Editors’ note: We are delighted to introduce both a new column and new columnist to TSLL. You have been clamboring for articles on serial issues (so to speak) as well as title changes, and we’re off to a fabulous start.

After twenty years, we have a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to harmonize the major serials cataloging guidelines used throughout the world, said a member of the ISBD(S) Working Group, Karen Darling, during ALA Midwinter in January 2000. Perhaps the first fruits of the 1997 Toronto International Conference on the Principles and Future Development of AACR {www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/confpap.htm} are the changes to serials cataloging.

Over 50 countries use AACR2, one of its 18 translations, or an adaptation of AACR2 to catalog serials. Cataloging records from many countries are shared — 67 countries using OCLC alone. And of course, the Internet allows access to library catalogs worldwide. It’s becoming more crucial than ever to catalog our serials consistently.

Discussion of the 1997 Toronto paper on serials cataloging (one of nine papers in the set) led to the April 1999 paper “Revising AACR2 to Accommodate Seriality.” {www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/ser-rep0.html}. This paper explained the background, again revised the proposed concept of seriality, and made specific recommendations for changes to AACR2 rules. Various organizations, including ALA’s CC:DA, reviewed and commented on it. In Brisbane, Australia in October 1999, the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (JSC) endorsed most but not all the recommendations of the April 1999 paper {www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/index.htm}. To start with, JSC approved the model of finite and continuing resources, rather than the existing model of monographs and serials. We will use the term “resource” rather than “publication” because it is less biased toward print. The term “continuing resource” will replace today’s broad category of “serial.”

Finite resources are complete when they are first issued, or they are intended to be completed. Continuing resources are intended to be continued for an indeterminate period, for example, serials, loose-leafs, databases, etc. Continuing resources may be described as having “successive issuance” or “integrating issuance.” A resource that is issued successively has a succession of discrete parts, for example printed serials, electronic journals with distinct issues, multi-part items issued over time, and monographic series. An integrating resource is added to or changed by updates that are integrated into the whole and do not remain discrete. The updates may be separately issued (for example, releases into a loose-leaf), or integrated by the publisher (for example, an electronic database, a Web site, or an electronic journal which is not issued with numbering or dates).

The following recommendations from the April 1999 report were among those endorsed.

• Rules will be added to Chapter 12 for the description of integrating resources. Integrating resources will be identified by their most recent title, not by the earliest title. This approach will be called “integrating entry” for which a new MARC value (now successive/latest entry - 008/byte 34) will be proposed. Of course, we have long cataloged loose-leafs this way, according to Hallam’s rules. The rules for integrating entries will be based on Hallam, which will minimize disruption for law libraries.
• A serial whose numbering begins again will no longer require a new bibliographic record; the cataloger will distinguish the new sequence by chronological designation or by supplying “[new ser.].” For example: Vol. 1(1981)-v. 19(1999); v. 1(2000)- This is one of several initiatives to reduce the number of new bibliographic records, which will unclutter our OPACs, reduce our workload, and simplify holdings statements. This change also harmonizes AACR2 with the ISSN/key title rules.
• Eventually (probably not in the first revision of Chapter 12), the concept of a “chief source of information” which requires the use of a single issue for cataloging will be eliminated for continuing resources. This may allow broader description based on multiple issues or iterations, which may allow fewer title changes, and would better accommodate integrating resources.
• If the cataloging of a continuing resource is not based solely on the first issue, the cataloger will provide a note to indicate which issues were the basis of the description. The note may read: “Latest issue consulted:”
• Rules will use the phrase “issue or part” to accommodate serials which don’t have discrete issues.
• Obvious errors in a title will be corrected rather than transcribed with “[sic]” as they are today. A variant title will be added containing the error. This should improve browsing and sorting in OPACs.
• The cataloger will have the option to omit certain introductory words in a title, such as “Welcome to” or “The ABC Association presents....” The cataloger will either catalog from another source of the title proper, or omit the introductory words and explain in a note. This change will be applied to bibliographic resources in all formats, not just to serials, and will be particularly important for electronic journals which often have such introductory phrases at the top of the first screen.
• For serials which lack numeric, alphabetic, chronological or other designation, the cataloger will be allowed to supply a chronological designation or “[No. 1]” as now instructed in 12.3D1. This rule change will allow JSC to broaden AACR2’s present definition of a serial (which now must have a designation) to a definition which says that a serial usually has a designation.

Perhaps the most significant changes are those which will allow us to create fewer new bibliographic records for changes. JSC will revise some parts of rule 21.2A1 (which specifies when a new bibliographic record must be created for the change of a title). Rather than responding to all title changes, we will look for major and minor changes — to the title, to the corporate body main entry and to physical format. These are concepts which have been proven in their use by ISBD(S) and by the ISDS Manual. A major title change will require a new bibliographic record, but a minor title change will not. CC:DA is to draft a new appendix to AACR2 which will define what constitute major and minor changes.

If a major change requires a new bibliographic record, what do you do with a minor change? It is proposed that you retain the bibliographic record, change the title to the new title and record the earlier title as an added access point. To tie the earlier version of this record to the later version, the ISBD(S) Working Group, the ISSN Manual Revision Working Group and the April 1999 JSC paper are proposing a new form of identifying title: the International Standard Title or IST. It would provide a stable title when a title undergoes a minor change. It would partly take over the role of the key title, and would use the same tag, 222. Draft guidelines for the IST will be developed for the May 2000 Meeting of Experts.

The next steps include:

• February 2000 — draft of revised rules
• March 2000 — JSC review of the revised rules
• Late May 2000 — a “meeting of experts,” followed by further revision
• June and July 2000 — comments to JSC
• September 2000 — JSC meets to review final version
• Publication by ALA/CLA/LA of a revised Chapter 12 and some other changes

You can participate in this process by looking for drafts at the JSC Web site {www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc} and at ALCTS’ CC:DA Web site {www.ala.org/alcts/organization/ccs/ccda/ccda.html}.

*   *   *   *   *

In addition to AACR2, two other international standards for the description of serials: ISBD(S): International Standard Bibliographic Description for Serials and the ISDS Manual are being reviewed at this time. Committees revising the three documents are working together.

ISBD(S) had its roots in the 1969 International Meeting of Cataloguing Experts, which recommended an approach meant to encourage universal bibliographic control, including the use of a standard bibliographic description with data elements in a prescribed order, set off by certain marks of punctuation. The aim was to enable you to identify the parts of a bibliographic record by the punctuation that preceded it, whether or not you could read the language or even the alphabet. MARC coding, first published just a year earlier, has largely taken over this labeling function in machine-readable bibliographic databases. Without thinking much about it, today’s catalogers code ISBD punctuation and MARC subfield codes side by side. But the ISBD rules for description of various formats have endured. Most countries today either use the ISBDs directly as a standard for cataloging, or incorporate ISBDs into their cataloging rules, as in AACR. The ISBDs are reviewed periodically, and continue to develop — the newest is ISBD(ER) for electronic resources, published in 1997.

ISBD(S) was developed in 1977; the revised edition issued in 1988 is now being revised by IFLA’s ISBD(S) Working Group, which was charged to work cooperatively with the groups revising AACR2 and the ISDS Manual. The ISBD(S) Working Group met in November 1998 and again in January 2000, just before Midwinter. The name of the document has been changed to ISBD(CR): International Standard Bibliographic Description for Serials and Other Continuing Resources. Its scope has been expanded to include integrating resources: loose-leafs, in this document, are no longer monographs! It defines “continuing resource” as a bibliographic resource issued over time with no predetermined conclusion. Continuing resources include serials and most integrating entities. It defines a serial as a continuing resource in any medium issued in a succession of discrete parts, usually bearing numeric or chronological designations and usually having no predetermined conclusion. With the word “usually,” the ISBD(CR) definition of serial is broader than today’s AACR2 definition. Going back to the 1970s, ISBD(S) and the Guidelines for ISDS (predecessor to the ISDS Manual) have said “usually.”

The ISSN Network has convened a working group to revise the 1983 ISDS Manual (International Serials Data System, since 1993 called the ISSN Network). They intend to be compatible with the changes to ISBD(S) and to AACR2, to add rules for the identification and cataloging of electronic publications, and to change the ISSN rules to cause fewer major title changes. If the ISSN records become closer to cataloging rules, they can be used for cataloging with fewer changes. The working group plans to meet three times during the next year and to publish the manual by the end of 2000.

All three groups seek to minimize the number of titles changes required. At the same time, it’s essential to agree worldwide, and for all three systems, on what title changes require a new bibliographic record. In order to share bibliographic data effectively throughout the world, we need compatible rules. It’s wasteful to have to catalog a serial in one way to comply with one’s national cataloging code, another way to request a key title and ISSN.

*   *   *   *   *

Another project that has been under consideration for many years is finally going to happen — the Publication Pattern Database. Under CONSER’s lead, a two-year experiment in creating shared publication pattern information will begin soon. A small group of libraries will be given authorization to add publication information to CONSER records in the OCLC database; the records will be distributed as are other CONSER records. Any OCLC cataloger, whether or not a CONSER member, can add the pattern fields to a new original-cataloging serial record. The pattern records will contain captions (for example, volume and number), what kind of date appears on the piece (month, date and year? season and year?), how many issues per volume, frequency, and predictable irregularities (and any other variations that can be coded in the MARC holdings fields 853/854/855). They will also contain a field which indicates when the pattern begins, and if changed, when it ended.