The following segment is excerpted from the Summary of the 1999 CONSER Operations Committee Meeting
Valerie Bross (UCLA) led a discussion of a draft set of guidelines on how the single record option might be most appropriately applied to serial records. Others on the task group are: Crystal Graham, Steve Shadle, Cecilia Sercan, and Christa Hoffmann. Bross explained that Graham did most of the work in preparing the draft policy statement. She also discussed why such a statement might be possible at this time. Graham and others have been working on policies for institutions and consortia and it was Crystal who first raised the issue of whether CONSER might address the issue. Hirons has also been interested for some time in trying to define a set of guidelines for when the single record is or isn't appropriate. The guidelines would only apply to those institutions that have opted to use the single record approach for some serials.
The draft suggests three rules of thumb: the single record would be appropriate when either the online version has sufficient content to serve as a substitute for the print, or when the online version lacks sufficient content to be considered an equivalent (and perhaps as a result does not warrant separate cataloging). Separate records would be preferred when the online version contained significant additional material. A question is how to judge the degree to which the content is different from that of the print. Can we rely on statements from the publisher? In some situations the cataloger doesn't have access to the print.
Reynolds raised the issue of using an 007 in records for the print, saying that it is confusing the matter of what the record represents. The issue will be further explored to see if we want to discontinue using the 007 in print records.
There were also comments on the list of pros and cons. Carroll Davis (Columbia) said he didn't think we could tell institutions what to catalog and thus, the paper could only be suggestive, not policy. GPO will continue to use the single record for most cases according to Steve Utoff. Jeanne Baker (Maryland) noted that use of the single record technique can make it difficult to decipher what one has. Others said we should be more welcoming to its use.
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