MARC Records Task Force members: Robin Horowitz (convener), Kathleen Ashe, Robert Bothmann, Carla Dewey Urban, Mary Ann Greenwald, Adam Marsnik
The MARC records task force was convened in order to create guidelines for consortium member libraries who wish to import MARC records, supplied by vendors other than OCLC, into the MnPALS consortium union catalog. The task force was also charged with setting minimal standards for these records. It is important that bibliographic records meet certain standards as it facilitates structural and indexing requirements of the catalog, for the purpose of display and retrieval of information. Adherence to standards in bibliographic records also facilitates the transfer of MARC21 metadata into other metadata schemes, such as Dublin Core or MARCXML, for use in public interfaces which may employ these schemes in the future.
Although it is not the role of the task force to require OCLC membership, it is recommended, as it is a means for individual libraries to have access to a larger consortium with defined quality control standards. OCLC also provides a connection to libraries beyond the MnPALS consortium, expanding the boundaries of a library’s resource sharing through the contribution and downloading of records.
Members of the MnPALS consortium will be allowed to import records from sources other than OCLC. However, if they are OCLC members, they must fulfill their OCLC contractual obligations by setting their holdings in OCLC for these records, or contributing these records to the OCLC database if not already there. Contractual obligations for OCLC members can be found at: http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/contribute/principles/
All records imported into MnPALS consortium union catalog must meet MARC 21, encoding level 2 (OCLC “K” level standards). For information and guidelines about these standards, we refer you to the Library of Congress Program for Cooperative Cataloging BIBCO home page, core record standards. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/bibco/bibco.html
Because libraries may want to import records from sources other than OCLC, PALS will allow for the use of record import tools other than OCLC Connexion into SYS01. Any questions or issues regarding the technical aspects of importing non OCLC records into the MnPALS catalog should be brought to the PALS office. Any questions or issues regarding the quality of non OCLC records for import into the PALS catalog should be brought up to the PALS cataloging user group steering committee, who will take on the role of advisor for these concerns.
Any consortium member, who believes that another consortium member is not following these guidelines, has the right and responsibility to bring their concerns to the attention of the PALS staff via PALS help, and PALS will then consult with the cataloging user group steering committee in order to take the appropriate action.
March 2007