Publication History Diane I. Hillmann

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Publication HistoryDiane I. Hillmann
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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

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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.

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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)

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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
  havent gone away

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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

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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.)

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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

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Its about Relationships

• Horizontal or equivalence relationships
• Versions (print, digital, microform)
• Vertical or temporal relationships
• Title changes
• Current issues/backfiles

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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?

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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

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Wheres 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

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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!

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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

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Some examples

• http//content.nsdl.org/dih1/PubPatt/chemRes
• http//content.nsdl.org/dih1/PubPatt/carleton.html