What is the correct way to notate conformation preferences of polysaccharides?
If I understood the question correctly, your first notation looks correct and less ambiguous.

Common polysaccharides (glycogen, starch, and cellulose are composed of pyranoside subunits (having six-membered rings)). Such molecules can be represented as a series of rigid pyranose rings connected by an oxygen atom bridging two carbon atoms (the glycosidic bond).


  There is, in principle, free rotation about both $\ce{C–O}$ bonds
  linking the residues , but rotation about each bond is limited by
  steric hindrance by substituents. The three dimensional structures of
  these molecules can be described in terms of the dihedral angles,ϕ and
  Ψ, about the glycosidic bond.


The bulkiness of the pyranose ring and its substituents, and electronic effects at the anomeric carbon, place constraints on the angles ϕ and Ψ thus certain conformations are much more stable than others, as can be shown on a map of energy as a function of  ϕ and Ψ:

(a)

 

(a) When the relative energy (Ʃ) is plotted for each value of  ϕ and Ψ with isoenergy (“same energy”) contours drawn at intervals of 1 kcal/mol above the minimum energy state, the result is a map of preferred conformations. 

A map of favored conformations for oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. 

The torsion angles  ϕ and Ψ which define the spatial relationship between adjacent rings, can in principle have any value from 0 to 360 degrees. 
In fact, some of the torsion angles would give conformations that are sterically hindered, whereas others give conformations that maximize hydrogen bonding. 

(b)


(b) Two energetic extremes for the disaccharide Gal(β-3)Gal; these values fall on the energy diagram (a) as shown by the red and blue dots. The red dot indicates the least favored conformation, the blue dot the most favored conformation.

Conformation at the glycosidic bonds of cellulose, amylose, and dextran.



The polymers are depicted as rigid pyranose rings joined by glycosidic bonds, with free rotation about these bonds. Note that in dextran there is also free rotation about the bond between C-5 and C-6 (torsion angle ѡ (omega)).

So the notation considering the glycosidic linkage will be $\ce{Glu(ϕ)-(β1-4)-Glu(Ψ)}$ or another detailed way of illustrating this is $\ce{C1(ϕ)-O4(Ψ)-C4}$ for cellulose.



There are other ways of illustrating polyasacharides notations, and their side groups e.g hydroxyl group (in newman projection)

For the precise specification of the orientation of a polyatomic ring substituent, it is necessary to specify the torsion angle about the exocyclic bond. 


  The reference atom in the ring is the carbon atom with the number one
  lower than that of the substituted carbon, unless substitution is on
  the anomeric carbon, when the ring oxygen is the reference atom. The
  reference atom in the exocyclic –CH2X group is X. The exocyclic
  torsion angle is denoted by χ(chi), followed by the atoms to which it
  refers e.g χ(C1-C2-O2-H).


References


Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry 5th ed: Polysaccharides
Symbols for Specifying the Conformation of Polysaccharide Chains