Fixed Field coding of master negatives Copies from preservation master microfilm

At the University of California, San Diego we are facing a dilemma that
is shared with other UC campuses and likely many more institutions.  We
are doing preservation microfilming to ANSI filming standards, but are
not able to store master negatives to archival storage standards.

We are anxious to let other libraries know that we are filming titles,
both monographs and serials, and are especially appreciative of the
exchange of preservation records by the bibliographic utilities.
However, only records with the code "a" in byte 11 of the fixed field
007 (Physical Description - Microforms) of the OCLC record are exchanged
with RLIN. According to OCLC input guidelines:

  -- Code "a" is used for all master films that are made on archival
     stock in accordance with archival production standards and that are
     given archival storage under relevant ANSI/NMA standards.

  -- Code "b" is used for all masters that are not manufactured,
     produced, and stored in accordance with archival standards.

Though we consider our storage of master negatives, either in the vault
in our Special Collections or at the Southern Regional Library Facility
in Los Angeles, to be quite good, it does not meet ANSI archival storage
requirements.

Thus, the dilemma: do we code records "a" and overlook strict compliance
with the guidelines?; or do we code the records "b", forego the record
exchange, and run the risk of duplicate filming efforts?  Has anyone
used the former approach and then added a note to records indicating
that master is not stored to archival standards?  Or, might an
additional code be considered to accommodate the storage issue, while
still exchanging between the utilities?  Should we approach the
bibliographic utilities about exchanging records coded "b"?

As a former cataloger, I imagine that microfilm coming through technical
processing units, with boxes labelled "master negative", "printing
negative", and "service copy" are coded "a", "b", and "c" respectively,
with no thought on the part of the cataloger to what the storage
conditions are going to be!

On a related note: How many copies can be made from a preservation
master negative and still have it be considered a master?

I would appreciate hearing from other libraries, either directly or via
this network.

Julie A. Page                 jpage [at] ucsd__edu
UC San Diego
Central University Library    (619) 534-7695
La Jolla, CA 92093-0175

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 4:51
                  Distributed: Sunday, March 31, 1991
                        Message Id: cdl-4-51-007
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