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NEWS

CONSER Serials Cataloging and You: Make Your Hidden 
Serials Collections Discoverable through the ATLA CONSER 
Funnel

By Michael Bradford

BACKGROUND
A CONSER-authenticated bibliographic record is a mark of quality cataloging for serials. It represents 
authoritative access points and subjects. A CONSER record is also eligible to receive an ISSN identifier.
When the terms CONSER, authentication, LC, and authoritative are thrown out there, one usually 
thinks “that’s not for me. That’s for those high-level catalogers at big universities, not my little seminary.” 
Wrong.

The Funnel Programs are developed by institutions based on regional, subject, or other shared interests. 
It provides opportunities for smaller institutions to participate in and benefit from membership in the 
Program for Cooperative Cataloging. 

THE ATLA CONSER FUNNEL
Libraries affiliated with ATLA often share common material, but we also have unique material that is not 
housed anywhere else. Cataloging brings that unique material out into the open for our faculty, students, and 
researchers to discover.
As the only subject-oriented CONSER Funnel in existence, the ATLA CONSER Funnel facilitates 
high quality records for these unique resources. It is a benefit available to individual ATLA members 
who wish to be able to contribute original and maintain existing CONSER-authenticated bibliographic 
records in the OCLC database.

There are no minimum number of contributions required of individual members per year, and 
contributions can be either maintenance of existing CONSER records or authentication of original 
cataloging. 

Requirements for Funnel Project participation include:

• Individual membership in ATLA.
• Experienced cataloger.
• Access to RDA.
• Permission of your institution.
• Previous NACO training.

Michael Bradford is Senior Continuing Resources Cataloger at The Harvard Library.



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JANUARY 2019: VOL. 27, NO 1 • THEOLOGY CATALOGING BULLETIN

CONSER Funnel participants, while required to have previous NACO experience, are not required to 
be NACO independent, nor required ever to become CONSER independent.

Additional requirements for the CONSER Program include: 

• Use RDA and LC-PCC Policy Statements for new cataloging, and CONSER documentation as 
appropriate.

• Have online access to OCLC.
• Contribute cataloging through OCLC Connexion.

SURVEY
Please consider filling out this brief survey, which is designed to find interested individual members of ATLA 
who catalog serials and invite them to consider joining the ATLA CONSER Funnel. You can find the survey 
link at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/conser

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/conser