Serials standards work: the next frontier.

Serials, one of the more complicated areas of library technical endeavors, has lacked the benefit of standards for a long time. Even now, with standards beginning to be available, the majority of institutions are not working within standard serials formats. A survey to determine the use of serials standards in libraries was conducted in 1988 by the American Library Association, Resources and Technical Services Division, Serials Section, Committee to Study Serials Standards. In the spring of 1988 a survey was sent to a group encompassing the Association of Research Libraries members, CONSER participants, United States Newspaper Program participants, Microform Project libraries, and some vendors and librarians who attended the Committee meetings on a regular basis. The survey questionnaire assessed the current level of serials standards awareness of librarians and vendors. Topics included the type of serials systems used, standards relevant to serials control and union listing and whether or not they are implemented, types and levels of training staff received in the application of standards, benefits of the standards, and areas where standards are most needed.

[The calcified aortic valve. A morphologic study]. / Die verkalkte Aortenklappe. Eine morphologische Studie.

A histological study of 92 stenosed and calcified aortic valves is conducted to work out criteria with which to distinguish postrheumatic from degenerative calcification. The microscopic picture of a calcified aortic valve is fairly uniform and independent of a history of rheumatic fever. Thick walled and narrow muscular arteries with prominent elastic laminae are the only feature distinguishing calcified valves after rheumatic fever from valves showing degenerative calcification. This uniform morphology of the calcified aortic valves suggests a uniform process. The term "degenerative calcification" is used if this process occurs in an elderly patient, but a (histologically) nearly identical calcification is observed in younger people after rheumatic endocarditis or with congenitally bicuspid aortic valves. It is concluded that the basic process is the same (degenerative calcification) but that this degenerative process occurs earlier in patients with bicuspid valves or after rheumatic endocarditis.