The Library of Congress
>> Program for Cooperative Cataloging
CONSER Publication Pattern Initiative
CONSER Task Force on Publication Patterns and Holdings
CONSER Guidelines for Input of Caption/Pattern and Holdings Data
1. SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
1.1. What records are included?
Though the MARC Format for Holdings Data may be used for all bibliographic
items, the CONSER Patterns and Holdings Project deals with serials
only. All successive entry records for currently published serials
(S/L=0,Dtst=c) in the OCLC database (including new records) are within
scope for the project.
1.2. What serials should have priority?
Consider current serials in the CONSER database (containing field
042 lc, lcd, nsdp or msc) as the project's highest
priority. Serials of national or international importance are of special
interest, because their data can be used in serials checkin systems
by the widest selection of libraries. Data for other current serials
(non-CONSER data, data for local serials) is of lower priority but
may be input. Data for ceased serials should not be input at this time.
When a current serial ceases, do not remove caption and pattern information
from its record. If you know that the captions and pattern given have persisted
throughout the life of the serial, you may close off the holdings statement.
See Section 6.2.3.3.
1.3. What data from currently published serials should
have priority?
The current captions and the current publication pattern (field 853), and the
holdings statement (field 863) corresponding to the current captions and pattern,
should have priority. Changes in captions and patterns should be examined to
see whether the changes warrant a new pattern field and associated holdings,
or are too minor to be regarded for the project. See
Section 3.3, "When to input a new caption/pattern field".
Older captions and superseded patterns, while still useful, have a
lower priority for input. The Task Group is examining options for handling
older caption and pattern data.
1.4. Which parts of a serial are to be included?
Because of space limitations in CONSER records, generally include only captions
and patterns for basic bibliographic units (i.e., those coded in MFHD as 853/863)
in 891 fields.
Optionally: If it is necessary to display information about an important supplement
or cumulative index which appears on a regular, scheduled basis, and there
is room in the record, 891 fields with subfields $9 854, 855, 864, or 865 may
be included.
1.5. Data maintenance
In order to maximize usefulness of this data, the project must monitor currently
published serials for changes in caption and pattern data; such a change requires
input of new 891 fields for the new caption/pattern and the holdings statement
corresponding to it. Rapid updating of caption/pattern data within bibliographic
records, if conscientiously performed, would inspire reliance on the CONSER
database as a source of serials control information for the records within
it. In order to keep the bibliographic information in sync with the pattern
data, changes to 891 fields may also necessitate changes to frequency, regularity,
and enumeration/chronology data in the body of the record.
2. CONSIDERATIONS FOR RECORD BUILDING
AND MAINTENANCE
2.1. Field definition and purpose
The OCLC Cataloging Subsystem reserves for local holdings output fields 853-855,
863-865, and 866-868 , which would ordinarily be used for input of captions/patterns
and holdings data. Therefore, OCLC field 891 has been defined to contain the
holdings data for this CONSER project. Within the OCLC record, the tag is always
the same regardless of the data content; but within the field, a subfield $9
carries the tag actually intended for MARC holdings output. The indicators
of the 891 field become the indicators of the destination tag when it is output
via programming to a MARC holdings record or a MARC-based serials control program.
Each new pattern requires a pair of fields tagged 891, the first with a subfield
$9 85X, the second with $9 86X. See Section
3.2.3.
2.2. Record length
OCLC has now removed most 510 fields from serial records in the database, so
the instructions formerly given in this section are no longer needed. See the
announcement on the CONSER web page. For further considerations on record
length, see Section 4.2.
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December 11, 2006