----------------------------Original message----------------------------
On October 22, 1997 Joanne Perry posted a question to this list on behalf
of J. Kohut at Portland State University regarding undertaking a
retrospective conversion project with Portland State's map collection.
Following Phil Hoehn's initial answer I posted a reply myself in which I
mentioned the use of Marcive records here at Penn State. Towards the end of
my reply I made the statement "We recently mounted Marcive records for maps
at our place and have had little problems in retrieval..."
 
I wish to apologize to Mr. Robert Fleming of Marcive, Inc. for not being
clear as to Penn State's use of Marcive products, and in fact found out
that I wasn't exactly sure about what I was saying in this regard also
(they say it is good for one to learn something new each day, well, I
really did learn something new this time!). Please allow me to clarify my
earlier statement.
 
Pennsylvania State University Libraries began subscribing to Marcive,
Inc.'s "shipping list" records early in 1997 (possibly late 1996, there was
a delay on our part in actually getting them into the system for use),
which are loaded into our LIAS database. These records are used for
check-in purposes against materials we receive as a part of our status as a
regional depository in the federal depository program. As you can imagine,
the vast majority of items coming to us are non-cartographic, but we do
receive maps as well.
 
A part of the routine of cataloging maps here includes searching against
our own OPAC to determine if a title has been cataloged in the past and
needs to be either upgraded or merged into a more complete bibliographic
record (one downloaded from OCLC as an example). Bibliographic records
existing in The Cat include minimal level records meant to give a patron
access through either a brief title, a geographic subject heading, or a
call number, "full level" records cataloged during the advent of AACR and
later AACR2, and now full bib. records either created as originals or
downloaded from external sources, primarily OCLC or RLIN. We also have in
the database records called "order records" which are created in
Acquisitions as a part of the process of ordering new titles from vendors.
Now we also have records existing in the database with a Form code tag of
"Marcive".
 
In a handful of instances since PSU began loading these Marcive shipping
list records we have run into a record match with a "Marcive" Form code and
these were merged into a bibliographic record.
So, my statement of "recently mounted Marcive records for maps" was, as you
can see, much too broad and certainly not clear in meaning. In the future I
will try to be much more thorough with map cataloging answers or
suggestions, and certainly check my own sources better before posting a
reply.
 
Again, my sincere apologies to Mr. Fleming and to Marcive, Inc.
 
 
 
Mr. Paige G. Andrew
Maps/Nonbook Cataloger
E506 Pattee Library
Pennsylvania State University Libraries
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
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phone: 814-865-1755
fax: 814-863-7293