This year's meeting of the RLIN Committee at AALL followed a slightly different format from that of recent years. There was some of the usual reporting on RLIN developments, but this was kept to a minimum since RLIN was conducting the first ever RLIN Law Forum following the meeting! Most of the meeting consisted of discussion initiated by a Round Robin survey that had previously been posted to various discussion lists. This year we 20 bleary-eyed souls (I was bleary-eyed, so everything looked bleary to me!!) were joined at 7 a.m. by Win-Shin Chiang, RLG Member Services Officer, as well as Karen Smith-Yoshimura, Director, Library and Bibliographic Services.

The first item we heard about was the new RLIN-law List. Now, I know it's yet another Law list, but this one fills in where other lists leave off. A low volume list, it is open to anyone at a RLIN law library (or those interested in such issues). One does not have to be an RLG member to participate in this list, nor does this list relate to any specific local catalog setup. Most traffic on the list concerns RLIN activities at AALL, and since it's a smaller group of people than RLIN-L, it is hoped that it will be a place where one can discuss RLIN issues with peers. To subscribe, send the following one line e- mail message, without a subject header, to listproc@lists.rlg.org

SUBSCRIBE RLIN-LAW <your full name, first name first>.

For more information, contact Win-Shin Chiang at BL.WSC@RLG.ORG

Karen Smith Yoshimura gave a brief report of RDAG (RLG Database Advisory Group) activities. Margaret Leary has finished her term on RDAG and will be replaced by Melody Lembke. In addition, there is a new member for the United Kingdom, Hugh Taylor. RDAG has worked on a survey concerning in-process records from RLIN users, and due to the favorable response, has submitted an RLIN change request for two new RTYP values for on order and in process that could be used for records both batch loaded and created on RLIN.

Another development relates to the TYPE command (a command for printing an entire record instead of printing screen by screen; it's been around for years, but wasn't too well known to meeting participants). Proposed changes will allow you to print holdings with the Full display and to specify any record in a cluster. To find out more about the TYPE command, type EXPLAIN TYPE on RLIN.

RDAG is also involved in reviewing foreign MARC records and vendor records before they're loaded. In June, RLG signed a contract with Blackwell North American and B.H. Blackwell to load RLIN-enhanced CIP records and approximately 120,000 Table of Contents records from monographs published in North America and the United Kingdom. Blackwell is the first commercial participant in the Program for Cooperative Cataloging, and their staff has been trained on RLIN NACO. (See the August 1996 issue of RLIN Focus. Table of Contents records will be in a separate file, available on RLIN, Eureka, and through Diogenes; the rates for Passing and Putting TOC records will be forthcoming.

The rest of the meeting was spent discussing the Round Robin questions. A summary of responses to the questions was distributed at the meeting (contact me if you'd like a copy). We first discussed connectivity; there were many different options employed by the attendees. Internet connection reliability varied widely from library to library, and many libraries had changed to connecting to RLIN via CompuServe, finding increased reliability outweighed added costs. Karen Smith- Yoshimura pointed out that some institutions had increased reliability by using frame relay Internet connections through CompuServe.

RLIN Terminal for Windows was also mentioned. Some wondered if they should upgrade to version 3 if they weren't interested in non-Roman scripts. It was pointed out that version 3 has some communications enhancements that make it worth the upgrade. Karen informed us that version 4 is in beta testing and should be released soon. Version 4 has a new installation setup that allows you to generate separate icons for CJK scripts, Arabic/Cyrillic/Hebrew scripts, and/or roman-only scripts, depending on your needs. There were also questions about whether or not to convert to Windows, and although RLG will continue to support DOS software, it will not be enhanced. Upgrading to Windows 95 was also discussed, and Karen mentioned that RLIN for Windows tends to work better under Windows 95.

Karen also talked about RLIN World Wide Web developments. A prototype of Eureka over the Web was demonstrated at ALA. The same search block can be applied to searches over the Web, Eureka, Zephyr, or "traditional" RLIN. (Or a CitaDel or BIB subscription can be used with new RLG Web access, Eureka, or Zephyr). With Web access, we'll be able to click on the 856s that already occur in records. A related RLIN development is the relatively new EA index, which has only one value, y (a record has an 856 field or it doesn't)! You can retrieve all the records with 856s in any file with the command: fin ea y or you can limit any search by and ea y to get those records with 856s. Web access will eventually be available to all RLG data resources, including the RLIN bibliographic and CitaDel files. This may happen as soon as this fall.

RLG will also discontinue some services. RLG will move from transaction tapes to transaction files via FTP, and discontinue all transaction tapes by August 31, 1977. If this affects you, have your system people contact the RLIN Information Center. If you currently use tapes to load records into OCLC, you can arrange to authorize OCLC to get your records from RLG via FTP. Rather than FTP-ing records one by one, your library profile can be set so that the T in the INS field puts all the records you've created or updated into one FTP file. In addition, RLG will also discontinue Fuller Record Notification (sites with outstanding requests may wish to submit then as Diogenes files) and reporting additional locations to the NUC Register (INS=Z).

Many of us continued on to the RLIN Forum where we heard short presentations with lots of questions from the audience. Many of the above topics were covered, such as the new EA index. Additionally, the TP and TW indexes now search the 505 $t in RLIN records (this will include the new Blackwell TOC records)! RLIN is supporting the new $v for subject form divisions and it is indexed in the SP and SW indexes. The new fixed field 006 is useful for als limiting. For example, als mat ser will limit your search to records containing a serial 006. Great information on format integration in RLIN, with examples, can be found at

http://www.rlg.org/fi.html

We also heard about record contributions to RLIN. RDAG is working with record contributors to encourage at least weekly dataloads via FTP rather than on tape. RLG will set up a "buddy" system to pair people who have done scripts for automatically extracting records from their local system for dataloading with others who need such scripts. BIBCO records are to be contributed weekly, and RLIN flags PCC records in PRI and MUL displays (drawing from the pcc in the 042). (See also RLIN Focus 18:5)

The new vendor records in RLIN are also differentiated by having a library identifier beginning with X, i.e. Caslini Libri is XCAS. The uncataloged vendor records have a CC code of 999_; however, the Blackwell enhanced CIP records will have a CC code of 9112 or 9412 since they are fully cataloged. There is also a different charge for exporting vendor records that may vary by type of record, as outlined in the Rates for User Services. For example, the charge for a Blackwell TOC record may be different from a Blackwell enhanced CIP record.

There will also be more files available to RLIN users when RLG implements its own Z39.50 client. RLG has reciprocal access agreements with ISM and Pica; right now their users can search the RLIN bibliographic files using ISM's or PICA's Z39.50 clients and Zephyr. With an RLIN Z39.50 client, RLIN users could search the ISM or PICA databases using RLIN commands and retrieve records from these other, external databases to use as source copy.

Mary Jane Kelsey than reported on Yale Law's use of Diogenes for reclassifying approximately 287,000 titles from Hicks to Library of Congress. Since their original load into INNOPAC didn't include the 050 field, one of their first steps was to go back to their original RLIN tapes for the 050s. Then, some materials were excluded from Diogenes processing, such as dead pamphlet collections or unique materials. The remaining records that were selected for processing with Diogenes resulted in single hits, multiple hits, and no hits, with various reports. Mary Jane showed us examples of reports that included 001, 035, 245, 260, 950, 090/950/050 fields (those with multiple hits also include library identifiers). On the multiple hits, they would indicate the call number they wanted, or that they didn't want any of them.

I hope to see you all on RLIN-Law where the discussions that began at the Committee meeting can continue!

The rest of this column, a report on Session 2 of the RLIN Forum, was graciously written by Karen Smith- Yoshimura. I also thank her for her help in ensuring that the above report was accurate! Heather Hawkins.

Kris Tague, RLG Director for Sales and Marketing, highlighted current and upcoming RLG services for public reference and document delivery. She noted that the eight RLIN bibliographic files (BIB) are available by either subscription or search blocks; the search blocks can be combined for both public services use through Eureka and Zephyr and technical services through RLIN. She summarized Eureka's distinguishing features (free browsing, narrowing search results, and e-mailing records retrieved). Some campuses have access to RLIN BIB files on their menus through both Eureka and their own Z39.50 interface, i.e., the University of California system includes Eureka and Melvyl access.

This September RLG is offering an expanded Inside Information PLUS file covering over 20,000 journals available through the British Library Document Supply Centre and two new CitaDel files from the French Institut de I'Information Scientifique et Technique (INIST) -- FRANCIS, covering social sciences, and PASCAL, covering the sciences. FRANCIS will be available for free trials in August, PASCAL in September.

Access to both the BIB and the complete array of CitaDel files will be made easier when RLG releases "Eureka on the Web," allowing you to search RLG resources through Web browsers. Kris showed some sample screens from the current prototype, illustrating how you can "click" -- which index you want to search with; which records you want to display; on an access point in the record to perform a related search; on a record's 856 field to go to a remote electronic resource.

Ariel has become a delivery option from major suppliers, including UMI and the BLDSC. Kris noted that Ariel can be used in place of fax for all kinds of document delivery, not just for ILL, i.e., among law firms and law libraries around the world, intra-campus delivery, and among administrative offices. As a result of a recent RLG contract with a consortium of libraries in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK serving more than 100 sites, RLG is enhancing Ariel to be MIME compliant so that scanned documents can be delivered to any e-mail address that uses MIME.

RLG has a number of mechanisms to foster communications with libraries using its services. RLG has initiated a new "instructional services" listserv for anyone dealing with bibliographic instruction that includes RLG online services (send a message

subscribe RLINIS <your name>

to

listproc@lists.rlg.org