John & Gary, I watched John in action at MARBI during ALA and agreed with every position he addressed. And it was only in May that the migration to a new local library system forced my department to give up Gary's wonderful creation called CLARR. So, out of respect for your knowledge and opinions in general, I would like to know why you value the 440 field. As I stated in a previous email, I see a transcription field that is also an authority-controllable field as a functional inconsistency. I agree totally with your damnation of inadequate library systems and would add that they make hard-working technical servants look bad to our users, our public services colleagues and our bosses. And we see what happens when non-techno-savvy bosses make the decisions at what used to be our national library. I was voting in favor of this proposal in hopes of facilitating the work of OCLC as they try to move forward in the linking of series headings to authority records. Their success in this effort would benefit all of us no matter what the inadequacies of our local systems. Sue John Attig wrote: > At 01:46 PM 7/30/2006, Gary L. Strawn wrote: > >> Isn't it sad that this proposal--which been around in various guises >> for years--is being driven this time at least in part by featureless >> library systems? What do we pay these vendors for? (I hasten to add >> that Northwestern's own batch correction facilities have no problem >> dealing with 490s and 8XXs; and we have code in place that in effect >> undoes what's proposed here: convert a 490:1 into a 440 and delete >> the 830 when the 830 matches the 490:1.) Simply allowing people with >> inadequate library systems to use a 490:1/8XX in all cases is a >> trivial matter, and obviously doesn't cause serious problems because >> several institutions have been doing this for a while. (But please >> leave the 440 field alone.) > > > Amen, on all counts. > > I would also note that at least one authority control vendor offers to > option to do what Gary describes above: to convert 490:1/8XX to 440 > when the content of the two fields match. > > John Attig > Authority Control Librarian > Penn State University Libraries > University Park, PA > [log in to unmask] -- Sue Wartzok Head, Cataloging Department Green Library University Park Campus Florida International University Miami, Florida 33199 Phone: (305) 348-6269 Fax: (305) 348-1798