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Dragonfly, Winter 1999 Will OCLC/WLN merger affect SERHOLD (or vice versa)?

We have had several questions from SERHOLD participants about the effect of the OCLC/WLN merger. Two main points:

1. We don't know.
2. Whatever it is, we want to continue our concept of maximum benefit for minimum effort (you fill out just one form for both SERHOLD and your other system).

All of the Pacific Northwest states are potentially affected.

Washington SERHOLD libraries have taken advantage of a conversion program (thanks to Susan Klawansky's grant writing), so that SERHOLD holdings get transfered by the RML to WLN. We will continue to send the Washington SERHOLD data to WLN for the forseeable future. New conversion programs could be a good solution to our problem of updating multiple databases easily.

Oregon SERHOLD libraries fill out one multipurpose form that is used both by our office and by OCLC. This form might even be a prototype to be used in other parts of the region!

Many of you in Alaska, Idaho, and Montana also participate in OCLC or WLN and might be able to take advantage of greater cooperation.

Another piece of the pie: NLM is converting *all* of the SERHOLD data to MARC format, which will make it much more interchangeable with other databases.

So, we only see cooperation growing, not declining. We would welcome any opportunities you see in your own states for working with other types of libraries, your state library, or your database company. Just let us know!

URL: http://nnlm.gov/pnr/news/199901/merger.html