Re: Creating checkin records Marcia Tuttle 03 Feb 1992 22:00 UTC
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 08:28:00 PST Reply-To: "SEREDIT: SERIALST Editors" <SEREDIT@UVMVM> Sender: "SEREDIT: SERIALST Editors" <SEREDIT@UVMVM> From: Karen Darling <KDARLING@OREGON> Subject: Re: Creating checkin records Although a number of people have submitted comments to the list about the pros and cons of where to start to create checkin records for the online system, there is one consideration which tipped the scale at the University of Oregon which I have not seen mentioned by anyone else. At the University of Oregon we created our records as pieces came in. We did it that way because our manual files were not in the best of order and we knew that we had "dead" records in the file. We were not able to afford to purchase unlimited space for checkin records and did not (still do not) have the staff to do all the needed evaluation of the records prior to input. So, by adding records only for those for which we had a piece in hand, we were sure that we were creating records only for those titles currently being received. As time permits, we return to the manual file of cards without online checkin records and try to determine if the title has ceased, we dropped off of a gift mailing list, etc. Another thing I have not seen mentioned as people comment on this subject is the need for a definite plan regardless of which method is chosen. The mistake that I believe was made at the University of Oregon was that there were few firm definitions of what belonged in the records. We have had to return to many of our records to add fields, codes, etc. later because the uses for the fields and the extent of what we wanted included in our records had not been well enough thought through prior to beginning input. The most useful document the terminal operators could have had in front of them while inputting would have been something which told them exactly which fields, etc. had to be present to make the record complete. And there needed to be firm guidelines for where certain pieces of information should be recorded for consistancy. For example some records were input without binding and claim parameters and some were input without the order portion of the record, just the checkin portion. The system works for checkin without these elements but it doesn't work well and we had to go back and complete the incomplete records. There were reasons things were done this way, which I will not go into here, but hindsight tells me that we would have been ahead to prepare such documentation before we started. Karen Darling kdarling@oregon.uoregon.edu Head, Serials Dept. kdarling@oregon.bitnet Knight Library (503) 346-3063 voice University of Oregon (503) 346-3094 fax