OCLC MEMBERS COUNCIL REPORT
First, let me say what a pleasure it is for me to become your new correspondent from OCLC Members Council. Thus far I have attended two Members Council meetings: February 9-11, 2003 and May 18-20, 2003. From these meetings two topics have emerged that are of interest to OLAC and its members. The first is OCLC's concern about what it refers to as "record nabbing", by which non-member libraries add to their own catalog bibliographic records that are part of the OCLC bibliographic database. Discussion around how OCLC could limit this practice included such suggestions as:
- requesting removal from the BookWhere list and other similar lists
- shutting down Z39.50 access from local catalogs
- setting local catalog parameters to allow some but not unlimited Z39.50 access
- discussing with local systems vendors methods to configure systems at start-up to allow or disallow such access
It was also suggested that an OCLC pricing structure more amenable to small libraries could limit this practice by encouraging them to become members.
The other topic of interest for OLAC is FRBR. According to Glenn Patton, who gave a report on the current state of FRBR, the timeframe for incorporating FRBR terminology into AACR is within the next ten years, likely somewhere between 2005 and 2007. MARC will likely remain unchanged, but there may be increased use of some currently infrequently used codes. One example given was that of relator codes. We may see an increased emphasis on authority control within FRBR, especially as authority records are used to represent and delineate "works" and "expression levels". The concepts of "work" and "expression" are still very complex, but are becoming clearer with use. Hopefully this increased clarity will result in library catalogs that are easier for patrons to use successfully. For more information about FRBR please consult OCLC's FRBR Web page at <http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/frbr/index.shtm>.
Respectfully submitted,
Kevin A. Furniss
Cataloging/Systems Support Librarian
William Howard Doane Library
Denison University
(For more on the May meeting, see:
<http://www.oclc.org/oclc/press/20030530a.shtm>)
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Last updated: September 3, 2003
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