Universal Holdings Record: Impact on Union Listing

Cecelia Boone, Cathy Kellum, Margi Mann

Our sub-taskforce met three times via conference call (Feb. 6, Feb. 17, and Feb. 24) to discuss the issues surrounding the Universal Holdings Record (UHR) and its relationship with union lists and/or union listing as a functional activity.

We initially brainstormed about the possible "uses" of the UHR in regard to union listing (defined in a narrow sense). Our list of possible uses includes:

• To facilitate creation of union list records by using the UHR as a "master holdings record" (analogous to using OCLC bib records as a "master bib record" in the copy cataloging activity).
• Union lists (regional, national, and/or OCLC) would give access to UHRs.

Looking at union listing in its broadest possible sense, we also identified potential secondary uses of UHR data for union listing:

• Automated hooks between citation databases and the run of the serial in electronic or full-text form
• Automated ILL lender routing based on full implementation of the MFHD.
• Automated collection management (comparison of the UHR to a library's actual holdings to determine collection depth and collection gaps).
• "True verification". That is, the creation of sophisticated validation routines when the library is creating a union list and/or MFHD record.
• Automated upgrading of a union list and/or MFHD record

We (our UHR-UL sub-taskforce) believe that what needs exploration here is not just the impact of the UHR on union listing, but also the impact of union listing on the UHR.

We eventually came to the realization that union listing is closely linked to other holdings-related functions, and in order to complete our discussions/recommendations, the outcome of the other sub-taskforce groups is needed. Specifically:

• Contents of the UHR
• Uses/use cases
• Relation to FRBR

Some questions that arose in our discussions may benefit by being discussed by the wider taskforce group:

• Where/what utility or location should house the UHR "database"? Or is the UHR intended to be stored in multiple databases? If it is intended to be stored in multiple databases, how would the multiple copies of the UHR be synchronized?
• Is the UHR intended for serial publications only? Or for all formats?
• Is there an expected relationship between the UHR and the emerging NCIP standard? Some possible impacts of the UHR on NCIP are that it could facilitate the automated creation of standardized Item records, or "hand off" UHR data to NCIP for processing rules.

Looking beyond the taskforce, we also feel there are two larger issues that must be addressed in general concerning the UHR:

1. Education: Communicating to the library community what the UHR is and what its possibilities are.
2. Terminology: It may be that the term Universal Holdings Record is a misnomer. Other possible terms for the UHR include:
• Master Holdings Record
• Holdings History Record
• Publication History
• Detailed publication History
• Publication History Record
• Publication History Control Record
• Master Publication History Record

Respectfully submitted,
February 25, 2003

Cathy Kellum
Cecelia Boone
Margi Mann