The shared print community has long relied on the OCLC Shared Print Metadata Guidelines to disclose retention commitments in local and national systems which is based on Preservation & Digitization Actions: Terminology for MARC 21 Field 583 (PDA). As shared print has evolved to become a more integral part of the full collection lifecycle, PDA: Terminology no longer suits the needs of the shared print community. Following conversations and agreement with the group that maintains the PDA: Terminology, a draft Shared Print Actions: Terminology resource has been created.
Shared Print Actions: Terminology for the MARC 21 Field 583 (hereafter referred to as SPA: Terminology) will define standardized terminology for shared print actions and allow institutions to record these actions locally. A public draft of SPA is now available for review.
You can access it at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_NnpeZEye4wN61e5y7PwltTob5c7LvCB0u7kRdSquGw/edit?usp=sharing.
To learn more about SPA: Terminology, we encourage you to watch our webinars at https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1vG6qf20ZFMgXMNHJyzQm76NSK06Nkrcs.
Why this is important to Alma users: National standards for the shared print community are important to Alma users because they provide the ability to connect accepted bibliographic cataloging practices with retention commitment fields now found in the Alma item records. These retention commitment fields are an effort by Ex Libris to embrace the needs of the shared print community and will hopefully continue to be developed to integrate with 583 fields and to assist consortia with collection analysis and deduplication efforts. Most importantly, when integrated with the new Shared Print Actions standards, they will provide a pathway to a national record of coordinated efforts to preserve the cultural and scholarly record. We hope that Ex Libris will adopt these community standards into their development plans.