(Adopted: May 1991, Modified Nov. 2003)

Assumptions

Adoption of these standards means that each library agrees to assume the responsibility for both updating their permanent records to meet the standards and for replacing nonpermanent records, e.g. acquisitions records, with permanent records which meet the standards. 

Standards

1. A MARC record for every title owned by the library, in the appropriate format (where a serial title is held in different formats, a single bibliographic record in the serials format is to be used for all holdings). When it is necessary to enter records with less-than-full cataloging, they should conform to the minimal level standards described in the current edition of OCLC's Bibliographic Input Standards or those established by the WRLC Cataloging Advisory Committee.
2. Bibliographic records conforming to the nationally-accepted descriptive cataloging code current at the time the item is cataloged.
3. Established headings for names, series, subjects Permanent cataloged records shall contain the current forms of names and series as they appear in the Library of Congress authority file, or formulated according to the current cataloging code as interpreted by the Library of Congress. Subject headings must correspond to an appropriate thesaurus of headings, e.g. Library of Congress Subject Headings, Medical Subject Headings, Catholic Subject Headings. There should be no split entries, that is, cases where records for the same or similar title need to be searched under different headings because of variations in cataloging. 
4. No duplicate records. There should be only one bibliographic record in ALADIN for each library's cataloged title (following AACR2 rules for catalog entry). 
5. Accurate copy holdings information. Each title record should indicate the actual number, location, and call number of copies owned by the member library. Copies that are lost or withdrawn should be noted in a timely manner. Summary and detailed serial holdings should conform to the WRLC serials standards.