Recommendations for LIB HAS Summary Holdings Statement Standards (4/97)

August 23, 1993

TO: OhioLINK Library Advisory Council
FROM: Database Management and Standards Committee
RE: Recommendation for LIB HAS Holdings Statement standards

Early in the development of OhioLINK, the Policy Advisory Committee decided that that holdings information must be included in both local and OhioLINK Central catalogs. How this holdings information was to be recorded, i.e. with item record for each piece, or checkin records with LIB HAS summary holdings statements, was not specified. To date, thousands of item records and checkin records with LIB HAS statements have already been created and loaded into local catalogs and into OhioLINK Central. These LIB HAS fields are displayed to the public in three parts of the OhioLINK network of catalogs:
1.    the local site catalogs
2.    the OhioLINK Central catalog
3.    the OhioLINK UMI databases

At both the local site and at OhioLINK Central, users have the option to view detailed holdings as well as the summary holdings shown in the LIB HAS field. In the UMI databases, only the LIB HAS summary holdings information is displayed.

The Database Management and Standards Committee is now recommending a standard format for reporting summary holdings of serials in the LIB HAS field of the INNOPAC checkin record. Many of the LIB HAS statements already in local catalogs and at OhioLINK Central are fully or partially compliant with these proposed standards, and the Committee is not recommending a requirement that these existing LIB HAS statements be changed to conform to the proposed standard. However, we feel that it is imperative that standards for new LIB HAS statements be adopted by OhioLINK so that, as far as possible, users will be presented with a clear, easily understood, statement of each library's holdings. Consistency of reporting will facilitate traditional interlibrary loan procedures and will be critical to the success of patron-initiated requests for citations in the OhioLINK external databases.

The Committee has worked with the User Services Committee and with staff at the OhioLINK libraries to develop standards which meet the needs of both the public and library staff. These proposed standards are consistent with the currently accepted national standards for reporting summary holdings: ANSI Z39.44-1986, and the earlier ANSI Z39.42-1980. The Committee recommends that Level 3 summary holdings statement conventions be followed, and further recommends that Option A -- volume and year information recorded together, along with captions -- be the preferred format. Libraries opting to report holdings at a more detailed level, i.e. Level 4, should follow the ANSI Z39.44-1986 guidelines.