Technical Notes - e1

AVLINE ® Update - e2

Gold Standard Search - e3

In February 1998, NLM adopted the approved Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) standards for core level cataloging for non-print materials (e.g., videos, slides, and audiocassettes) for which final standards exist. The standards adopted thus far include the Core Bibliographic Record for Music and Non-Music Sound Recordings, revised April 1996, the Core Bibliographic Record for Graphic Materials (PCC CBR-GR/final, December 1997), and the Core Bibliographic Record for Moving Image Materials (PCC CBR-MI/Final, December 1997). It should be noted that, although the PCC standard for computer files is still in draft form at present, NLM expects to adopt it as soon as it is made final sometime this year.

Users will not notice any fundamental change to the content of the non-print bibliographic records, because NLM has followed its internally defined core standard for description since March of 1995 (see the March-April 1995 and November-December 1995 issues of the Technical Bulletin ). However, NLM will now contribute series authority records for those series associated with core level records to the Name Authority Cooperative Program (NACO) in conformance with PCC requirements for core.

Users who access NLM's non-print records directly using ELHILL can identify core records in AVLINE by the value of '4' in the Encoding Level (EL) field. This value is used in records which are cataloged at a less-than-full (EL=F) but greater-than-minimal (EL=L) level, according to standards set by the PCC. In ELHILL, the values in the EL field are directly searchable using the one-character search code qualified by (EL).

Example: 4 (EL) retrieves records cataloged at the core level

There is no change to the content or display of non-print records in NLM's online catalog, Locator®.

In NLM's USMARC-formatted bibliographic products, the value '4' also appears in LEADER byte 17 in records distributed to licensees of NLM's AVLINE data, where it will be used in conjunction with the code 'pcc' in the USMARC field 042 subfield a.

The text of the approved core standards which NLM has adopted is available through the Program for Cooperative Cataloging home page at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/.

NLM began cataloging continuously updated remote access databases (for example, MEDLINE®) as computer file serials in late January. This decision represents a test of the expanded definition of seriality which originated at the International Conference on the Principles and Future Development of AACR, held in Toronto, Canada, in October 1997. At this conference, devoted to a critical examination of the strengths and weaknesses of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd edition, Revised 1988 (AACR 2), a revision to the definition of seriality was proposed which reads:

"A serial is a bibliographic entity in any medium that is intended to continue indefinitely. Serials can be sequential (i.e., issued in successive parts), or cumulative (as with databases and bibliographic entities that are updated such as loose-leaf services)."

During this test, the computer file serial records are available with other bibliographic records in the AVLINE file identified with computer file in the Media (ME) field and with the Item Type (IT) field coded as 'S' (Serial). For licensees of NLM's bibliographic records in USMARC format, the records are distributed as part of the AVLINE file, with the Leader byte 07 coded as 's' (serial).

Knowledge gained from the NLM experiment will be shared with the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) CONSER AACR Review Task Force and others who are part of the AACR rule revision process.

--prepared by Meredith Horan, Cataloging Section

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