Please note the author of this message is not a subscriber.  More
dialogue is welcome on SERIALST, but replies specifically intended
for Tony Barry should be addressed (or cc'd) to:  tony@info.anu.edu.au.
Thanks.   --ed.
----------------
Hi

Your request -

>TO: Anyone involved in managing a cooperative Union List
>
>I would like to hear from those people involved in managing a Union List
>(either serials and/or monographs). I would like  to receive information on
>the methods used to ensure member participation in reporting changes to
>the list.

Has been passed onto me by a member of the list. While I do not fall into
the category above I was involved in discussion for a Union list in our
city. To keep it cheap I proposed that each site run its own WAIS server
of its serial information. Individuals could then search all databases
simultaneously using the WAIS clients capability of linking to multiple
databases for a single search. While we got our database up the other
potential participants did not so the only demonstration I was able to do
was search, at the same time,  the Thinking Machines Library, the Columbia
University Law Library and ours for serial information.

With this approach there is no need to update a central database and each
site just maintains a copy of it's own data in WAIS format

We used the original free version of wais without the field options now
available from Wais Inc or (as of last week) FreeWais. You can search this
via wais at -

(:source
   :version  3
   :ip-address "150.203.84.20"
   :ip-name "info"
   :tcp-port 210
   :database-name "ANU-Serials-List"
   :cost 0.00
   :cost-unit :free
   :maintainer "root@info"
   :description "Server created with WAIS release 8 b5 on Jul 24 10:08:31 1992 b
y root@info
The files of type para used in the index were:
   /usr/local/INFO/.WAIS/documents/serials/ANUserials4.txt
"
)

 via gopher at -

Name=ANU Library Journals, periodicals and serials catalogue
Type=7
Port=70
Path=waissrc:/.WAIS/sources/ANU-Serials-List.src
Host=info.anu.edu.au

or WWW at

gopher//:info.anu.edu.au:70/waissrc:/.WAIS/sources/ANU-Serials-List.src

When the Z39.50 opacs are readily available we won't need union lists at
all except maybe for national listings as this multiple site searching will
be built into the protocol.

Tony

______________________________________________________________________
Tony Barry, Head, Centre for Networked Access to Scholarly Information

    Australian National University Library     | fone   +61 6 249 4632
        Canberra  A.C.T. 0200, AUSTRALIA       | phax   +61 6 249 4063
  tony@info.anu.edu.au, Tony.Barry@anu.edu.au  | telex  10717252

  I don't speak for the University - if I did I'd be in a different job