MARC Records From Serials Solutions ( Jennifer Bowen Presentation to UR Library Staff February 2004

2 Products Available from Serials Solutions E-Journal AMS (Access and Management Suite) –Includes A-Z List of Electronic Serials (website, Excel spreadsheet, etc.) –Most Serials Solutions customers have this product CONSER-Based full (mostly) MARC Records for Electronic Serials to load into a local system Article Linker – competitor to SFX

3 How the MARC Record Service Works Library sets up profiles to: –Choose which records to get: aggregator databases and also individual journal titles –Customize the Records Serials Solutions delivers batches of MARC records (every other month) Library loads them into their local system

4 Why are SS MARC records better than what we have now? Full, complete records for most titles (over 80% are derived from CONSER records) –Alternative titles (“and” vs. “&”) –Subject headings Single record for all electronic holdings even if in multiple aggregators –Print bib. record in Voyager will still be separate –Will need to phase this in with current records

5 Other Advantages of MARC Records Flexibility: –if we change our subscriptions, it’s easy to change which records we get from SS –Can accommodate Public Services’ Aggregator Review More timely updates –Bi-monthly rather than 3x/year (local aggregators) –Serials Solutions will maintain URLs if they change format

6 Lists of E-Journals by Subject? Two possibilities: Local solution, using class numbers in SS MARC Records (some records lack these) Serials Solutions Subject Browsing –Uses Ulrich’s subject headings –Free if we subscribe to MARC records –Integrate into our website –May or may not fit our needs

7 What Will It Cost? Subscription: $7,088 per year (or $12,758 if we subscribe for two years) Includes Waldo discount Based on estimate of receiving between 10,000 and 15,000 bib. records.

8 What Can We Customize? Record Selection For which databases do we want records? Don’t have to get them if: –full text not always available –if URLS don’t go directly to the journal title –SS administrative module helps with this Do we want brief records for titles that don’t have CONSER records –(yes, probably, to ensure full coverage)

9 More Customization: Individual MARC Records Local holdings? SS is working on this to allow more local customization –Example: NERL Science Direct set Style of URL, including wording of public note – customized by database Other MARC fields, globally (i.e for all records)

10 Possibilities for Enhancing Individual Records NOTE: These are not certain yet! We have two possibilities for making changes or enhances to records, if needed: –Make change locally in Voyager: can’t now because all aggregator records are reloaded periodically (with SS, we probably won’t need to reload all records…) –Make changes in OCLC through a CONSER Enhance Project, so that all libraries will benefit

11 Q: Why is this taking so long? A: Big Voyager Bug Problem : we can’t load records with multiple URLs and copy all URLs into the Holding Record automatically We are the only library with this problem – related to our use of single- record technique and displaying URLS from Holding Records

12 Timeline of UR Discussions Fall 2002: Started talking about SS Records. Knew we couldn’t do it until after upgrade because of Voyager bug May 2003: IMS SS Workflow Task Force looked into whether we could make it work: –Erin, Sharon, Denise, Kostya, Jennifer –Visited RIT –Corresponded with SS on questions –Monitored SS Discussion List

13 Timeline (cont.) July Voyager upgrade to –Bug was supposed to be fixed. –Loaded SS test records – they didn’t work! July-Dec Melinda pushed Endeavor to fix the bug, as they had promised October SS suggested work-around –Test records loaded ok, but maybe problem with long URLS –Melinda pushed Endeavor to investigate this too

14 Timeline (cont.) January 2004: –Endeavor informed Melinda that they won’t fix the bug until the Unicode release (next summer at the earliest!) –We decide to go ahead with presentation to staff –Long URL problem? We’ll find a local fix (even if manual)

15 Serials Solutions’ Workaround to the Voyager Bug They will provide records with ONE URL that we can copy to MFHD (no problem) URL will point to websites that they maintain that contain multiple URLs. They want to start moving other customers to this model. Test Records in Voyager… –New Mexico State University

16 SS Test Records in Voyager (Records say TEST RECORD – DO NOT USE) Multiple URLs : Abacus ABA journal ABA banking journal ABA bank marketing 33 metal producing Single URLs: 21 st century fuels 401(k) advisor AAAS report AB bookman’s weekly ABA bank compliance ABC news transcripts

17 Any Disadvantages??? It won’t be perfect right away! –Some local holdings may need adjusting –We will need to fit these records into what we’ve already cataloged in Voyager –An ongoing project We will still have a few brief records –Some won’t have subject headings, alternate titles, etc.

18 Summary Serials Solutions MARC Records will give us: – clearer OPAC displays – more flexibility – better records – more timely updates Cost: ca. $7,000 per year (subscription)