Doc. B1. Discussion and recommendations on sources of description

Report of the Task Force on Sources of Information for Online Serials
L. Hawkins, Apr. 16, 2003

Charge:

The task force was charged with recommending the preferred order of sources of information upon which to base the original description of an online serial. The focus of the group's discussion was on selecting from a number of possible metadata sources rather than on choosing a particular location within a given site. The discussion below applies to situations where the cataloger has access to more than one possible source for the description. Related print or other physical format records were also considered as possible sources of information for the description of the online version. The group worked under the assumption that one primary publisher could be determined for an electronic serial. Task force members were: Valerie Bross (UCLA), Jennifer Edwards (MIT), Edith Gewertz (New York Public Library), Les Hawkins (LC), Jean Hirons (LC), and Regina Reynolds (LC).

Process:

The group looked at defining or categorizing the possible sources and comparing them by the following criteria:

• issue level integrity: access to and identification of individual issues is maintained
• authoritativeness of content: adherence to the original content; completeness of content
• stability: degree of permanence; degree to which coverage or content is likely to change
• relative ease of access to bibliographic information

Group members suggested some categories of online serial content providers, others were drawn from the Counter Code of Practice. The Code includes useful explanations of how online content is handled and/or maintained by various entities (http://www.projectcounter.org/code_practice.html#section3). Definitions of various sources are included in the appendix and are the basis for the following discussion.

Proposed List of Sources in Order of Preference:

1. Publisher site
2. Host site or archiving site
3. Record for print version
4. Aggregator site

Discussion:

1. Publisher site: In comparison to other entities such as hosts and aggregators, the version offered by the original publisher is more likely to provide: issue level integrity; authoritativeness of content; stability; and relative ease of access to bibliographic information. For these reasons, the current publisher site is the first preferred source for description.

2. Host site or archiving site: If issues are not available from the publisher, then choose as the source of description a host site or archiving site. Some publishers, for example, Sage Press and University of California Press only (or primarily) offer electronic versions through a host such as Ingenta. On a host site, the original publisher content and bibliographic information are preserved. This bibliographic information can be recorded in the publication area (260 field) or other areas of the record without reference to the host. Similarly, archiving sites such as JSTOR preserve the content and bibliographic information of the original publisher's work.

3. Record for print or other physical format: As a third choice, use information from the record for the print or other physical format**. But be careful. In cases where print can be viewed as the primary manifestation, information from an existing record can often be considered authoritative. For some serials, however, the online format may correctly be considered the primary manifestation. In such cases, the record for print may be a poor descriptive source. Whether or not the record for print is useful may vary depending on how closely the content in print corresponds to the content online.
[**In the rest of the paragraph, the word "print" appears as a substitute for the phrase "print or other physical format"]

4. Aggregator site: As a fourth choice, use information from an aggregator Website. Aggregators often do not maintain issue integrity and generally do not maintain close adherence to the content as issued by the original publisher. Some aggregators provide limited metadata about the e-serials included in their services; but this information may be unverifiable or inaccurate. For example, ABI/Inform lists the place of publication for Industry and innovation (Print ISSN: 1366-2716) as Sydney, and the publisher as Journal of Industry Studies. But in fact, this place/publisher data refers to the previous title of the journal.

Questions for CONSER members:

1. Are there other criteria that need to be taken into account when looking at the preferences for source of description?
    
2. Does the order the group proposed seem reasonable?

Issues unresolved by the group:

3. Do we agree on what we mean by "publisher"? A group member asked about societies that might make limited issues available while a commercial publisher is listed as publisher on issues of the print and electronic versions offered by the commercial publisher. Would we automatically prefer the society as the source (with perhaps limited or only current issues) to a commercial publisher?
    
4. When we talk about taking information from the original publisher's site, are we only referring to publishers that offer full electronic versions or are we including a publisher's site that offers only table of contents of issues?
    
5. Are any guidelines are needed for using information from the record for the print version? Could records for the microform records representing a microform version of the print be considered a source?

Appendix: Definitions

Archiving site: A site such as JSTOR which guarantees the authoritativeness of content and access to bibliographic information.

Aggregator: A type of vendor that hosts content from multiple publishers, delivers content direct to customers and is paid for this service by customers. Examples: ProQuest, Gale, Lexis Nexis*

Host: An intermediary online service which stores items that can be downloaded by the user. Examples Ingenta, HighWire *

Publisher: An organization whose function is to commission, create, collect, validate, host and distribute information online and/or in printed form. Examples:  Wiley, Springer *

*Source: COUNTER: Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources http://www.projectcounter.org/code_practice.html#section3