Library of Congress' Decision to Cease Creating Series Authority Records

On April 20, 2006, the Library of Congress indicated its intent to discontinue the creation of Series Authority Records (SARs) - see http://www.loc.gov/catdir/series.html for the full announcement. 

How does this affect BSLW projects?

Authority Control: Fortunately BSLW has options in place to handle series authority processing.  Current authority control options include

• Standard Series Processing Option:  We attempt to match all 4XX headings.  If we find a match and the authority record is traced (645#at), the series is treated as traced and appropriate 8XX tags are created and/or the 490/8XX tag is collapsed into a 440 tag.

• Trace All Series Processing Option:  An 8XX Series added entry field is created for every series heading regardless of the tracing practice or match status of the heading.

• No Series Processing Option:  No authority control is provided for any 4XX or 8XX fields found on your database.

• Custom Series Processing Option:  The client indicates specific needs for processing their 4XX and 8XX tags.

Because LC is no longer creating SARs, there will likely be fewer matches in the future for series authority headings.  BSLW has standard reports in place to alert its authority control customers to any series headings unmatched to an authority record; these headings can then be reviewed by BSLW's Manual Review service or by the Library staff.


Cataloging: BSLW standard practice is to follow its client Library cataloging practices.  If the client Library requires the creation of series authority records for its project, BSLW is able to create the SARs on its client's behalf.  BSLW is able to handle series statements in bibliographic records according to the Library's specifications.

BSLW is not currently a NACO contributor, but is considering this as a way to help its clients create and contribute SARs to the NACO file.

OCLC/RLG Merger

On May 3, 2006, OCLC and RLG announced plans to merge organizations, programs, and databases - for the full announcement, see http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/200618.htm. 

BSLW has a long-standing partnership with RLG for access to the RLG Union Catalog, including the RLG/BSLW co-owned automated copy cataloging service Marcadia.  At the same time, BSLW has a close working relationship with OCLC, and OCLC has subcontracted retrospective conversion and cataloging projects to BSLW.  OCLC has assumed the contract between RLG and BSLW. 

For retrospective conversion and cataloging projects, BSLW searches the most appropriate databases available for its clients, whether the BSLW in-house database, LC, CURL, the RLG Union Catalog, WorldCat, or other requested database.  This will continue to be our practice.  Any retrospective conversion or cataloging projects currently under contract requiring access to the RLG Union Catalog will be honored by use of the RLG catalogs while available.  We hope that use of WorldCat will be available to any current contracts after the RLG Union Catalog is unavailable, but this is yet to be determined. 

Marcadia will continue to be available while the RLG Union Catalog is still available.  Our understanding is that the OCLC and RLG implementation teams will evaluate all OCLC and RLG services related to database use to determine where overlap occurs, and the possibility of retaining the features and functionality present in the separate environments in a combined database form.  We will keep our clients and prospective clients updated with the OCLC/RLG merger progress as it relates to BSLW projects.

For any specific questions or comments, feel free to contact Maritta Coppieters, Vice President of Sales, at 800-288-1265, ext. 227 or by email at maritta@bslw.com.

 

By Maritta Coppieters