Interim Report of the 2nd Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases

The issue of how to provide adequate and timely access to the titles of the full-text publications available to subscribing institutions within aggregator databases continues to generate strong interest in the library community. The first group posted its January 2000 final report to the SCA home page and it is currently available at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/aggfinal.html.

The Policy Committee charged a second task group to pursue further progress in 2000-2001. The reconstituted membership consists of John Riemer (UCLA, chair), Jeanne Baker (University of Maryland), Matthew Beacom (Yale), Ruth Haas (Harvard), Kyle Banerjee (Oregon State University), Steve Oberg (Endeavor), SCA liaison Karen Calhoun (Cornell), and LC liaison Jean Hirons.

In the spring, the group surveyed the institutions known to have downloaded the Ebsco set of test records. Libraries that have successfully loaded the set in their OPACs include California State University, Northridge; University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire; Yale; and eight different online catalogs within the University System of Maryland, including the global database of all USM libraries. These libraries represent a variety of OPAC systems. Northridge consolidated data onto print-version record (the single-record technique), while the others loaded the data as separate records across the board. Yale has succeeded in loading subsequent record sets, demonstrating the feasibility of maintaining the currency of a record set.

As evidence that these records make a difference, one can consider what Jina Wakimoto reported in a poster session at this past June's North American Serials Interest Group meeting. In a five-month period following the load, Cal State Northridge's use of Academic Search Elite has doubled from approximately 5000 to 10000+ searches!

The task group continues to lobby for vendor creation of sets of machine-derived records for major aggregations. Throughout the summer the task group has had discussions with John Law and Connie McGuire at Bell+Howell, and issuance of records for ProQuest titles is reportedly very near.

In continuing to raise awareness in the library community and to report progress on the aggregator front, the large majority of the task group members have made presentations and/or published on the topic.

Report submitted by John Riemer
October 25, 2000