Announcement: CONSER Standard Record: Comments due Jan 29

Draft documentation related to the CONSER standard record is available at the following site: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/conser.html.
Comments on the drafts are due by January 29, 2007. More information about submitting comments is given at the end of this message (the remainder of this message is the Introduction to the CONSER standard record as given in the documentation on the site).
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The Policy Committee of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) has endorsed the recommendations of the final reports submitted by the Access Level Record for Serials Working Group and the Working Group on Authentication Codes and Encoding Levels for Serials and Integrating Resources.
The implementation of the CONSER standard record will occur in two stages. The date for the first stage has been set for February 1, 2007. Implemented at that time will be changes from AACR2 supported by policy decisions recorded in the drafts of Library of Congress Rule Interpretations posted on this site; also implemented then will be a change in LC/PCC policy to supply conflict-breaking uniform titles in only some situations.
(The second stage of the implementation is scheduled for May or June of 2007.)
The goal is to provide in an effective and timely manner a record that consistently ensures identification of and access to a serial title. To that end, the Working Group defined the set of required elements needed in every CONSER standard record. All other elements are optional, but not precluded, and can be added as needed based on cataloger's judgment.
The new CONSER documentation posted on this site supports the CONSER standard record. The new and revised LCRIs support the policy decisions allowing different practices from those in AACR2 rules.
The deadline for comments on the draft versions of the CONSER documentation and of the LCRIs is January 29, 2007. Send comments on the CONSER documentation to Diane Boehr (boehrd@mail.nlm.nih.gov) and Regina Reynolds (rrey@loc.gov); send comments on the LCRIs to cpso@loc.gov. These comments should relate to the clarity of the wording of the documents, not to decisions related to the adoption of the CONSER standard record.

Judith A. Kuhagen
Senior Descriptive Cataloging Policy Specialist Cataloging Policy & Support Office Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 20540-4305
202-707-4381
202-707-6629 (fax)
jkuh@loc.gov