VIVA User Services Committee
Subcommittee on Cataloging and Intellectual Access
Minutes for April 10, 1998
Williamsburg, VA

Present: J. Ogburn (ODU, Chair), D. Badertscher (W&L), K. Cary (VCU), E. Day (JMU), B. Heyman (W&M), T. Kearns (W&M), C. Kiehl (ODU), C. Lewis (JSRCC), K. Meizner (ODU), J. Shieh (UVA)

(1) Guidelines for Cataloging VIVA Electronic Collections

A number of comments on the March 5, 1998 draft of the VIVA Guidelines were received by the Committee. A lively discussion followed on several issues including the single record approach for multiple formats, ongoing vs. static publications, and the need to strengthen the Guidelines' statement of purpose. Several Committee members mentioned that our intention is not to create cataloging policy, but to provide guidelines for libraries in Virginia.

As a result of the discussion, Day and Shieh will make several minor changes to the document. Ogburn will present the Guidelines for approval at the User Services Meeting in Charlottesville on April 24.  Shieh will accompany her in case technical questions arise. Several ways were suggested to further publicize the Guidelines once they are approved, including an announcement in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly or AN2 (the electronic newsletter of ALCTS), a poster session at ALA, and wider distribution on appropriate listservs.

(2) Trial Access to OCLC

Ogburn reported that VIVA will be sponsoring a trial access to OCLC via a dedicated TCPIP line in May. She was asked by the Technical Issues Committee to explore whether catalogers want to set benchmarks for the performance of OCLC during the trial. Committee members expressed their willingness to try to set benchmarks for the trial. A number of questions were raised about how to most effectively measure response times and about technical issues concerning the use of the trial dedicated line. We decided that we need more guidance from the Technical Issues Committee. Ogburn will get further information about the trial from Jeff Barry at ODU.

(3) VIVACAT-L

In February VIVACAT initiated a listserv related to the cataloging of electronic resources in order to promote communication among Virginia librarians. The listserv contains messages about the Guidelines, cataloging standards, VIVACAT minutes, and other practical questions.

Shieh reported that 35 people have now signed up for VIVACAT-L.

Ogburn reminded Committee members that the listserv is an important means of disseminating information and to communicate through it whenever possible.

(4) Status of the VIVACAT Article

At our last meeting in February we discussed the possibility of writing an article on the history and dynamics of our Committee along with relevant technical issues. Cary has been working on this and reported on her progress. She reminded us that the Committee met for the first time on July 26, 1996. This was our tenth meeting. Cary talked about the formation, purpose, development and future directions of the Committee. Among the Committee's accomplishments are becoming a part of the VIVA structure, serving as a forum for discussion, laying foundations for cooperative cataloging efforts, and providing the Guidelines for cataloging electronic resources. Possible future directions include the approval of the Guidelines, further development of the listserv, providing cooperative cataloging records, working closer with vendors of electronic resources, and exploring the feasibility of a union catalog or Z39.50 interface for the state.

Cary will continue working on the rough draft and forward it to Ogburn.

(5) Update on Chadwyck-Healey Records

Shieh reported on the status of the cataloging records available for the Chadwyck-Healey databases. There are more than 9,000 records for these databases. Loading the C-H records and sharing them among VIVA participants will benefit libraries throughout the state. William & Mary was successful in making local adjustments to the flat ascii MARC records loaded from UVA's ftp site. Heyman said that William & Mary would be willing to work on getting C-H records in US MARC format so that they would be available for other VIVA libraries. The first batch will be the test file of six records. Shieh and Kearns agreed to draft a letter to Chadwyck-Healey about the problems we have encountered in using their records.

(6) TSAR Program

The Spring program sponsored by TSAR will take place at the Library of Virginia on May 15 from 1:00-4:00 P.M. "Tracking a Moving Target: Internet Resources in the Online Catalog" will feature Erik Jul, Associate Director of the OCLC Institute, and a panel of colleagues.

The program will cover issues related to maintaining bibliographic records for electronic resources. OCLC's PURL software will also be discussed. Day asked for volunteers to participate in the panel discussion afterward to present the Virginia perspective.

(7) Union Catalog

The Committee briefly discussed revisiting the idea of a union catalog for VIVA. Everyone was encouraged to give this some thought and to read the article by Cliff Lynch on the subject. Cary will send the citation to the Committee.

David Badertscher
Washington and Lee University