Serials and the Internet -- Julie Iliff Stephen D. Clark 31 May 2001 18:36 UTC
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Serials and the Internet Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 10:23:41 -0800 From: Julie Iliff <anjmi@uaa.alaska.edu> Organization: Consortium Library at UAA Dear Serials Catalogers, I am new to this list. We are just beginning to explore cataloging serials on the Internet, and I am hoping this will be a good place for some ideas and answers with regard to these Internet serials. We have found seriality to be one of our most difficult cataloging problems in dealing with Internet resources, especially with regard to maintenance of added and changed URLs. I would be most grateful for some input on how you are dealing with these issues ... especially if you can provide me with examples. Here is our logical path so far... 1) We have decided to create a monographic record whenever appropriate and feasible (i.e., often a serial title will have distinctive titles (and differing subject headings) for each issue.) 2) If there exists a contents web page, listing the various issues, we prefer to use that. 856 42 $3 List of issues: $u http://www 3) If there is no such contents web page, the Acquisitions Librarian contacts the agency webmaster and requests an intermediary page. (We have not experienced much luck with this!) 4) (Worst Case Scenario - which would appear to be the most common scenario with serials.) Since there is, to the best of our knowledge, no way of inserting URLs into the serials checkin boxes/claiming program in our local DRA system, we are then left to list the URLs to each issue individually. Inherent Difficulties With Listing Each URL Individually (as an item record): a) Most serials have lots of issues! (We made the decision to limit to ten URLs, as that's what will fit on one screen.) b) URLS vs. PURLs. It is our experience (at least in Alaska) that the PURLs take longer to load. Additionally, it has been our experience that the PURLs are a misnomer - good in theory, but not "persistent." Therefore, having a PURL often simply means that it take longer to get to that "404 not found" error message. We made the decision to limit to ten URLs (total) in DRA. On OCLC for those items with both a URL and a PURL for each item, since other catalogers tend to prefer the PURLs, we decided to create an 856 for 10 URLs and 10 PURLs, alternating with URL first and PURL second, from most recent issue on. However, in DRA, we decided to edit out the PURLs, since we have found the PURLs to be slower. c) Serials tend to have the most dynamic (i.e., changing) URLs out of types of materials with which we have experimented. For example, the Acquisitions Librarian initially found 11 serial titles with their respective URLs to the issues. Out of the 11 serial titles, only 3 of the titles made it to the Technical Assistant without a change in the URLs. Included are some of these obvious (and common) maintenance issues: 1) Links that become broken links. 2) New issues that need links added. (How does one know, if there is nothing in the DRA claim system to alert the Technician, that a new link to a new issue is needed?) 3) Sometimes, the web publisher simply uses the same URL for a new issue. An example: Originally, the cataloger cataloged the issues like this: 856 40 $3 2000: $u http://www 856 40 $3 1999: $u http://www And then for the year 2001, the web publisher decides to only post the most recent issue, using the same URL that was used for year 2000, and completely cuts off 1999 and 2000. For 1999, we would get an error report to alert us that it was a dead link. However, for the 2000 / 2001 change, we would not be notified of a problem, because as far as the computer knows, there is no problem - the URL still works. (It just does not point you to the place indicated by the note.) d) When a paper serial dies but either continues or is reborn as an Internet serial, my inclination is to close out the old paper record and create a new Internet record. Is this what most are doing in these circumstances? TIA! Julie Moore Iliff Cataloger Alaska Resources Library and Information Services Anchorage, Alaska 907.786.4628