| Abstract: | To investigate the use by OCLC member institutions of database records for pre-1950 serial publications and to compare the value of those records with the ones in the long standard Union List of Serials and the newly completed National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints, a residue of 50 titles found in a random sample of 200 serials drawn from OCLC in 1978 were examined in the database again in 1981 and searched in the printed tools. The 2 OCLC records were compared to find bibliographical modifications, last time of use, and additional libraries reported. The 1981 record was compared against records from ULS and NUC Pre-1956 for the number of libraries with ownership reported and the inclusion of selected bibliographical data. OCLC participants had made some use of more than half the records and appeared to be updating the bibliographical content as necessary. Almost all the titles were in one of the printed tools, but a substantial number were not in both. NUC Pre-1956 carried more of the titles than ULS, but ULS appeared to be the most comprehensive of the 3 tools for those serials it listed. OCLC followed ULS as a bibliographical resource while NUC Pre-1956 came second for identifying holding libraries. OCLC was concluded to have strength and potential as a pre-1956 serial information tool by its capacity to correct and add data while ULS and NUC Pre-1956 were concluded to be valuable backup sources for the older serial publications also having an online record available. |
