CONSERline
~~~~~~~~~~
Newsletter of the
CONSER (Cooperative Online Serials) Program
ISSN 1072-611X
No. 3 Library of Congress November 1994
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CONTENTS
New York Public Library Joins CONSER
Linda Bartley Resigns
Linda Bartley: An Appreciation
CONSER People
About CONSER
CONSER Documentation Update
Next Issue of CONSERline
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NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY JOINS CONSER
CONSER is pleased to announce that the Research Libraries of the
New York Public Library (NYPL) have joined the Program as a full
level member. As a full member, NYPL will contribute
authenticated records and be represented on CONSER committees.
NYPL is one of the five largest libraries in the world and has a
collection of over 400,000 serial titles. The Research Libraries
collect serials on a broad range subjects, from the humanities,
arts, and sciences to genealogy, local history, and the
performing arts. These materials are in many languages,
including non-Roman vernacular scripts. The Serial Cataloging
Section, which will be the first group to work with CONSER,
processes all Roman alphabet publications and catalogs printed
materials, microforms, electronic formats, and mixed media.
Other divisions cataloging serials include the Oriental, Jewish,
Slavic and Baltic, and special format divisions (e.g., Map). In
addition, the Serials Retrospective Conversion Project has a two
year objective of converting 100,000 records to machine-readable
form.
NYPL was a pioneer in the automation of cataloging. They began
with a local system in 1972 and since 1981 have been contributing
their cataloging to national databases on RLIN and OCLC. They
were a founding member of the Research Libraries Group.
Karen Hsu, Chief of the Cataloging Division, describes NYPL as
being in a *high spirit of cooperation, not only in theory but
also in practice.* They joined NACO in fall of 1993 and are now
an independent member, contributing records via RLIN. NYPL will
continue to contribute headings in this way until OCLC's PRISM
authority module is available.
While NYPL uses Library of Congress subject headings,
classification is based on several in-house systems. These are
the Billings classification and a fixed-order location scheme by
size of an item. Billings is a subject classification designed
by NYPL's first director, Dr. John Shaw Billings, in 1895. Both
types of numbers are input in field 099 and are not retained in
the master record on OCLC nor distributed to others.
The Serial Cataloging Section has a staff of ten professional
librarians and five technical assistants. According to Ms. Hsu,
*cataloging ... serials requires a certain mind-set. It is like
an acquired taste; once you have come to love it you stick with
it. Perhaps that is why nine of the fifteen staff members have
been with the Section for over 15 years.* Edith Gewertz, Head of
the Section, will serve as the representative to the CONSER
Operations Committee. Ms. Hsu will serve as the representative
to the Policy Committee.
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LINDA BARTLEY RESIGNS
By Jean Hirons (Library of Congress)
Linda Bartley, Coordinator of the CONSER Program, resigned from
the Library of Congress on November 3rd, 1994. In November 1993
she left the Library for a year's leave of absence in order to
spend more time with her two young children. After a very
successful and full year at home she concluded that she could not
return to work at this time. While the decision was difficult,
those of us who know Linda know that she cannot do anything half-
heartedly and applaud her decision to devote her time to her
family and community. But we will miss her.
Linda's contribution to the library community, and particularly
to serials cataloging and control, is immeasurable. She began
her involvement with serials in 1973 by organizing the Boston
Theological Institute's participation in the newly-formed CONSER
Project. In 1976 she came to the Library of Congress as the
director of the National Serials Data Program. During the next
six years she was instrumental in NSDP's cooperation with the
United States Postal Service, as well as planning and
implementing the CONSER Abstracting and Indexing Coverage
Project.
In 1982 Linda became the second CONSER Operations Coordinator,
following Dorothy Glasby. Under her stewardship the project grew
into a nationally-acclaimed program. Among her many
accomplishments were the decentralization of authentication, a
CONSER retreat that laid the foundation for the current
management structure, expanding membership to A&I services and
subscription agencies, and editing the CONSER Editing Guide.
Linda also played an important role in the creation of the United
States Newspaper Program. In addition to her CONSER-related
duties, in recent years she became instrumental in the
development of a serials control system for the Library.
Linda has always been a strong advocate for standards. She was
active in developing and promoting standards for serials, and
served on several Z39 subcommittees, as well as the NISO
Executive Board. Another major concern was how potential
solutions to some of the major problems of the day might address
serials. Of particular interest were the problems related to
multiple versions and format integration, to which she dedicated
many hours in order to assure that serials would be adequately
accommodated.
Underlying all of Linda's endeavors has been a strong commitment
to the importance of libraries and the Library of Congress' role
in that community. Of particular interest has been the
relationships that we create--between records, between different
libraries, and between libraries and others in the information
community. One of her favorite projects was the development,
with Julia Blixrud and Maureen Landry, of a proposal called
*Lioncat* that envisions a relational approach to cataloging that
would capture the essential information about an item and its
relationships to other items, as opposed to focusing on its
description.
In 1992 she was awarded the Bowker/Ulrich's Serials Librarianship
Award for her many contributions to serials librarianship. In
her endorsement of Linda for that award, Linda West, now chair-
elect of the CONSER Policy Committee, noted that *while there
have been others ... who have contributed to [CONSER's]
resurgence, anyone observing can see that Linda's organizing
skills and devotion have been pivotal in driving the program
forward. Linda Bartley has made a considerable contribution to
serials librarianship, one that makes her stand out among her
colleagues.*
I would like to add a personal note of appreciation. I have
worked closely with Linda since 1983 and could not have asked for
a better mentor, colleague, and friend. I join many others in
the Library of Congress, in CONSER, and in the library community
in thanking her for her contributions and in wishing her well.
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LINDA BARTLEY: AN APPRECIATION
By Ron Watson (UCLA)
[Editor's note: The following remarks were given at a party in
honor of Linda Bartley, held in conjunction with the CONSER
Operations Committee meeting, on November 3, 1994.]
I want to remind us of three and a half events of our Bartley/
CONSER history, suggest a musical analogy, and give thanks.
On October 10th, 1978 at the first meeting of the CONSER
Operational Staff Group in Columbus, Ohio, the first thing Linda
Bartley said (she being head of NSDP at the time) related to a
discussion on the proposal for NSDP authenticated records to be
unlocked so that CONSER participants could enhance the records
online, rather than having to handle the upgrading through
modification requests. As I recall, she said we should have a
gentle persons' agreement to not touch the 022 and 222. It was
our first lesson in true cooperation.
In those early CONSER days in Ohio, OCLC ran the Operations
meeting, but by 1982, though the meeting was still in Ohio, the
agenda was by Linda Bartley and the meeting run by Linda and John
Levy.
In September of 1983 (still in Dublin) Linda proposed that CONSER
participants be allowed to self authenticate records. She
proposed changes to the 042 codes which included redefining code
*lcd* to indicate descriptive CONSER authentication used by
independent NACO/CONSER participants.
With her proposal in 1978 to unlock NSDP records and this 1983
proposal for self authentication, Linda led the move to make
those of us in CONSER coequal partners with LC catalogers in the
Serial Record Division. She gave us the opportunity to be
responsible.
For her last act as CONSER Operations Coordinator a year ago,
Linda was able to expand our horizons even farther. She enlisted
the expertise of the subject specialists in the Cataloging Policy
and Support Office and lead us in the very successful CONSER
Subject Seminar. This was another act of faith and high risk
on Linda's part, for which I'm personally very grateful.
So much for a little Bartley/CONSER history. Now, the musical
analogy.
In a review in _Time_ magazine in January 1994 on the finest
orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi (Cleveland Symphony),
Michael Walsh closes his review with this:
*What finally explains Cleveland's eminence is the happy
intangibles that previously elevated Stokowski and
Philadelphia, Karajan and Berlin, and Solti and Chicago to
musical supremacy: leadership, talent, discipline and
desire, perhaps especially the last.*
I would contend that what raised Bartley and CONSER to
cooperative online cataloging supremacy were the same happy
intangibles: leadership, talent, discipline and desire, but most
especially the first.
For your leadership and all those other happy intangibles, Linda
Bartley, your orchestra thanks you.
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CONSER PEOPLE
Idalia Acosta retired on September 30, 1994 from the Cataloging
Branch of the National Agricultural Library (NAL). She
represented NAL on both the CONSER Policy and Executive
Committees. Ms. Acosta came to the Washington D.C. area in 1961
when she and her husband and three children left their home in
Cuba. Initially she taught calculus and chemistry at Immaculata
College while working on her masters degree in library science at
Catholic University. During these years she and her family
housed many Cuban refugees, one of whom was Xavier Suarez, the
future mayor of Miami.
Ms Acosta's involvement with serials began in 1976 when she
became a serials librarian at NAL. With the encouragement of
CONSER Operations Coordinator Linda Bartley, she applied for and
received the job of Head of the Serials Branch in 1984. In 1987
she became Head of the Cataloging Branch. During her tenure, NAL
joined CONSER and became an active participant in cooperative
cataloging. Since her retirement she has moved to Jonesboro,
Georgia.
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ABOUT CONSER
*The Impact of CONSER on Serials Cataloging* was the topic of
discussion at the Copy Cataloging Discussion Group's session
during the annual meeting of the American Library Association in
Miami, June 1994. Representatives of small and medium size
libraries spoke on how they made use of the CONSER database and
what CONSER as a whole had meant to them. While there were some
complaints about the presence of latest entry and pre-AACR2
records, the overwhelming expression was one of appreciation and
approval. Describing CONSER as *one constant we can all count
on,* Cecilia Leathem of the University of Miami, noted that she
has experienced an 85% hit rate for CONSER records and the
assurance of quality cataloging copy has allowed her to become a
serials manager while technicians do much of the copy cataloging.
Linda Kimsey, Marietta College, spoke on the value of CONSER for
training, and the usefulness of documentation such as the _CONSER
Cataloging Manual_.
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CONSER DOCUMENTATION UPDATE
A new edition of the _CONSER Editing Guide (CEG)_ will be
available from the Cataloging Distribution Service, Library of
Congress, in late December or early January. The new 1994
edition completely replaces the earlier text and its updates.
The 1994 edition will be issued in two volumes, with Part I and
the fixed fields in one volume and all variable fields and
appendices in the second. New sturdier binders are included in
the subscription price. The new edition includes all changes to
the variable fields resulting from the first phase of format
integration. Only those fields that are considered relevant to
serials have been added. All examples have been reviewed and
updated to reflect the changes in the _AACR2_ amendments and
those caused by format integration.
Update 2 to the _CONSER Cataloging Manual_ will also be available
late December or early January. The new update includes changes
to the base text, Part 1, resulting from format integration, the
_AACR2_ amendments, and recent policy decisions. In addition to
changes to the base text, the update contains a new module,
*Module 32, Microform Serials.* *Module 30, Direct Access
Computer File Serials,* has also been completely revised in
anticipation of format integration.
Information on prices, subscriptions, and availability will be
available soon from the Cataloging Distribution Service, Library
of Congress.
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NEXT ISSUE OF _CONSERLINE_
_CONSERline_ no. 4, to be issued prior to ALA midwinter 1995,
will describe the newly defined CONSER core record, and cover
other issues discussed at the November CONSER Operations
Committee meeting.
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_CONSERline_ (ISSN 1072-611X) continues the newsletter, _CONSER_,
and is published at least semiannually by the Library of
Congress, Serial Record Division. _CONSERline_ is a cooperative
effort with contributions from program members consisting of news
of the CONSER Program and information of interest to the serials
cataloging community.
For comments or suggestions, contact the editor: Jean Hirons,
Library of Congress, Serial Record Division, Washington, DC
20540-4160, jhir@loc.gov (e-mail), 202-707-5947 (voice),
202-707-6333 (fax).
_CONSERline_ is available in electronic form only and is free of
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All materials in the newsletter are in the public domain and may
be reproduced, reprinted, and/or redistributed as desired.
Citation to the source is requested.
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Library of Congress