San Diego Circuit 856 Task Group Meeting
July 31, 1997 University of San Diego
Reviewed Nov 9, 1998, by Crystal Graham

REPORT OF THE MEETING

Present: Becky Culbertson, Ryan Finnerty, Crystal Graham (recorder), Tony Harvell, Perry Mack, Diane Maher, Kathy Whitley

  1. FILE TYPES OF INTERNET DOCUMENTS CATALOGED. All of the libraries reported that most, if not all, of the Internet resources they have cataloged or plan to catalog are gopher or http files. We agreed that we would always include the gopher/http address in the 856 wherever one exists. Other access methods (e.g., telnet, email, ftp) can be described in a natural language note. There are so few records representing other access methods we will not spend time developing 856 displays for them. The question arose as to whether a Web catalog will be available for the Circuit in January or whether that will be a future development. Presumably people specifically seeking Internet resources will use a Web catalog with hypertext links to the resources described. (See Questions section).
  2. CATALOGING METHODOLOGY. Most of the Internet documents cataloged so far by SDSU, USD, and CSU-SM are "composite" records describing print (or microform) and Internet versions on a single record. This is the standard practice of the Government Printing Office and so far most of their Internet records are for GPO publications. UCSD is evenly divided, having cataloged around 300 independent Internet sites and 300 composite records. All campuses have cataloged a small number of related web sites (e.g., tables of contents) and UCSD also has made pointers to approximately 200 finding aids.
  3. CIRCUIT STANDARD FOR MULTIPLE VERSIONS. We agreed to adopt a "composite" record approach for multiple versions for original and copy cataloging as the SD Circuit standard. Whenever a record for a print/microform version exists on OCLC, we will use that record and add information about the Internet version, regardless of whether any of us own the print/microform version. This standard will ensure that the records for all versions of a publication will merge in the Circuit catalog, since all records will have the same OCLC number. [Related issue: We are also discussing a similar single-record approach for microform reproductions of periodicals].
  4. BIBLIOGRAPHIC TYPES CATALOGED. All campuses have cataloged Internet resources that are serials and monographs. Some records for CD-ROMS include pointers to the Internet versions. UCSD has also cataloged Internet maps and finding aids. Some of the map versions are not exact equivalents (and are not added to the OCLC record). The pointers to finding aids appear on records describing the archival materials. SDSU has cataloged a few sites with brief "metadata" or "pamphlet-level" cataloging. These are created locally and do not have OCLC records.
  5. RESTRICTED ACCESS SITES. All campuses have cataloged Internet resources with access restrictions such as IP address restrictions or passwords. This information is recorded in each library's local system and the information pertaining to the base record library will appear in the Circuit.
  6. RESTRICTED ACCESS NOTES. The base record library will add information about access restrictions for other campuses to the Circuit record upon request. Provision of this information is voluntary and in general was not deemed to be critical since most users will consult their local catalog before checking the Circuit catalog. We hope to use the status codes to make this information more useful to the users (see questions below).
  7. STANDARDS FOR 856 SUBFIELD CODE USAGE. The subfields we plan to use in the 856 field are listed below. Note that all subfields display in the line-mode catalog:

    8. $u This subfield contains the URL of the Internet resource. If no $z is present, it will display in the Circuit web catalog as: CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING TO: Connect to http://. . . This is the subfield that controls hotlinks so it is required for all gopher/http addresses. Despite the OCLC/MARC notation that this is a repeatable subfield, it should not be repeated in a single 856; separate 856 fields should be used for each URL.

    $z This subfield contains notes intended for the public. It should be used to describe access restrictions, specific software requirements (e.g., Adobe Acrobat reader required), and specific material coverage (e.g., tables of contents). The URL does NOT display in the web catalog when a $z is used. Sometimes libraries have chosen to repeat the URL in the $z but its inclusion in this field is optional. In the line-mode catalog both the $u and $z will display.

    The $z data displays following the phrase CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING TO: Catalogers should word the $z so that it makes sense, such as "CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING TO: Connect to the electronic version of the journal (Access restricted to UCSD IP addresses only)." GPO and CONSER records frequently have a "$z Online version:" which needs to be reworded to make sense.

    Despite the OCLC/MARC notation that this is a repeatable subfield, only the first $z will display in the web catalog. One note should be worded to include all information for the public (as in the example above).

    $2 This subfield is currently required for http/gopher addresses. It will be replaced by an indicator value in a forthcoming MARC update. We agreed to continue to accept it for the time being and do a cleanup when the update is implemented since it will facilitate the recoding.

    $3 This subfield tells what material is covered on the Web site (e.g., tables of contents, abstracts, partial contents). Presently this subfield does not display in the web catalog, so the information needs to be transferred to $z. We would like Innovative to display this subfield.

  8. NATURAL LANGUAGE NOTES. All campuses reported using a natural language note (fields 500/530/538) in addition to the 856 field. We agreed to continue that practice since it is needed in the line-mode catalog, but the inclusion of the URL in the note is optional.
  9. CALL NUMBER CONVENTIONS. Each campus reported having special location codes and call number practices for Internet resources. We agreed that the terminology does not have to be consistent among the campuses, but that we should think about the impact on the Circuit catalog when devising location and call number practices so that the information is intelligible in that environment.
  10. GENRE/FORM HEADING. We determined that it would be useful to patrons to be able to find all full-text Internet resources in a single search. We agreed that each campus would input a genre heading for Internet resources in the form: 655 7 Online resources $2 local. This heading will be used for both records that describe an Internet resource and those that describe a print resource with a pointer to an Internet version of the resource. We will NOT use this heading on records that merely contain pointers to related web sites (e.g., abstracts, tables of contents, etc.).
  11. URL VERIFICATION. UCSD has a mechanism for verifying the URLs in their records and will correct them in OCLC and the Innopac catalogs as broken links are discovered. The other campuses are trying devise methods for verifying URLs. If they happen to discover a bad link/updated link for a UCSD base record, they can report it to UCSD. Kathy Whitley mentioned that Release 11 will have the ability to convert Boolean files to hypertext documents for view in the web OPAC. When Release 11 is implemented, we will investigate whether this new capability could be used in the verification process.
  12. OVERLAYING URLs. We did not have any good ideas for making sure URLs are not overlaid.
  13. STANDARDS FOR 006/007. We agreed that original records would be created according to OCLC guidelines, in which 007 and 006 fields are optional (except for computer file serials which must have both). UCSD indicated that they will include these fields on all records due to Melvyl's capability to use them in form limit searches. The other libraries indicated they would wait until Innovative develops the capability to use these fields and then will add them retrospectively.
  14. ITEM STATUS CODES. We want to learn more about the options available for item status codes. The ideal displays would show Internet resources that are freely available as "Available" (or a word like "Online") but those with restricted access as "Campus use only." [Note that we prefer "Campus use" to "Library use" since the resources are limited to campus IP addresses, not just the libraries themselves.] Most of us currently have a special status code for online files and we would need to recode these into separate codes for restricted/unrestricted Internet access.

QUESTIONS:

1. Will the Circuit catalog be available as both a Web catalog and a line-mode catalog when it first becomes available to the users?

2. Can the $3 of the 856 be displayed in the Web catalog?

3. What are the options for item status codes? We would like to have a more appropriate code than "available" and "not available" for Internet sites, such as "Campus use only" for those with IP address restrictions. What is the algorithm for status code displays?