The Triangle Research Library Network is installing the DRA online system,
and some preliminary decisions include indexing.  A crucial decision for
serial catalogers is whether or not to index (and use as access points in
the OPAC) the 760-787 linking fields of the MARC record.  So far there is
no unanimity even here on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus about this.  We must
also reach accord with Duke and North Carolina State.  Written literature
gives next to no help, and library practice, we observe, varies widely.

Our present online catalog retrieves on both author and title of all
linking entries. To combat retrieval overload, we in the UNC-CH Academic
Affairs Library regularly delete many non-780/785 linking entries. All
the while, we have regretted the loss of linking information, which
might be useful down the road (e.g. Melissa M. Bernhardt's 1988 article
in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly).

The CONSER Editing Guide, section D, "Links," seems to prefer 730's for
"tracings" and "added entries." Here's the wording: "Linking fields do
not take the place of added entries because linking fields do not generate
tracings. Likewise, an added entry in field 700-730 does not take the place
of a linking field, because the added entry field does not provide the
machine link." Jean Hirons of CONSER at LC clarified some of this
terminology for me, defining "machine link" as the control numbers
which can be used to retrieve other records; but she did not think the
statements constituted an official position on whether linking fields
should be access points in OPACs, and she urged me to ask libraries in
the field. (Unofficially, she suggested indexing 780-785's only as
OCLC does.) So here goes:

Has any library made a conscious decision to use (or not) linking fields
as access points in the online catalog? If so which ones and why?
Are you happy with the decision?

Has anyone devised a way to use the control numbers in linking fields in
some other way to improve access to serial records? Is any processing re-
commended for these so that they can be manipulated in some future, more
sophisticated environment?

    Please reply to the list or to friedar@unc.bitnet. I will summarize.
Thanks!

          Frieda Rosenberg, Serials Cataloging
          CB #3914 Davis Library
          University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
          Chapel Hill, NC  27599-3914