Abstract
Technical services representatives from University of California (UC) campuses formed a collaborative partnership to enhance local access to serials catalog records while also creating a mechanism for preserving local record data. This project was built upon the principles of a decentralized, cooperative cataloging system later envisioned by the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control. A pilot project based on the UC's strong historical relationship with CONSER (Cooperative ONline SERials) provided the impetus for moving UC serials cataloging towards an efficient, high-quality single enterprise.
INTRODUCTION
The cataloging environment is rapidly changing, particularly for serials and electronic resources. Librarians are struggling to cope with the many changes thrust upon them by an increasingly complex and connected world of information access and the goal of providing reliable, efficient, and consistent access to valuable collections. Sarah Gardner, E-Resources Serials Librarian at the University of California, Davis, and CONSER cataloging librarians Melissa Beck and Valerie Bross from UCLA were part of a partnering project to facilitate shared cataloging for the entire UC system of libraries. The benefits of this system would include the ability to upgrade CONSER authenticated records for unique materials of great value to all libraries in the system. Financial savings for the institution would be in the form of greater OCLC credit, fewer staff hours devoted to duplicate maintenance tasks, elimination of the need to create and rely exclusively on local documentation and the ability to more easily address cataloging backlogs at individual libraries. Library users would be provided with greatly enhanced access to collections, thus increasing the net value of the UC system collective holdings.
BACKGROUND
The University of California system is comprised of ten separate campuses with multiple libraries, each with unique collections and needs. They contain collective print holdings of 32 million items, a shared catalog (Melvyl) and two remote geographically distant storage facilities. Several different integrated library systems are utilized: Voyager, Ex Libris, Gladis (homegrown system), and Innovative.
UC campuses also share the vast California Digital Library (CDL) collection, which consists of licensed commercial content, digitized UC content, electronic journals, electronic monographs, databases, and links to websites. From 2000 to the present all cataloging and maintenance for CDL titles is managed at one campus, University of California, San Diego, under the auspices of the Shared Cataloging Program (SCP). This cooperative model demonstrates how standards and policies can facilitate local maintenance tasks to the benefit of an entire system. System-wide cataloging policies were established as were local campus decisions regarding acceptable record variations and local data retention and protection. For example, with one exception all campuses utilize a single-record approach. This allows SCP to manage any maintenance relating to electronic access. However, they are still prevented from systematically dealing with changes such as title variations discovered by local campuses and then incorporated into the local integrated library system (ILS). With the 2004 implementation of automated SCP processing necessitating complicated overlay algorithms and maintenance reporting, SCP became overburdened, record updating was delayed, and local campuses became concerned about their record changes being eliminated when the SCP record was imported. For one campus in particular, University of California, Davis, all of these elements created a “perfect storm.”
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
UC Davis was an RLIN library for many years. This meant very few UC Davis holdings records were in OCLC. UC Davis also adopted AACR2 significantly later than other campuses. With the onset of a very large 2005 OCLC reclamation project, the magnitude of the problems with matching records in the system became apparent. SCP lacked the resources to assist UC Davis struggling to address the serious problems pertaining to local collection records.
UC Davis catalogers quickly realized that they were taking extraordinary and time-consuming measures to protect their valuable RLIN records, particularly when they were unique or contained local data that should have been included in the OCLC record. The ability to edit OCLC CONSER-authenticated records would allow staff to take the burden of record maintenance from SCP as well as preserve the local data as records were overlaid. Unfortunately, UC Davis was not a member of CONSER, although two other UC campuses, UCLA and UCSD, were. UC Davis staff appealed to those campuses to help them toward the goal of being able to update and replace CONSER records in OCLC.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SYSTEM AND CONSER
The University of California system has maintained a close relationship with CONSER beginning with the 1973 Toronto meeting of the original task force that established a program to cooperatively build a comprehensive catalog of serials records housed and distributed by OCLC. The project was known as CONSER I, a serials conversion project. CONSER was refocused in 1980, the acronym renamed “Cooperative Online Serials,” and UCLA joined as a full member. UCSD followed in 1996. Visionary Pat French, Head of Serials at UC Davis and member of the Heads of Technical Services (HOTS) advisory committee, undoubtedly influenced by the local situation at Davis and the work of dedicated CONSER specialist Les Hawkins (among others), brought the CONSER model of cooperation back to the University of California system as a whole.
Led by John Riemer, Head, Cataloging and Metadata Center, the UC Bibliographic Services Task Force (UC BSTF) issued a report in 2005 containing recommendations for technical services. One of the recommendations included redesigning the UC cataloging system into a single enterprise. John Riemer and Pat French subsequently developed a plan to create a UC CONSER Funnel. The plan was prepared and submitted to UC Administration in December 2005. By mid-March 2006 the plan had been approved by UC Heads of Technical Services, the Library of Congress Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC), and OCLC Western.
UC CONSER FUNNEL
The UC CONSER Funnel was envisioned as a small group of coordinators guiding a larger group of local liaisons at each campus. After Pat French left the UC system, Valerie Bross at UCLA assumed the responsibilities for putting all the pieces into place. The UC Funnel was successfully established in 2006 and reports to a system-wide cataloging group. The infrastructure of the CONSER Funnel is anchored by three key positions: UC Funnel Coordinator, Valerie Bross; Training Coordinator, Melissa Beck; and Communications Coordinator, Renee Chin. These three positions oversee the activities of campus liaisons, site trainers, and cataloging reviewers.
Campus liaisons provide leadership for CONSER cataloging at each campus. They oversee quality control, training, and relay questions, suggestions, and problems to UC Funnel coordinators. Current campus liaisons include: Adolfo Tarango (UCSD), Valeria Bross (UCLA), Sarah Gardner (UC Davis), Carole McEwan (UC Irvine), Lisa Rowlison (UC Berkeley), Elaine McCracken (UC Santa Barbara), and Sharon Scott (UC Riverside).
Under the direction of Melissa Beck, UC Funnel site trainers and reviewers are responsible for introducing staff at each campus to CONSER maintenance and performing initial review cataloging for campuses being trained. UC CONSER catalogers Sarah Gardner, Adolfo Tarango, Margaret Christean, and Peter Fletcher are serving as principle trainers and/or reviewers.
Funnel trainers visited the first campuses, UC Davis and Irvine, to explain CONSER policies and reviewing procedures. Renee Chin set up the Funnel website and listserv. Funnel Coordinator Valerie Bross set up CONSER and OCLC authorizations for those campuses. CONSER catalogers from both UCLA and UC San Diego reviewed records submitted by UC Davis and Irvine. Both campuses were trained and put on review by May 2006.
As of 2008, training at campuses in Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Santa Barbara, and Riverside has been completed. The system has seen significant OCLC savings due to CONSER enhancement credit. SCP records lack fewer errors, are current, and are distributed weekly, thus benefiting the entire system.
LOGISTICS OF IMPLEMENTATION
The first phase of the UC CONSER Funnel project focuses on maintenance of existing CONSER records. Some campuses are not members of the Name Authority Cooperative Program of the PCC (NACO), and CONSER records authenticated at the 042 lcd level are required to have name authority records backing up added name entries. Therefore, non-NACO members cannot replace a CONSER record if it does not contain established headings. UC is able to address this by utilizing NACO campuses in the Funnel to assist non-NACO UC campuses with established headings.
UC campuses under review also needed a way to communicate local record changes to the reviewing institution. To streamline the process, the MARC 910 field is used to indicate changes in an offline OCLC record, which is then reviewed, edited if necessary, and sent back to staff at the institution under review to make the needed changes in the local ILS. Most of the work is completed informally through e-mail.
Some remaining challenges include getting the non-participating campuses involved, increasing the level of involvement for campuses already contributing, and finding ways for Funnel members to assume more cataloging and maintenance tasks. SCP faces deep budget cuts that will curtail current cataloging activities, including cataloging for electronic California State documents. UC CONSER Funnel members may be able to assist with some of these important cataloging activities for the benefit of the entire University of California system.
IMPLICATIONS
The University of California system, large, complex, and geographically diverse, demonstrates that a CONSER Funnel project may realistically be implemented in any setting with careful planning. It is important to identify those individuals who will be key players and who are committed to achievement through cooperation. A project should have identifiable and realistic goals. It must include clearly defined tasks to achieve those goals. By beginning small, carefully documenting, consistently communicating, and enlisting passionate colleagues it is possible to be a force working toward a vision of a world of bibliographic control that is collaborative, decentralized, and cooperative and that ultimately benefits everyone.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
| 1. | CONSER Cooperative Online Serials. CONSER Cooperative Online Serials. 2008. http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser/ (accessed July 10, 2008) | ||||
| 2. | Library of Congress Bibliographic Control Working Group. News and Press Releases. 2008. http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/news/ (accessed July 10, 2008). | ||||
| 3. | Program for Cooperative Cataloging. NACO Name Authority Cooperative Program of the PCC. 2008. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/naco/ (accessed July 10, 2008). | ||||
| 4. | Rosanna M. O'Neil, “CONSER: Cons … and Pros, or, What's in it for Me?” Serials Review, 17, no. 2 (1991): 53–62, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00987913 | ||||
| 5. | Program for Cooperative Cataloging. Program for Cooperative Cataloging. 2008. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/ (accessed July 10, 2008). | ||||
| 6. | University of California Libraries Bibliographic Services Task Force, “Final Report: December 2005.” University of California Libraries. 2005. http://libraries. universityofcalifornia.edu/sopag/BSTF/Final.pdf. | ||||
| 7. | University of California Libraries. UC CONSER Funnel Program. 2008. http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/hots/conser/ (accessed July 10, 2008). | ||||
| 8. | University of California, San Diego. Melvyl@UC San Diego. http://ucsd.worldcat.org/ (accessed July 10, 2008). | ||||
CONTRIBUTOR NOTES
Sarah Gardner is Electronic Resources Serials Librarian and CONSER Cataloger at University of California, Davis.
Melissa Beck is Senior Catalog Librarian and CONSER Cataloger at UCLA Law Library.
Valerie Bross is CONSER Cataloger at UCLA.
Lisa S. Blackwell is Serials/Research Librarian at Grant Morrow III, M.D. Library, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio.