Technical Services Committee (TSC)
REPORT TO THE FACULTY
December 12, 2002
Submitted by Carol Diedrichs, Chair

Administrative — TSC normally meets six times a year on the fourth Thurs. of every other month (February, April, June, August, October, December) from 10:30-12:00. In 2002, the April and October meetings were cancelled because of meeting conflicts or because no substantial agenda items needed attention. In 2002, the committee continued to focus on a number of larger issues and leave the more minor policy decisions which do not affect users to the individual technical services departments.

2002 Activities

1. Cataloging Local Practice Changes — Magda El-Sherbini presented the background of and arguments for those policies which could be abandoned in order to conform to national standards and to save staff time. After review with TS staff, and collection managers, TSC accepted these recommendations and these practices have been eliminated.
   http://library.osu.edu/sites/cataloging/OSULCatalogingLocalPractices.htm

2. Serial aggregators — During the months that we have been considering this issue, Serials Solutions options have expanded to provide full bibliographic records for every e-journal owned by OSU, an upgrade of the original proposal to provide data in an HTML web list format. The new option could provide CONSER-level MARC bib records. Only updated records would be supplied in subsequent loads, reducing potential problems from repeated overlays in OSCAR. TSC recommended that we go forward with this enhancement and the Executive Committee has approved the expenditure.

3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations — Magda El-Sherbini and Jim Murphy reported on the workflow to catalog the electronic theses and dissertations and how they are reflected in the online catalog. With the required electronic submission beginning Autumn 2002, the volume of dissertations coming in this form will increase and replace the paper copies. Microfilm will still be received as well.

4. Tech Services Memoranda — In the past, much technical services policy was distributed in paper form via technical services memoranda. The question was raised whether Tech Services Memos needed to be systematically reviewed for currency and for adding to the TS Web. Some of this work has been done already (by Lisa Iacobellis and by CAT). It was decided that no further action needed to be taken at this point. Most important policies and procedures have been updated and on the web for some time.

5. Authorizations to Update Bibliographic Records in OSCAR — Access to the bibliographic Update function in OSCAR is a closely held authorization because of the possibility for incorrectly changing records in the database. TSC approved a policy addressing who can have access and the steps involved for granting access. http://library.osu.edu/sites/techservices/updbibrecsdoc.htm

6. URL checking — Magda El-Sherbini and Tschera Connell had been working with Laura Tull to figure out a procedure for the URL checker developed by IT. They recommended that the URL checker would be run over the entire database with the results divided between CAT and SER: CAT will get the list of bad URLs for monographs (including wwb); SER will get the list of bad URLs for wwj, www and material type "s". After this initial list is corrected, an analysis is being done of the kinds of URLs that could not be corrected. TSC decided it was premature to decide policy on how to handle these until the scope of the problem is understood.

7. Issues from OhioLINK DMSC — As issues arise at the statewide, Database Management and Standards Committee, Tschera Connell (OSU's representative to that committee) brings them to TSC for review and response. In 2002, we have reviewed issues such as problems with the web-based III Millennium packages for technical services, how bibliographic records for locally purchased resources (not available to all OhioLINK users) should be displayed in the central catalog, and concerns with TechPro's adaptation of JSTOR records for use on EJC titles.

8. Location Change from AGI to FAE — Nancy Helmick solicited input from TSC members on the impact of changing the OSCAR location code from AGI to FAES to parallel the name change from the College of Agriculture to the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. About 15 OSCAR tables are affected. Issues discussed included inherent difficulty/non-standard practice of a 4- versus 3-letter location code; less sub-location flexibility; precedent, since depts. and some colleges change names over time; patron displays; in-house training issues if AGI is retained with FAES as the definition. Updating the AGI location in all OSCAR records is a big project. However, if AGI is retained in records, it creates issues with label printing done from OSCAR records. Questions posed included the impact on: - Label printing in Collection Maintenance - Serial issue label printing in SER - Thesis/Dissertation call number construction. The decision was made to proceed with this change.

9. Encoded Archival Description (EAD) — Amy McCrory who is organizing finding aids for CGA's huge San Francisco Collection described her work with Encoded Archival Description, EAD, a MARC-compatible web display standard developed by the Society of American Archivists.

10. III Electronic Resources Management System — Innovative Interfaces' project to develop an Electronic Resources Management System now includes OSU as a development partner. This new module would allow us to include new information on license agreements, simultaneous users, and access rights to our existing OSCAR records. OSUL currently stores this data in order notes, files, etc. OSUL has agreed to be a development partner with III on this module, agreeing to purchase it in exchange for input during development. Laura Tull is the contact person working with Trisha Davis. HEA, LAW, and Regional account units will be included in the project. III does not have software available, this is a development project. III will look at OSUL needs and national trends during development.

11. IUG Enhancements — TSC prioritized and voted for its preferred enhancements to the III system in the areas of Cataloging, Serials, and Acquisitions.