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Background

The purpose of a floor standard for bibliographic records is to specify minimum standards for completeness and content designation. Catalogers make certain that every record adheres to at least this floor level; however, they may exceed the floor when judgment indicates additional data elements are needed. The benefits to the CSU of a floor standard in a shared ULMS are significant. Alma uses a shared bibliographic record in the Network Zone and a floor standard gives CSU members expectations on quality, reducing the need for editing and re-editing of records.

Policy Statement

• Bibliographic records contributed to the Alma Network Zone must contain specific mandatory elements and meet a minimum level of completeness
• Minimum descriptive standards for the CSU are the CONSER Standard Record (CSR) for serials and the BIBCO Standard Record (BSR) for all other bibliographic formats for either AACR2 or RDA
• Member libraries may catalog at the Full level, which surpasses the CSU floor standard
• When cataloging using a standard other than RDA or AACR2, records should meet a level of completeness comparable to CSR and BSR standards. There is no requirement to recatalog pre-AACR2 records
• The following types of bibliographic records in the Alma Network Zone are not required to meet floor bibliographic standards:
• records created for ordering purposes
• records representing titles in a knowledge base (e.g. Alma CZ records)
• Marcive shipping list records
• Alma digital files
• Vendor records, whether from outsourced cataloging for physical materials or vendors providing record sets for electronic resources, added to the Alma NZ must, whenever possible, meet CSU bibliographic standards and best practices as stated in CSU mandates and operational policies. Exceptions may be made in the case of record sets provided by vendors, but CSU libraries must make a commitment to using the available records that most closely adhere to the floor standards
• Retrospective conversion, where available copy is less full than current standards, is not required to meet floor standards

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There may be a question about how the BSR and the CSR can be used by libraries that are not members of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC). The BSR and CSR may be used independently of the PCC. When created by non-PCC libraries, records cataloged as BSR or CSR are coded as Level I in OCLC and do not carry PCC authentication codes. Also, name headings on non-authenticated records do not need to be supported by authority records but must be formulated according to the cataloging standard used. While CSU libraries may elect to participate in the PCC program, it is not necessary to join PCC in order to use these standards.

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