Preservation microfilm queuing

Just a quick note to clarify statements in Paul Conway's query in the
4/15/93 Conservation DistList on queuing and cataloging in RLIN.

It is no longer the case that RLG requires its microfilming project
participants to queue the titles they film in RLIN.  Effective with the
creation of the currently funded Phase IV of the Great Collections
Microfilming Project, in which 15 institutions are filming materials
from 18 collections, our policy is in fact quite different.  Basically,
we expect and require institutions to ensure that the international
community is aware of filming decisions either through the queueing of a
book/serial record or the creation of a prospective film record at the
time that filming decision is made.

This activity must occur in a timely fashion and can involve inter-
active updating and cataloging in the local system or in either OCLC or
RLIN.  Our intent is to ensure that records appear in OCLC and RLIN at
the earliest possible point in the decision process so as to reduce the
likelihood of duplication of efforts.  Today's cataloging environments
are exceeding complex and we are all working toward solutions that
support national programs while not disadvantaging local institutions.
Thus, RLG's policies for preservation cataloging are as flexible as they
can be given the wide array of system implementations and applications.
A run-down of the GCMP IV project participants reflects this quite real
diversity of strategies.  (Note that some institutions are using more
than one method, depending on whether or not a "usable" record exists in
RLIN, OCLC, or in their local system.)

    10 institutions queueing directly in RLIN
     1 institution prospectively cataloging directly in RLIN
     1 institution prospectively cataloging directly in OCLC
     1 institution prospectively cataloging locally & tapeloading
          to RLIN
     2 institutions prospectively cataloging locally & tapeloading
          to OCLC

Directors of technical services in libraries have long understood that
the actions of their colleague institutions have immediate and often
negative impacts on their own operations, whether the work in question
is current cataloging or loading of retrospectively- converted records
into national databases.  Rather than submerging these issues as private
"conversations" I suggest we would all benefit from an open discussion
of the implications of various local decisions on the now international
preservation community.

Nancy Elkington - 415-691-2375 and
Laurie Abbott (bl.lxa [at] rlg__stanford__edu) - 415-691-2238

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 6:55
                 Distributed: Wednesday, April 21, 1993
                        Message Id: cdl-6-55-001
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