A c t i o n f o r L i b r a r i e s — O c t o b e r 2 0 0 1

BCR Expands Training Opportunities
for Technical Services Staff

By Mike Wright

This fall's BCR workshop schedule features a broader serials selection, including Serials Holdings Format (MARC Format for Holdings Data or MFHD), the return of OCLC Serials Union Listing and the debut of Basic Serials Cataloging as a BCR-taught workshop.

Serials Holdings Format (MFHD) is a hands-on introduction to this newest member of the MARC formats. Many library systems now permit full use of MFHD for encoding holdings data. MFHD has many advantages, including easier transport of holdings records during system migrations. If your local system's serials module is MFHD compliant and it can output records in MFHD, you're eligible to use OCLC's new Local Data Record (LDR) Updating Service to create and maintain LDRs on OCLC. You must already have your OCLC symbol attached to the record to use the service. For more information on the OCLC LDR Updating Service, visit www.oclc.org/oclc/specs/ldrus.htm.

The Basic Serials Cataloging workshop provides an intensive introduction to serials cataloging, based on AACR2, CONSER guidelines and the MARC format. The workshop should help make serials cataloging, often awkward and knotty to the serials nonexpert, a lot easier to understand.

OCLC Union Listing has been around so long that we sometimes take its presence for granted. But accurate union list records are essential for resource sharing, and we've found that some libraries no longer have staff who know, or remember, how to use OCLC's Union List subsystem. If you think an LDR might be a screen display, you and your library might find this workshop helpful.

Of course, we've plenty of other choices for catalogers, all ground in the real world and utilizing actual situations from AACR2 and, when appropriate, OCLC and/or the MARC format.

See BCR's full listing under Workshops on BCR's Web site or consult the most recent edition of the BCR Workshop Schedule, recently mailed to our member libraries.

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BCR Expands Training Opportunities for Technical Services Staff

BCR Expands Training Opportunities
for Technical Services Staff