Publication HistoryDiane I. Hillmann

Background

Formally the CONSER Task Force to Explore the Use of a Universal Holdings Record

In the process of defining a Publication History record and determining what role it might take in a new view of serials

Working Definition:

“A Publication History Record includes the complete pattern and published holdings of a particular title. It does not reflect the holdings of a particular library, but does express an ‘ideal’ complete run or set of a particular bibliographic entity.”

Our traditional view of serials

Based on the serial TITLE as the main focus

Title is the central node in library systems, from it hangs: Subscription info OPAC description and access info Version info (even if those relate to

several bibliographic records)

The bad news about tradition … Multitudes of title changes Multiple versions of each title Subscriptions and licenses to manage Archival and preservation concerns

for print and digital versions Storage, maintenance and circulation

issues haven’t gone away

The good news about tradition … Descriptive standards for serials still

make sense at the title level FRBR ferment is prompting us to

think in new ways about relationships and the need for description at other levels

Underutilized Holdings has the potential to tie some of this information together

Moving Up … and Down

To the traditional serials title description, we need to add:

UP: A Super-record DOWN: Ways to link to and

manage article level descriptions DOWN: Potential for links to and

management of parts of articles (images, tables, etc.)

The Super-record and FRBR

FRBR concepts may apply to serials differently than to monographs

Super-records are a logical place to attach a Publication History record MARC Holdings record describing the

title as published not as held by a particular institution

Template for holdings information at lower levels

“It’s about Relationships”

Horizontal or equivalence relationships Versions (print, digital, microform)

Vertical or temporal relationships Title changes Current issues/backfiles

Issues, articles, and article bits

Uses for description and aggregation at a lower level of granularity Managing link resolvers Subscription and license management Publishing patterns of the future?

Engaging the players

Data exchange protocols cannot be bi-directional--many potential uses exist for data in standard formats

Potential exchange partners: Subscription agents Publishers Library system vendors Libraries

Where’s the HUB?

Is MARC Holdings a basis for exchanging data between these partners? Pros: based on real usage over a long

period (since 1985); well documented; non-proprietary

Cons: complex; no installed base outside libraries

Some issues:

MARC Holdings and citation practice are not currently aligned, but talk about the same kinds of data

MARC Holdings not used or understood outside libraries

Efforts towards simple expressions for use in publisher oriented systems seem to deny the fact that serial complexity is not the creation of libraries!

Presenting complexity to a user

Library systems have traditionally relied on text-based displays

Users are increasingly comfortable with more visually sophisticated displays

Ability to do the latter depends on standard information

Some examples

http://content.nsdl.org/dih1/PubPatt/chemRes

http://content.nsdl.org/dih1/PubPatt/carleton.html