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The following is from an email message:


Subject:     Proposal for Location Codes

Date:     March 29, 2001

From:     Tschera Connell (connell.17@osu.edu)

To:     Carol Diedrichs (diedrichs.1@osu.edu)


Carol,

You have asked me to make a proposal for a location code for CORC resources. Because we can pull CORC resources from OSCAR through the use of a Boolean on the 910 field, I have begun to wonder about the usefulness of such a code. I've tried to think about what is unique about CORC resources that might require a separate code. CORC defines a work flow but I think running a Boolean to identify them is sufficient for examining work flow issues. CORC resources are free, but we use other location codes for resources that are paid and for other resources that are free. From another perspective we have excluded from the CORC work flow some web resources (i.e. web journals) that are free. Therefore, I would like to propose an alternative approach.

I propose that we:

  • continue to use wwj for e-journals,
  • define a new code, wwb, for e-books (e.g. NetLibrary),
  • use www for everything else.

Currently we use www for databases, but defining a database is a slippery task. Many of the web resources in CORC are databases so it would be hard to distinguish between databases and CORC resources. Of course, I don't know for sure whether CMs need the distinction, but I haven't heard anything makes me think they might.

I am also wondering whether using wwb for e-books will take care of the needs of CMs to be able to group e-books. I have some concerns about defining another nonstandard code (in addition to the "s" we now use for serials) for MAT TYP. MARC defines BIB LVL for publication patterns (monographic vs seriality) and MAT TYPE for format (computer, video, microform, print). If systems supported the double coding, the double coding is much more flexible than relying on a single code. I am concerned that if in the future systems become more sophisticated and begin to handle the double coding for groupings we could have another major retrocon clean-up to perform. Therefore, if a location code satisfies the immediate needs of public services to identify e-books (i.e. they don't need to scope by e-books), then this proposal to use wwj, wwb, and www, will help to solve two issues at once.

--Tschera

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