PurposeThe purpose of this article is to present the implementation process in Germany and Austria of MARC 583 as an example for a supraregional cooperative library workflow in the fields of preservation and archiving.Design/methodology/approachBased upon PDA: Terminology, the MARC 583 “Action note” data element for inventory preservation and archiving was implemented in all library union catalogues in Germany and Austria. Strong cooperation in the Consortium of Library Networks has been a precondition for the introduction of MARC 583 in 2019. Using German Union Catalogue of Serials – Zeitschriftendatenbank as an example, areas of cooperative collaboration at the regional, supraregional, and national levels are explained.FindingsMARC 583 allows the union catalogues to provide sustainable and transparent information about digitization, filming, mass deacidifation, and archiving measures and the participating libraries to save resources in these fields of “action.”Originality/value An example for the implementation of PDA: Terminology originates in the Anglo-American library world. This article describes the implementation of a workflow in two German-speaking countries with different approaches and projects.