Summit on Serials in the Digital Environment

Publication History

The notion of Publication History (formerly called “Universal Holdings”) as a useful concept for the serials community grew out of discussions of the CONSER Publication Patterns Task Force during ALA Annual in June 2001. Prior to that time, shareable publication patterns were seen primarily as a method for providing prediction data for serials control systems.

The first definition read: “A [Publication History] Data Record includes the complete pattern and published holdings of a particular title. It does not reflect the holdings of a particular library, but does express an ‘ideal’ complete run or set of a particular bibliographic entity.” This information, potentially analogous to the bibliographic record (which describes the title as a whole, regardless of where local holdings might begin) contains detail that can be re-used in a library setting in a variety of ways. Creation and maintenance strategies for Publication History information parallel those for bibliographic information, and a pilot project has been underway within the CONSER database for over two years.

Use cases in development by the CONSER Task Force to Explore the Use of a Universal Holdings Record, explore the relevance of Publication History information for inventory, interlibrary loan, management of back files in repository settings, preservation planning, archiving and other situations where the more limited idea of “library holdings” is insufficiently broad.

Recent discussions by the Task Force have centered on the use of Publication History as a part of a FRBR-based strategy to manage relationships between electronic, print and archival versions of titles as well as title changes. The centerpiece of this strategy is the idea of the “super-record,” which corresponds to some extent with the Work level, although with somewhat different functions. “Super-records” would manage the various relationships between versions and titles over time, and serve as the place where Publication History is linked to the body of bibliographic records representing the life of a title.

Although this idea is newly articulated, it contains the seeds of a reasonable, relatively low impact solution to problems with management of serials in the electronic age. The Task Force is currently working on a discussion paper on “super-records” which will be distributed prior to the Summit.

For further information, see the Task Force’s documents, available at: http://content.nsdl.org/dih1/PubPatt/index.html

Publication History Diane I. Hillmann, Cornell University, Chair, CONSER Task Force to Explore the Use of a Universal Holdings Record