CONSER Program Membership Information

Prerequisites for CONSER Membership

CONSER membership is open to institutions that prior to CONSER training are:

• Active, independent NACO contributors  
• Proficient in using RDA and LC-PCC Policy Statements for new cataloging
• Familiar with and have access to CONSER documentation
• Proficient in applying standardized schemes for subject analysis and classification
• Routinely contributing cataloging to the OCLC database

Benefits of CONSER Membership

• Participation in national and international cooperative bibliographic programs
• Opportunities to influence policies on bibliographic control of serials
• Ability to modify or enhance records in the CONSER database
• Opportunity for staff training by national authorities
• Interaction with colleagues in national libraries and other CONSER institutions
• Sharing contributed records through national libraries and other CONSER institutions
• Reduced costs for the use of CONSER source records
• Opportunities to serve on standing committees and task forces

Categories of Membership

The current categories of CONSER membership are Full, Associate, CONSER Enhance, and Funnel Membership. Associate Level membership includes cooperative projects as well as single institutions. A description of each membership category and the requirements related to that level of participation follow. See CONSER Editing Guide, A4.2 (Word, 69KB) for further information. Note: The Affiliate category of CONSER membership became obsolete on Nov. 9, 2020.

Full membership

This category of membership is characterized by national agencies and research institutions that have, on an ongoing basis, a high volume of serial bibliographic record creation and maintenance. New members have a review period so they can become knowledgeable about CONSER policies and practices so as to be able to contribute independently. For more information, please visit the CONSER new member review period page.

Requirements

• Use RDA and LC-PCC Policy Statements for new cataloging, CONSER documentation, and standardized schemes for subject analysis and classification
• Independent RDA NACO participant
• Contribute cataloging output routinely to the OCLC database
• Exhibit a willingness to commit institutional support (staff and financial resources) for program participation
• Demonstrate a commitment to regional and national cooperative cataloging
• Contribute a minimum of 200 newly authenticated or modified records

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Associate Membership

This category of membership includes single institutions and cooperative projects. Single institution members include those with a special subject, language, or format focus, such as state and special libraries, centers, and associations. They also include smaller research institutions that make broad contributions encompassing a range of subjects, languages and formats.

Contributions at this level are generally ongoing but may also encompass a specified time period, as for a specific cataloging project. Cooperative projects include groups of libraries that are subject, format or regionally based that have joined together to contribute records to the CONSER database. One institution is named as the project coordinator or leader. This may be a CONSER full or associate member, or an institution that is new to the program. The coordinating or lead institution represents the group on the Operations Committee. The coordinator is responsible for training, reviewing records contributed by project members until they achieve independence and begin authenticating their own records, answering cataloging and procedural questions and ensuring that participants have access to appropriate documentation.

Project members are responsible for ongoing quality control of records contributed. The following criteria and obligations with the exception of the numerical contributions apply to both single institutional members and project members. As part of the application process, project members will provide an estimate of the number of transactions to be contributed.

Requirements

• Use RDA and LC-PCC Policy Statements for new cataloging, CONSER documentation, and standardized schemes for subject analysis and classification
• Independent RDA NACO participant
• Contribute cataloging output routinely to the OCLC database
• Exhibit a willingness to commit institutional support (staff and financial resources) for program participation
• Contribute a minimum of 100 transactions per year that may include first time authentication, subsequent authentication, or maintenance transactions (Single institution members)

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CONSER Enhance Membership

This category of membership is characterized by institutions that enrich and/or maintain already authenticated records and may also maintain unauthenticated records to reflect changes in the serial title. Enriching records entails adding data to authenticated records that is not present (e.g. MeSH headings, vernacular data, classification numbers, etc.). CONSER Enhance members may elect to retain membership on an ongoing basis, or for duration of a specific project.

Requirements

• Use RDA and LC-PCC Policy Statements, CONSER documentation, and standardized schemes for subject analysis and classification
• Ability to work online on the OCLC database
• Participate in NACO and SACO, as appropriate to expected contributions
• Exhibit a willingness to commit institutional staff support for program participation
• Contribute a minimum of 50 transactions per year

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Funnel Membership

CONSER Funnels are developed by institutions based on regional, subject or other shared interests. Funnels are expedited to have a structure that provides for overseeing training and review for funnel members. No minimum number of contributions is required of individual members per year. Contributions may be maintenance or authentication of new CONSER records. Please contact: [email protected] for information on starting a new CONSER Funnel.

Requirements

• Use RDA and LC-PCC Policy Statements for new cataloging, and CONSER documentation as appropriate
• Have online access to OCLC
• Exhibit a willingness to commit institutional staff support for program participation

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Affiliate Membership (Obsolete - Discontinued as of Nov. 9, 2020 - Included here for historical purposes only)

This category of membership is characterized by vendors, organizations or other commercial service providers (e.g., abstracting and indexing services, subscription agencies, publishers) who, through contractual arrangements, enhance and maintain already authenticated records. Affiliate membership is limited to commercial vendors contracting with OCLC for CONSER participation. CONSER contributions are limited to specific fields as defined in the contract.

Requirements

• Use RDA and LC-PCC Policy Statements for new cataloging, and CONSER documentation as appropriate
• Have online access to OCLC
• Exhibit a willingness to commit institutional staff support for program participation
• Contribute a minimum of 75 transactions per year

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Applying for Membership

Information concerning CONSER eligibility and membership can be obtained from the CONSER Coordinator, Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division, Library of Congress 101 Independence Ave. SE Washington, DC 20540-4231. Preliminary inquiries can be made by emailing [email protected]

Based on the initial communication, the Coordinator will direct the prospective applicant to the likely membership category.

The application form is designed to collect information such as the strengths of an institution's collections, the number of anticipated contributions, and the number of staff devoted to serials cataloging.

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