I don’t have an example of an ILS that does this well, but I think we could take our cue in part from how knowledge bases handle ebook packages. If I’ve subscribed to the EBSCO Ebook Academic North America Package, I can turn on all of those titles in a single click. Right now, I’ve got this package turned on in SFX for link resolution, and in OCLC’s WorldShare Collection Manager, for records. When new content is added, OCLC sends new titles, and we they are removed, OCLC sends deletes.(OCLC also sends deletes when there are record changes, but we won’t get into that.) Within the ILS, we have a dummy suppressed bib to attach the PO for payment (not ideal). We do have a 9xx field that indicates that these are part of that package, but there is no direct link, e.g., no way for me to go to that bib record/PO for the package, and view a list of titles that are associated with package. That is a big lack that I want FOLIO to rectify.
We have been steadily working to break apart the print+online joined records to have separate bibs. I believe that is in line with current cataloging recommendations, and while sometimes the e-book is equivalent to print, there are also sometimes differences. Ideally, we want one bib record to represent all e-access (i.e., the provider-neutral approach), but our handling of individual bib records is influenced by the record source: because of volatility with Collection Manager, we keep those records separated from other sources, and we tend to separate out content that is subscribed and can be removed from perpetual access. If FOLIO can provide a model where we can manage this on the inventory level and have them be attached to the same descriptive metadata, that would be better.
