Risky Business: Outsourcing Serials Cataloging

"Risky Business: Outsourcing Serials Cataloging" was presented by Faye R. Leibowitz at the 2007 NASIG Annual Conference. Her session was recorded by Michael A. Arthur for publication in the Serials Librarian.

Leibowitz’s presentation discussed the University of Pittsburgh’s experience with outsourcing serials cataloging for a special collection. The collection contained approximately 1, 200 serial volumes, mainly focused on international studies. She outlined the workflow for sending volumes to TechPro for cataloging, including searching for already held titles prior to shipment. The process taught them several things. First, recording holdings in the local catalog requires substantial in-house work after titles are cataloged. Having a stable team to handle this part of the project is desirable and should be planned for. Second, monograph versus serial decisions made by TechPro were not always consistent with how the library had treated the same titles in their other collections. Finally, student workers were not always reliable. In summary, the presentation stressed that outsourcing serials cataloging is a risk. Their project began in 1999 and as of 2007 they were still working on clean-up from the project.

Published in: Serials Librarian, vol. 54, no. 3/4 (2008), pages 253-260.

NASIG 2007 Conference Proceedings Available

Co-editors Carol Ann Borchert and Buddy Pennington have announced the availability of the conference proceedings for the 2007 NASIG Annual Conference on the NASIG Web site. In order to view the proceedings, you must log in as a NASIG member.

Not a NASIG member? The proceedings will also be published as vol. 54, no. 1-4 of the Serials Librarian.

NASIG Annual Conference: Call for Proposals

NASIG 24th Annual Conference: Riding the Rapids Through a Mountain of Change
Asheville, North Carolina, June 4-7, 2009

The 2009 Program Planning Committee (PPC) invites proposals and/or program ideas for pre-conference, vision, strategy, and tactics sessions. The Program Planners are specifically interested in hearing from publishers, vendors, librarians, and others in the field of serials and electronic resources about issues relating to scholarly communication, licensing, and publishing. Proposals based on both descriptive and experimental research findings are especially welcome.

The Program Planning Committee will review all submitted proposals for their content, timeliness, and reserves the right to combine, blend, or refocus proposals to maximize their relevance and to avoid duplication.

This Call for Proposals will close on September 5, 2008. Presentations must be original and not previously presented at other conferences. The Programming Planning Committee hopes to notify applicants by the end of the calendar year, but no earlier than December 1, 2008, as to the status of proposals.

Inquiries may be sent to the PPC co-chairs, Erika Ripley and Morag Boyd at: prog-plan@nasig.org. For additional details and to suggest a proposal or idea, click here.

"Evaluating and Improving the Presentation of Serials Information in the Online Catalog" by Lori J. Terrill

Abstract:

Many factors should be considered when evaluating how serial publications are presented in online library catalogs. Both patrons and library employees utilize the catalog to locate serial titles and then must be able to determine which formats are available, as well as which issues are available in each format. Consideration of both the recording and display of serials data should be part of a thorough evaluation. This paper presents an outline for an evaluation focusing on meeting user needs. It also provides advice based on the experience of undertaking a successful project at the University of Wyoming Libraries.

This article can be found in Library Resources & Technical Services, vol. 52, issue 3 (July 2008), pages 192-204.

Integrating Resources: A Cataloging Manual

The May 2008 revision of Integrating Resources: A Cataloging Manual is now available on the CONSER home page. It also constitutes Module 35 of the CONSER Cataloging Manual.

FRBR for Serials, Part 2

Back in April I posted about Adolfo Tarango's "FRBR for Serials: Rounding the Square to fit the Peg." Here's the summary of the discussion at the CONSER Operations Meeting:

Adolfo presented his paper FRBR for Serials: Rounding the Square to Fit the Peg. The paper defines a serial authority record to present the “work segments” of a serial work represented by title changes associated with a serial work. This concept was widely applauded by the group. It seems useful as a stand alone record or as part of a relational database where connections could be made to bibliographic records for each work segment. The serial authority record could be generated from existing 780, 785 fields in bibliographic records which make up the work segments. The bibliographic record structure proposed in the paper was somewhat more controversial, involving the consolidation of many different format records onto one record.

The proposal sparked a useful discussion and resulted in the idea for reforming the CONSER FRBR Task Group with specific goals in mind:

• Look at several different proposals for defining serial FRBR structures and how they might fit into the RDA implementation scenarios.
• Include vendor representatives on this group
• Consider the need for authorized ISSN from the ISSN Network for the work authority structure and possible roles of linking ISSN in the bibliographic record structure
• Provide this group with a firm, practical charge

Action: The CONSER FRBR Task Group will be reformed with a new charge that incorporates the above goals.

Who: Les will work with the existing co-chairs to redraft the charge and recruit new/additional members. [Since the meeting staff from CPSO have volunteered to take part in the group.]

When: Summer 2008

For more information about the CONSER Operations Meeting, see my previous post.

CONSER Operations Meeting Summary

The summary for the CONSER Operations meeting held May 1-2, 2008, is now available.

Contents include:

• OCLC Report
• Standing Committee Roles
• RDA Update
  
• Aggregator Neutral Records for Online Monographs
• Integrating Resources Training Manual Revision (expect a revision in fall 2008)
  
• CONSER Standard Record (CSR) Discussion
• ISSN Report
• FRBR for Serials
• Registry of Digital Masters (RDM)
  
• ... and more!