USMAI Cataloging Policy Committee
May 15, 2007 Minutes

Present: Bass, Davis, Glennan (recording), Ruth, Ryner, Sipe, Williams
Absent: Hanson

Decisions/actions taken since March meeting

• Submitted Rx to remove the code 4318 (object code for BNA) from the material type index and the code list, after soliciting the opinion of the USMAI cataloging community.
• Submitted Rx to obtain material type count for law materials (CODE, BRIEF, REPT, OPINO)
• Reviewed and finalized the Evans loader specs for Salisbury and College Park and submitted them to ITD. This news was included in the latest USMAI Consortium of Libraries E-News, dated May 2007.
• Drafted a description of the algorithm used for the New Book List, distributing it to the COIs for Cataloging and Serials/Acquisitions. Also created a spreadsheet of the various loaders and specifications for item creation by these loaders.
• Updated Appendix D (USMAI Super Holdings Details) of the USMAI Libraries CatalogUSMAI Bibliographic Standards. Asked USMAI Bibliographic Specialists to review the resources in their areas of expertise listed in the Bibliography of Resources (Appendix B).
• Resolved the problem of the new 9-digit OCLC number coming into Aleph with the wrong prefix, working with ITD, PALINET and OCLC.
• Worked with ITD on the Authority loaders, records and processes as reported in the May issue of USMAI Consortium of Libraries E-News. Reviewed issues surrounding conversion of untraced series to traced without supporting series authority records.
• The Committee met on April 20 at College Park to test Version 18. The members continued to test on their own during the testing period. Wilma Bass submitted the Committee’s findings to the Version 18 Task Group May 3.

Reports on Task Groups and Committees

Bass reported that ERIC2 has not met since CPC’s last meeting.

Evans Loader

CPC completed its work and passed this task on to ITD.

Authorities Follow-up

Glennan reviewed the AUP test load results and highlighted the issues surrounding the conversion of series from untraced (490 0) to traced (490 1/8XX), even when no corresponding series authority record exists in OCLC. This occurs because LTI uses own proprietary authority records along with those in LC’s file. In effect, we have outsourced our series tracing decisions to LTI. Glennan will investigate whether or not LTI included these proprietary records for loading into Aleph. If not, CPC may need to consider the importance of having all series tracing decisions represented in the Aleph authority file. Future authority-related issues to pursue include the possibility of controlling superholdings and the submission of large record loads to LTI for processing.

Bass reviewed the use of LKR fields at HSHS showing how this Aleph-specific system capability brings related items together in the web OPAC. Because of the benefits to end users, Bass would like CPC to authorize her use of the LKR field and have this field protected in the various record loaders. CPC discussed the possible downsides, including loss of data in migration and possible confusion if HSHS remains the only campus using this feature on titles shared with other campuses, which use summary holdings notes instead. Bass will query the COIcatdbmaint list and UITG about extending the use of the LKR field and will check the AV18 release notes about any changes to LKR functionality.

CPC/AV18 implementation

CPC submitted its initial analysis and agreed that no additional cataloging training or new documentation is required with the migration to AV18. The “Enter Include Text” box, available in a browse search, remains something of a mystery. We need a better explanation from Aleph or ITD about how that search refinement works; the release notes provide very little information. Sipe will check Harvard’s documentation for further guidance.
Cross-functional proxy logins work fine now; CPC has tested D1, D4, D5, D6, and D7 logins; others will need to test D2 and D3.
Sipe reported UMBC’s problems with having item records hijacked by another campus, when the incoming record lacks an 876 field. She will contact the other campus and discuss workflow to minimize this problem. Sipe will also test this problem in AV18.
This week, CPC will send out a revised version of Ryner’s functionality testing document for AV18 to the COIcatdbmaint list.

New Titles Catalog

Ruth will revisit creating a best practices document now that the accession date triggers have stabilized. The document should include an explanation of how ITD seeded the dates of material already on the shelves.

E-mail Discussion

XREF Plus (UMBC & UB): UMBC will do a test of a dozen of these records the represent online reference sources in AV18 TEST. Sipe will create a procedure for downloading and adding holdings. The unique ID in field 001 will move to field 035 9 with a prefix before the ID. After test, Sipe will report to CPC on progress and a plan to move into LIVE.

Open Rx requests: Vicki will follow up with ITD on our 8 open Rx requests.

OCLC has cleaned up the problem with the 007 online TOC.

Revision of material types and caption codes: Bass has worked on the material type revision; work on caption codes should continue later. Sipe has some additions to make.

Davis will send a message to the COIcatdbmaint list about the values used in field 007 that cause incorrect Aleph identification of compact discs. This clean-up will likely require a manual fix.

Bib Standards Revision

Ruth sent a message to cataloging experts asking for review of Appendix B and suggestion of updated/new titles by the end of May. CPC will review the responses in June and will consider organizing these resources by category (archival, art, media, etc.).

CPC Workplan

CPC discussed and updated its workplan, which Bass will send out separately from these minutes.

Next Meeting

St. Mary’s, June 15, beginning at 10:00 AM. Topics include:

• Cataloging of e-books discussion
• Bib Standards Appendix B resources

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