvador. With Elizabeth Steinhagen of the University of New Mexico, we have restarted the project to translate the CONSER CEG and CCM into Spanish, a project which was put on hold while waiting for the completion of the 2002 revisions to AACR2.

Last but not least, we wish to express our gratitude to Sue Fuller, University of Texas at Austin, who acted as our 'CONSER mentor." She is an excellent trainer, reviewing our records, explaining some of the more difficult areas of cataloging policy, and advising us as to proper CONSER procedures. We greatly appreciate her patience and generosity with her time. Hook'em Horns!

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United States Government Printing Office

At present, approximately 2,000 U.S. Government serials titles are exclusively disseminated via the Internet. In addition to cataloging and assigning PURLs to online serials, we are also engaged with archiving these resources to provide permanent public access within the Federal Depository Library Program's Electronic Collection. While the number of serial documents distributed to depository libraries in microfiche, paper, and tangible electronic formats continues to decrease, an ever-increasing number are available in the Electronic Collection.

This was another growth year for CONSER work. During this time, GPO catalogers completed Revision 2002 AACR2 training in order to fully implement these new standards on time. Through August, GPO catalogers authenticated 923 original full level records, performed maintenance on 2107 authenticated records, and authenticated 430 full level records during the year. The Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications Serials Supplement for 2003 contained 3280 active titles, a 4.8% increase over the prior year.

The Superintendent of Documents is reorganizing under the new leadership of Judith Russell in accordance with GPO's new vision for the future of disseminating federal government information. As work to re-organize the Superintendent of Documents is underway we continue to devote considerable effort to recruitment and training of catalogers. In this regard, three new serial catalogers completed their GPO training this past year, and two additional serials cataloging positions were approved

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University of California, Los Angeles

Between October 2002 and August 2003, UCLA contributed to CONSER 279 original records and authenticated another 156 records. UCLA completed subsequent authentication of 12 records and maintenance of 580 records.

CONSER Catalogers: Fewer-and More Again?
UCLA suffered the loss of several CONSER experts this past year. Most notably, after 37 years of service at UCLA, Ron Watson retired on January 3, 2003. In addition, two Chinese language specialists from the East Asian Library, Sarah Elman and Diana Jiang, left UCLA. Staffing shortages are reflected in the 33% drop in CONSER transactions this year.

In October, the UCLA Libraries will consolidate several cataloging centers. Within the newly-constituted UCLA Cataloging Center, the Serials Cataloging and E-Resources Management Section will be responsible for CONSER cataloging, as well as some PCC cataloging for e-integrating resources. We will be welcoming three additional CONSER catalogers to the section: Cheri Folkner (engineering specialist); Peter Balassa (biomedical resources specialist); and Behzad Allahyar (Persian and Arabic specialist).

Administrative Highlights

  • Cindy Shelton was elected CONSER Representative to the PCC Policy Committee.
  • Gary Strong, UCLA's new University Librarian, began work September 1st.

Other CONSER activities

Rhonda Lawrence and Valerie Bross continued their involvement in the SCCTP program. Rhonda co-presented an Advanced Cataloging workshop in December 2002. She and Valerie hosted a beta version of the new SCCTP Integrating Resources workshop in December 2002 and presented two IR workshops during spring/summer 2003. Valerie Bross also co-presented a Basic Serials workshop with Yvonne Zhang (CSU Pomona) in October 2002.

John Riemer and Valerie Bross began working with Peter Fletcher (Tulane University) on CONSER Enhance revision in February, 2003. Peter entered the program with a strong background in NACO work and had participated in several SCCTP workshops related to serials cataloging. He quickly mastered the basics; by June, Peter achieved enhance authorization. We wish him success as a CONSER Enhance member.

George Wrenn, a CONSER cataloger at the Law Library, worked on the Database Issues Task Group, part of the effort to develop the aggregator-neutral approach to cataloging e-serials (then known as Option B+). Valerie Bross was on the Source of Description Task Group of the same effort. Angela Riggio, Luiz Mendes, and Gergana Kodjebacheva worked on PCC/CONSER PURL conversion and maintenance. (In all, UCLA created 665 PURLs during FY2002/2003.) And John Riemer continues to serve on the 3rd PCC Task Force on Journals in Aggregations.

University of Chicago Library

We have spent quite a bit of time this year with training for cataloging of serials and integrating resources. In November, we had 3 workshops on the new rules. The first was a 4-hour workshop, led by Renee Martonik, which covered why the rules were revised, new terminology, and what changed from the old rules. The second was an 8-hour workshop which Renette Davis presented, using the SCCTP Basic Serials Cataloging Workshop training materials. The third was a 2 1/2 hour workshop, led by Pat Sayre McCoy, giving the basic rules for cataloging integrating resources, both print and electronic. In July, Renette gave a 6-hour workshop on cataloging electronic serials, using the SCCTP Electronic Serials Cataloging Workshop materials.

Our statistics this year will be down from last year, as we expected they would be. The number of new authenticated records will be down (88 for Oct. 2002-Aug. 2003, compared with 169 for Oct. 2001-Aug. 2002). This can be explained by the fact that we lost a professional cataloger and haven't been able to replace him because of the budget. The number of authentications of existing records will also be significantly less (29 for Oct. 2002-Aug. 2003, compared with 93 for Oct. 2001-Aug. 2002). This can be explained by our change in policy where we are now using non-CONSER copy as is unless there are major problems with it.

Maintenance of authenticated records will also be down (61 for Oct. 2002-Aug. 2003, compared to 349 for Oct. 2001-Aug. 2002). Maintenance of non-CONSER records will also be down (33 for Oct. 2002-Aug. 2003, compared to 124 for Oct. 2001-Aug. 2002). This is partly due to the fact that we processed a large backlog of cessations last year, which boosted last year's statistics. We do still maintain CONSER records when we process major and minor changes. We have also just changed our policy regarding our single record approach for electronic serials. Previously, we added the 530 and 856 only to our local record, but we have just decided that we will also add it to the OCLC and RLIN record if it is not an institution specific URL.

We are active participants in the CONSER PURL Pilot Project. The number of PURLs created will be down (70 for Oct. 2002-Aug. 2003, compared to 104 for Oct. 2001-Aug. 2002. However, the number of revised PURLs will be up (17 for Oct. 2002-Aug. 2003, compared to 1 for Oct. 2001-Aug. 2002). Renette Davis worked with Valerie Bross and others in the CONSER PURL group to create a PURL questionnaire, which was distributed to the CONSER and BIBCO mailing lists. Renette reported on the results of the questionnaire at the the joint CONSER/BIBCO meeting in May.

Our change in policy regarding our single record approach for electronic serials will also affect our creation of PURLs. If we are adding access for a free electronic resource (which is not a U.S. government publication) onto the record for the print version, we will create a PURL and add it to the OCLC and RLIN record as well. Previously we only created a PURL if we were using or creating an electronic version record because we did not have the print version. We made this decision because it is not much extra work for us, is work that can be done by a copy cataloger, and will benefit other users of OCLC and RLIN.

We are creating Dublin Core records for free Internet resources if we don't have the paper version, if there is no copy for the electronic version, and if there is no copy for the paper version that we can use to derive a record for the electronic version. We are creating the records in Connexion, using the MARC format, but using Dublin Core guidelines instead of AACR2 rules. These can be identified by dc in the 042 field, and they are not CONSER records. All headings are checked in the OCLC authority file and the authoritative form is used if found, but new headings are not established if they do not appear in the authority file. From Oct. 2002-Aug. 2003, we created 48 such records.

University of Florida

This year we again had personnel changes, as Todd Chisholm joined us as Library Technical Assistant in December, taking the place of Jessica Young, who was promoted to our Sr. Library Technical Assistant post. Jane Anne Carey replaced long-time serials cataloger David Allerton, who transferred to another unit in the department. Jane Anne is new to serials cataloging, but is learning rapidly, and has a good aptitude for problem solving. These personnel changes have helped us to reassess our procedures, and we are now more efficient in moving materials through the unit, and identifying materials in need of authentication or record maintenance. Our rate of contributions has risen sharply in the closing months of this report year, and we hope to continue.

Another innovation that we have started this year is a serial/series problem discussion group that meets every two weeks. This group has representatives from copy and original monographic cataloging units as well as serials cataloging. We meet to discusses inconsistencies in existing monographic series treatment, and discuss borderline cases of monographic vs. serial treatment in cataloging. A presentation to the entire department that grew out of this group has led to clearer understanding about what materials serials cataloging should handle. We are also planning a poster session for ALA to describe this process and the guidelines we use.

Our participation in a preservation grant project for SOLINET allowed us to contribute original records for materials related to higher education in Florida.

The delay in our system migration has allowed us to do more database cleanup and other local maintenance activities than we anticipated. Reclassification projects to prepare for the renovation of our social sciences and humanities library have provided us numerous opportunities for maintenance and original cataloging, as old treasures are discovered that were never cataloged online. We have also contributed original records through our area studies collections in African Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies and associated digitization projects.

University of Georgia

The University of Georgia Main Library is still recovering from a fire that was set on July 23, 2003. The fire was on the second floor, and caused damage to the Government Document collections. The library opened to students on the first day of fall classes, but cleanup is still underway.

Through August 2003, the University of Georgia Serials Cataloging staff contributed 76 original records and authenticated 102 existing records. We performed subsequent authentication on 41 records, and maintenance on 1021 records. Our maintenance statistic increased due to the fact that we have started doing CONSER work on frequency changes. The Serials Cataloging Section has recently grown. Sophie Dong is currently in training to catalog serials. She will most likely divide her time between serials and one other format. We are very happy to have her join us.

We continued to participate in the Patterns Initiative, contributing 326 new patterns, 113 subsequent patterns, and 247 modifications through August 2003. Renee Blakey has been mentoring UIUC, answering questions and checking patterns for contribution to the pattern project. Beth Thornton chaired the CONSER Publication Pattern Initiative
Task Force to Explore Partnerships with Subscription Agents.

Beth Thornton also taught two SCCTP workshops this year. The first was an Advanced workshop in Ft. Lauderdale with Ann Ercelawn. The second was a solo Basic workshop at SOLINET in Atlanta.

University of Maryland

The University of Maryland, College Park successfully implemented a conversion to the Ex Libris online catalog, Aleph. While time consuming in itself, this did not keep UM's staff from being active in CONSER activities.

Carlen Ruschoff is one of two CONSER Policy Committee representatives to the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Policy Committee. Carlen is Chair-elect of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging. Carlen also became Chair of the CONSER Task Force on Publication Patterns and Holdings.

Jeanne Baker taught several Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program (SCCTP) courses. Jeanne and Les Hawkins (CONSER Specialist) taught the Basic Serials Cataloging Workshop and the Electronic Serials Cataloging Workshop in February at the Library of Virginia sponsored by the Potomac Technical Processing Librarians. In May and June, Jeanne also taught these courses to University of Maryland, College Park cataloging staff. Jeanne and Hien Nguyen (Library of Congress) were scheduled to teach the Advanced Serials Cataloging Workshop on Sept. 18-19 also at the Library of Virginia sponsored by SOLINET, but, due to Hurricane Isabel, this was postponed. Jeanne attended the train-the-trainer session for the Integrating Resources Workshop held at ALA midwinter. She is currently teaching the Integrating Resources Workshop to University of Maryland, College Park cataloging staff and is scheduled to teach this course on Oct. 8 as a pre-conference of the Kentucky Library Association annual meeting.

Beth Guay is a member of the PCC Standing Committee on Automation Task Group on Linking Entries.

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University of Texas at Austin

CONSER productivity continued very high, thanks to the continuation and renewal of the NEH-funded project to microfilm and catalog Mexican newspapers. The 2-year project on early-20th century newspapers was completed in September 2002, and a second 2-year project, this one focused on 19th century newspapers, began in October 2002. Full-level CONSER records are being created for both the original newspapers and the three generations of microfilm. We have capitalized on this opportunity to organize all the backfiles of Latin American newspapers, and have begun an in-house project to get them all cataloged and re-housed. To date, all known backfiles of Mexican newspapers have been cataloged, and work continues on those from other Latin American countries.

Another project that is ongoing is one to catalog microfilm of Latin American serials produced in a Title IIC-funded grant project from the early 1970s. Hundreds of UT's serials were filmed, but the film was never cataloged. As money and time permit, service copies of that film are being created, and the master and service copies cataloged, again with full-level CONSER records.

For many years, virtually all UT CONSER work has been performed in the Latin American unit. A welcome recent development has been renewed participation by the general serials cataloging staff in CONSER activity.

Finally, since January 2003, I have served as mentor for Lisa Furubotten at Texas A&M University, which is a new CONSER member. They are now essentially independent, just referring questionable situations to me for review. This has been a rewarding process, and educational for me as well-there's nothing like the need to cite "chapter and verse" to guarantee refreshing one's knowledge of procedures and documentation!

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University of Washington

The most significant event of the year for the University of Washington's Serials Cataloging Section was the move back to campus from an offsite location in early fall 2002. It was a welcome relief to get unpacked and settled in Serials Cataloging Section's newly renovated space in the Suzzallo Library. We also had many staffing changes during the year: Stephanie Sheppard, a temporary serials cataloger, resigned Oct. 18, 2002, and Kristynn Johnson, a copy cataloger, Nov. 8. 2002 - and the latter position was lost in budget cuts. We were able to hire Joanne Akeroyd as a temporary serials cataloger Feb.-June 2003. In June 2003, Caroline Marsh was reassigned from recon to copy cataloging and serials recon was suspended for the foreseeable future.

The majority of serials catalogers' work time was devoted to routine print new and maintenance cataloging, though electronic journals continued to assume an increasing presence in the section. Other specific projects worked on included the underground newspaper collection and foreign newspapers, primarily in microform. In June 2003, catalog and summary holdings records for foreign newspaper titles were sent to the Center for Research Libraries for inclusion in its ICON (International Coalition of Newspapers) database. As catalogers everywhere, we had a lot of training this year and became accustomed to the rule-related changes for AACR2 Chapter 12 and what constitutes a major vs. minor change. Steve Shadle gave the Advanced Workshop to all serials cataloging-related staff on campus in the spring of 2003.

CONSER statistics from the Serials Cataloging Section and the East Asia Library for 2002-2003 totaled 2927, with 981 titles authenticated and 1946 titles maintained. We continued to authenticate some of our catalog records at minimal (21 titles) or core level (122 titles). We also maintained 281 non-CONSER records in OCLC as part of our CONSER work. The Serials Cataloging Section contributed 71 new URLs to the CONSER PURL resolver and modified 14 PURLs. In total, 125 (of 4943) PURLs are being maintained by UW Serials Cataloging.

Steve Shadle received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Program for Cooperative Cataloging for his service to the Serials Cooperative Cataloging Training Program (SCCTP). His many training contributions this year for SCCTP were: (1) Basic Serials Cataloging -- for OCLC Western, Oct. 22-23, 2002, Anchorage, AK; (2) Advanced Serials Cataloging (with Elena Romaniuk) -- for OCLC Western, Oct. 28-29, 2002, Lacey, WA, and Dec. 12-13, 2002, Portland, OR; and (3) Electronic Serials Cataloging -- for OCLC Western, July 31, 2002, Lacey, WA; Montana Library Association Preconference, Apr. 23, 2003, Butte, MT; and ALCTS Preconference to ALA Conference, June 20, 2003, Toronto, ON. Steve's non-SCCTP training included a presentation on the new Chapter 12 for AACR 2002 for the "AACR 2002 and Metadata Regional Institutes," sponsored by ALCTS, Nov. 1-2, 2002, Chicago, IL; Nov. 4-5, 2002, Washington, DC; Feb. 21-22, 2003, Orlando, FL; and Apr. 4-5, 2003, San Jose, CA.

Jim Stickman, Steve Shadle and Kristin Lindlan contributed to other CONSER and PCC efforts during the year. Jim is a member of the Policy Committee and chairs the PCC Task Group on Assessment. Steve served on the Publication Patterns Initiative TF to Explore the Needs and Uses for Holdings and Pattern Data for Electronic Journals, Option B+ Database Issues Task Group, PURL Pilot Project Participant, and continued to serve as a member of the Electronic Serials Expert Group. Kristin continued to review Bonnie Parks' (OSU) maintenance to CONSER records this year and Bonnie became an independent CONSER Enhance participant in June 2003.

Return to the CONSER Annual Report

Appendices

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