[MinervaCats] Minerva Cataloging Committee's Minvera User Council Report

[Katherine R. Morgan]

Hi All
    Below you will find the report that was given to the Minerva User  
Council on December 3, 2008 by the cataloging standards committee.

katherine, chair

New Policies

Attendance Policy
      The attendance policy goes into effect January 2009. The  
overview of the policy is that a library needs to send a cataloger to  
three meetings or view three taped meetings in one calendar year. If a  
library does not adhere to the policy then in the following year the  
library will lose its ability to create new records or bring in  
records from Z39.50. To regain the abilities lost, a library will need  
to attend three meetings or the equivalent. The committee feels  
strongly that with the budget cut for Millennium training, workshops,  
and cataloging consultant hours that attending the meetings is vital  
to keep up with current cataloging issues and standards, and with  
Millennium software updates.

Acceptable standards policy
      When joining Minerva, the general qualifications and the  
agreement refer to the need for libraries to have ?acceptable  
cataloging records.? The Committee believes that the non-specific  
nature of the statement with other contributory factors has led to too  
many poor records being added to the Minerva catalog. In the effort to  
try to prevent any further degradation of the catalog, it is  
imperative that strict guidelines to ?acceptable cataloging? are  
established and enforced.  This policy is a general guideline for all  
libraries to improve their records. In addition, this policy will help  
catalogers to fix their records, and help when they need to do  
original cataloging.

MARC 791 Application Form
      This field is used for libraries that have special collections  
that need to be searchable in the OPAC. An example is ?Cornerstones of  
Science.?  In order to use MARC 791 libraries must fill out an  
application and send it to the cataloging standards committee for  
approval. The simple application requesting the estimated number of  
records, nature of the collection (permanent or temporary) etc. would  
be submitted to the cataloging standards committee for approval.

Clarifications

Playaways
        In response to requests for a standard since libraries have  
different policies concerning inclusion of battery and earphones, it  
was decided that Playaways would not include ?earphones and batteries?  
in the 300 physical description field, and that a 538 field be added  
to the bib record stating "Requires earphones and AAA battery." This  
will prevent libraries that provide these materials from being  
inundated with Online Requesting and that Playaways will be cataloged  
consistently.  It will be up to each library to decide if they want to  
provide a battery and earphones to their own patrons.

Blu-Ray
      There has been questions on how to cataloging the Blu-Ray discs.  
The committee decided that Blu-Ray discs will be cataloged as DVDs.  
The material type is DVD, the gmd is ?videorecording.? To make the  
Blu-Ray distinct a MARC 538 field will be used that states ?Blu-Ray  
disc.?

Maine author and use of the MARC 545 field
    The cataloging committee was asked to come up with a list of  
approved designations for the 545 field, for example: Maine author,  
Maine illustrator, etc. The committee agreed that whatever term is  
used on the Chief Source of Information would be best. The 545 field  
needs to comply with the current Minerva standard in all other  
respects including the use of subfield b.




Katherine R. Morgan
Technical Services/Administrative Assistant
Norway Memorial Library
207-743-5309