News from PCC aggregator task force Jean L. Hirons 16 Sep 1999 18:44 UTC
In response to the messages relating to aggregators, I'm forwarding this on behalf of Karen Calhoun and the PCC Aggregator task force. Jean Hirons CONSER Coordinator Library of Congress jhir@loc.gov 202-707-5947 fax 202-707-6333 Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases Following lively discussions at the November 1998 Policy Committee and SCA/CONSER Midwinter 1999 meetings, Karen Calhoun and Jean Hirons (LC) prepared a charge for a new SCA task group (http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/aggregatortg.html) to carry forward automation aspects of the work of the former CONSER task group on aggregator databases. The Policy Committee approved the charge in early 1999 and work proceeded quickly during the winter and spring months. Task group members are John Riemer (University of Georgia, chair), Jeanne Baker (University of Maryland), Matthew Beacom (Yale), Karen Calhoun, Eric Celeste (MIT), Ruth Haas (Harvard University), Jean Hirons (LC), and Oliver Pesch (EBSCO). Task group members (John Riemer, Karen Calhoun) presented interim reports at the BIBCO Operations Committee meeting in April (http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/aggupdrpt.html) and at the PCC Participants Meeting in June. Other members (Jeanne Baker, Jean Hirons) spoke about the work of the task group at NASIG and AALL. To date, the task group has 1) defined the MARC content of vendor records, 2) completed a demonstration project with EBSCO, 3) met with other interested vendors (Bell & Howell and CIS), 4) sent a letter to OCLC encouraging timely release of new WorldCat Collection sets for journals in aggregator databases. The group is currently consulting with Bell & Howell on plans for a record set for ProQuest Direct. A final report is expected by the end of calendar 1999. ************Additional comments: Hopefully the interim report (URL supplied above) will be more informative than the SCA meeting notes from New Orleans cited by Crystal Graham. The excerpt from the SCA annual report provides an update--the task group has finished the demonstration project with EBSCO (though testing of loading is still very much under way at various libraries) and has engaged in further (post-ALA) discussions with Bell & Howell (Proquest) and OCLC (WorldCat Collection Sets). Both organizations appear to be making good progress toward enhancing their offerings to help libraries provide access to full text journals in aggregations via the catalog. Also of potential interest to list readers is a preprint of an article about the innovative solution to the aggregator problem at the University of Tennessee--Knoxville by Bill Britten and others. I have Bill's permission to provide you with the URL of the preprint at http://zuma.lib.utk.edu/h2h/. In addition, Jean Hirons recently alerted me and John Riemer (chair of the PCC task force on aggregators) to the fascinating response of the med library at Yale Medical School to this problem (it is more of a collection development tool, perhaps, but well worth contemplating) which may be viewed at http://gnujake.med.yale.edu/. --Karen Calhoun SCA Chair