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Report on the RTSD serials section, committee to study serials cataloging, ALA Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, 10 July 1988
Conference Reports
Report on the RTSD Serials Section, Committee to Study Serials Cataloging, ALA Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, 10 July 1988 Patrick F. Callahan
The C o m m i t t e e to Study Serials Cataloging held a single t w o - h o u r meeting in New Orleans. It was noted that after many years of dedicated service, Crystal G r a h a m was stepping down as the committee's liaison to the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA). The chair for 1988/1989, M a r y Case, of Northwestern U n i v e r sity, was introduced. Dorothy Glasby, the Library of Congress liaison, reported on the continuing study of the issue of multiple versions being conducted by the Library of Congress and CONSER. Various alternatives are being considered, but a resolution to the p r o b lem is still some time off. Glasby also shared with the committee a draft of an LC rule interpretation (LCRI) for AACR2 Rule 12.1B6. The d r a f t addresses a problem caused by phrases such as "for the year ending" that typically appear in the titles of annual reports and similar serials. Such phrases often vary f r o m issue to issue and since they commonly appear in the first five words o f the title, the variations technically should be considered title changes even under the revised wording of AACR2 Rule 21.2A. The intent of the d r a f t is to eliminate the need to create a separate bibliographic record by omitting these phrases f r o m the transcription of the title. Serials catalogers will recall that before AACR2 rules were adopted, such words were always excluded. The d r a f t LCRI proposes replacing the phrase and the accompanying date or n u m b e r with marks of omission; for example, "Annual report for the year ending 1985" would be transcribed as "Annual report...." The committee and the audience generally reacted favorably to the proposal. There were some misgivings about titles like "Sport in 1985" being transcribed as "Sport...." There was u n animous agreement that variations of the type "for the year," "for the fiscal year," and "for the year ending" should not constitute title changes. The Library of Congress will continue to work on the draft, taking into consideration the comments made at this meeting and at the CONSER meeting, which was held earlier.
The committee next t u r n e d its attention to AACR2 Rule 12.0B1. T h e r e were two areas of concern. The first had to do with changing the prescribed sources of i n f o r m a t i o n for serials in order to reduce the amount of bracketing necessitated by the c u r r e n t rule. The prevailing view was that brackets should only be used to indicate information supplied b y the cataloger f r o m outside the item in hand. Accordingly, the committee voted to recommend changing the prescribed sources of information for the edition, numeric a n d / o r alphabetic, chronological, or other designation and the publication and distribution areas, among others, to "the serial itself." Another r e c o m m e n d a t i o n was also adopted in case the first proved unacceptable to the CC:DA or the Joint Steering Committee of AACR2. This option designates the prescribed sources of information for all of the areas m e n t i o n e d above as "Chief source of information, cover, caption, masthead, editorial pages, colophon, and other preliminaries." Since CC:DA has f o r m e d a task force to study the proper function of brackets in the bibliographic description of all materials, the committee will submit its recommendations to that group. The second problem related to rule 12.0B1 was the lack of an explicit directive in the rule to make a note stating the source of the title when a title page substitute is employed. The Library of Congress identified this omission. Although this practice has been followed since the inception of AACR2, it has never been officially sanctioned by the code. Ben T u c k e r wrote a memorandum to CC:DA suggesting a m e t h o d of correcting this oversight. His m e m o r a n d u m was the basis for the committee's deliberation. T u c k e r suggested adding the following sentence, adapted f r o m 2.0B1, to 12.0Bl: Specify in a note the source used as a title page substitute (see 12.7B3). He also proposed a corresponding change in the text of rule 12.7B3. The committee voted to support the proposals, although they suggested using alternative wording for rule 12.7B3 and adding an example such as "Title from cover." The third proposal in Ben Tucker's memorandum was to change all the occurrences of "chief source of information" to "title page" in the list of prescribed sources in rule 12.0BI. This issue sparked a lively debate. Although the committee noted that ISBD(s) uses the term "title page" with an explanatory footnote, most of the members felt that the term "chief source o f information" was more accurate.
SERIALS REVIEW
SPRING 1989
91
T h e c o m m i t t e e ' s views on all three items were to be c o m m u n i c a t e d to CC:DA through the Serials Section liaison. Interestingly, at a later meeting of CC:DA, it was revealed that some of these changes had already m a d e their way into A A C R 2 Revised. Since it was not clear how this could have h a p p e n e d , we will have to await the publication of A A C R 2 Revised to see how these rules n o w appear. T h e final segment o f the meeting was a discussion of the rules o f entry as applied to serials. The discussion centered around w h e t h e r m o r e serials should be entered under corporate b o d y or w h e t h e r all serials should be entered u n d e r title. Surprisingly, there was widespread support for the concept of entering all serials u n d e r title. Two of the reasons given were that it would be simpler and would lead to more consistent application than the current rule, and that the i m p o r t a n c e of the choice of main entry is diminished in an online environment. One d r a w b a c k cited was that this a p p r o a c h would result in a greater reliance on serial u n i f o r m titles with which there is already c o n siderable dissatisfaction. By far, though, the most pervasive s e n t i m e n t was that, despite the flaws in the current practice, serials catalogers have b e c o m e weary of the constant changes in the code and do not want another m a j o r rule change. As the meeting closed, the outgoing chair appealed to the audience to apprise the c o m m i t t e e of the issues that concern them. These concerns could take the f o r m of specific questions, proposals for rule changes, or suggested topics for discussion.
Callahan is assistant dean for L i b r a r y T e c h n i cal Services at Ball State U n i v e r s i t y Libraries in Muncie, Indiana.
Canadian Library Association Serials Interest Group Annual Report 1987/1988 Susan Collins
T h e m a j o r focus of activity for the Canadian L i b r a r y Association ( C L A ) Serials Interest G r o u p in the past year was the d e v e l o p m e n t of the p r o gram that was presented at the C L A C o n f e r e n c e in Halifax in June 1988. A p r e l i m i n a r y proposal for the c o n f e r e n c e was discussed at the business meeting in V a n c o u v e r in June 1987, and the p r o gram was d e v e l o p e d as suggested. The workshop, "The Serials M a r k e t p l a c e at the E n d of the D e c ade," was included in the core p r o g r a m at the c o n -
92
SERIALS REVIEW
SPRING 1989
ference and was v e r y well attended. Anne Piternick, a professor in the School of L i b r a r y , Archival, and I n f o r m a t i o n Studies at the U n i v e r s i t y of British Columbia, led the workshop with her presentation, "Serials and N e w Technology at the End o f the Decade." In her look at the impact of new technology on access to serials, she discussed the electronic journal as well as other electronic f o r m s o f access and storage. A joint presentation b y Elena R o m a n i u k and H a n a K o m o r o u s , serials librarians at the University of Victoria, p r o v i d e d delegates with the results of a survey on f u l l - t e x t electronic periodicals. This survey of Canadian and A m e r i c a n libraries was conducted to d e t e r m i n e the actual use of electronic journals in libraries today. K o m o r o u s , who is also a past convertor of the interest group, coordinated the session, in addition to her role as a participant. In the final segment of the p r o g r a m , Ann Okerson, of J e r r y Alper, Inc., addressed the question, "What Are Your Journals Costing?" This v e r y timely issue was discussed in several other sessions, as well, and has g e n e r a t e d considerable interest in serials and their i m p o r t a n c e in libraries. Following the workshops, the Serials Interest G r o u p held its annual business meeting. Since the structure of the group had been revised in 1987 to include three c o - c o n v e n o r s as well as a convenor, and since the convenors (who had been elected in V a n c o u v e r ) had agreed to serve for two terms, no election was held at the H a l i f a x business meeting. One item of business that was discussed was the question o f the interest group undertaking a survey to d e t e r m i n e the availability o f serials lists in Canadian libraries. This proposal had been suggested at the previous year's meeting, had been considered b y the c o - c o n v e n o r s during the year, and was presented to the m e m b e r s at this meeting. Enough interest was expressed for the matter to be given f u r t h e r consideration for the coming year. Topics for the 1989 c o n f e r e n c e were discussed and it was agreed that the group should sponsor a workshop on the cataloging of serial publications. The f o r t h c o m i n g revisions to A A C R 2 will present enough challenges to the serials c o m m u n i t y to make this a timely and useful workshop. Bob Brundin, of the U n i v e r s i t y o f Alberta, who is a c o - c o n v e n o r of the interest group, has agreed to coordinate the p r o g r a m for E d m o n t o n . A n o t h e r topic discussed was the N o r t h A m e r i c a n Serials Interest G r o u p ' s (NASIG) desire to forge closer links with the C L A Serials Interest Group. As the first step in this direction, it was decided that the c o n v e n o r of the Canadian interest group would serve as the liaison between the C L A and NASIG. The o b j e c t i v e is to share i n f o r m a t i o n about
Report on the RTSD Serials Section, Committee to Study Serials Cataloging, ALA Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, 10 July 1988 Patrick F. Callahan
The C o m m i t t e e to Study Serials Cataloging held a single t w o - h o u r meeting in New Orleans. It was noted that after many years of dedicated service, Crystal G r a h a m was stepping down as the committee's liaison to the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA). The chair for 1988/1989, M a r y Case, of Northwestern U n i v e r sity, was introduced. Dorothy Glasby, the Library of Congress liaison, reported on the continuing study of the issue of multiple versions being conducted by the Library of Congress and CONSER. Various alternatives are being considered, but a resolution to the p r o b lem is still some time off. Glasby also shared with the committee a draft of an LC rule interpretation (LCRI) for AACR2 Rule 12.1B6. The d r a f t addresses a problem caused by phrases such as "for the year ending" that typically appear in the titles of annual reports and similar serials. Such phrases often vary f r o m issue to issue and since they commonly appear in the first five words o f the title, the variations technically should be considered title changes even under the revised wording of AACR2 Rule 21.2A. The intent of the d r a f t is to eliminate the need to create a separate bibliographic record by omitting these phrases f r o m the transcription of the title. Serials catalogers will recall that before AACR2 rules were adopted, such words were always excluded. The d r a f t LCRI proposes replacing the phrase and the accompanying date or n u m b e r with marks of omission; for example, "Annual report for the year ending 1985" would be transcribed as "Annual report...." The committee and the audience generally reacted favorably to the proposal. There were some misgivings about titles like "Sport in 1985" being transcribed as "Sport...." There was u n animous agreement that variations of the type "for the year," "for the fiscal year," and "for the year ending" should not constitute title changes. The Library of Congress will continue to work on the draft, taking into consideration the comments made at this meeting and at the CONSER meeting, which was held earlier.
The committee next t u r n e d its attention to AACR2 Rule 12.0B1. T h e r e were two areas of concern. The first had to do with changing the prescribed sources of i n f o r m a t i o n for serials in order to reduce the amount of bracketing necessitated by the c u r r e n t rule. The prevailing view was that brackets should only be used to indicate information supplied b y the cataloger f r o m outside the item in hand. Accordingly, the committee voted to recommend changing the prescribed sources of information for the edition, numeric a n d / o r alphabetic, chronological, or other designation and the publication and distribution areas, among others, to "the serial itself." Another r e c o m m e n d a t i o n was also adopted in case the first proved unacceptable to the CC:DA or the Joint Steering Committee of AACR2. This option designates the prescribed sources of information for all of the areas m e n t i o n e d above as "Chief source of information, cover, caption, masthead, editorial pages, colophon, and other preliminaries." Since CC:DA has f o r m e d a task force to study the proper function of brackets in the bibliographic description of all materials, the committee will submit its recommendations to that group. The second problem related to rule 12.0B1 was the lack of an explicit directive in the rule to make a note stating the source of the title when a title page substitute is employed. The Library of Congress identified this omission. Although this practice has been followed since the inception of AACR2, it has never been officially sanctioned by the code. Ben T u c k e r wrote a memorandum to CC:DA suggesting a m e t h o d of correcting this oversight. His m e m o r a n d u m was the basis for the committee's deliberation. T u c k e r suggested adding the following sentence, adapted f r o m 2.0B1, to 12.0Bl: Specify in a note the source used as a title page substitute (see 12.7B3). He also proposed a corresponding change in the text of rule 12.7B3. The committee voted to support the proposals, although they suggested using alternative wording for rule 12.7B3 and adding an example such as "Title from cover." The third proposal in Ben Tucker's memorandum was to change all the occurrences of "chief source of information" to "title page" in the list of prescribed sources in rule 12.0BI. This issue sparked a lively debate. Although the committee noted that ISBD(s) uses the term "title page" with an explanatory footnote, most of the members felt that the term "chief source o f information" was more accurate.
SERIALS REVIEW
SPRING 1989
91
T h e c o m m i t t e e ' s views on all three items were to be c o m m u n i c a t e d to CC:DA through the Serials Section liaison. Interestingly, at a later meeting of CC:DA, it was revealed that some of these changes had already m a d e their way into A A C R 2 Revised. Since it was not clear how this could have h a p p e n e d , we will have to await the publication of A A C R 2 Revised to see how these rules n o w appear. T h e final segment o f the meeting was a discussion of the rules o f entry as applied to serials. The discussion centered around w h e t h e r m o r e serials should be entered under corporate b o d y or w h e t h e r all serials should be entered u n d e r title. Surprisingly, there was widespread support for the concept of entering all serials u n d e r title. Two of the reasons given were that it would be simpler and would lead to more consistent application than the current rule, and that the i m p o r t a n c e of the choice of main entry is diminished in an online environment. One d r a w b a c k cited was that this a p p r o a c h would result in a greater reliance on serial u n i f o r m titles with which there is already c o n siderable dissatisfaction. By far, though, the most pervasive s e n t i m e n t was that, despite the flaws in the current practice, serials catalogers have b e c o m e weary of the constant changes in the code and do not want another m a j o r rule change. As the meeting closed, the outgoing chair appealed to the audience to apprise the c o m m i t t e e of the issues that concern them. These concerns could take the f o r m of specific questions, proposals for rule changes, or suggested topics for discussion.
Callahan is assistant dean for L i b r a r y T e c h n i cal Services at Ball State U n i v e r s i t y Libraries in Muncie, Indiana.
Canadian Library Association Serials Interest Group Annual Report 1987/1988 Susan Collins
T h e m a j o r focus of activity for the Canadian L i b r a r y Association ( C L A ) Serials Interest G r o u p in the past year was the d e v e l o p m e n t of the p r o gram that was presented at the C L A C o n f e r e n c e in Halifax in June 1988. A p r e l i m i n a r y proposal for the c o n f e r e n c e was discussed at the business meeting in V a n c o u v e r in June 1987, and the p r o gram was d e v e l o p e d as suggested. The workshop, "The Serials M a r k e t p l a c e at the E n d of the D e c ade," was included in the core p r o g r a m at the c o n -
92
SERIALS REVIEW
SPRING 1989
ference and was v e r y well attended. Anne Piternick, a professor in the School of L i b r a r y , Archival, and I n f o r m a t i o n Studies at the U n i v e r s i t y of British Columbia, led the workshop with her presentation, "Serials and N e w Technology at the End o f the Decade." In her look at the impact of new technology on access to serials, she discussed the electronic journal as well as other electronic f o r m s o f access and storage. A joint presentation b y Elena R o m a n i u k and H a n a K o m o r o u s , serials librarians at the University of Victoria, p r o v i d e d delegates with the results of a survey on f u l l - t e x t electronic periodicals. This survey of Canadian and A m e r i c a n libraries was conducted to d e t e r m i n e the actual use of electronic journals in libraries today. K o m o r o u s , who is also a past convertor of the interest group, coordinated the session, in addition to her role as a participant. In the final segment of the p r o g r a m , Ann Okerson, of J e r r y Alper, Inc., addressed the question, "What Are Your Journals Costing?" This v e r y timely issue was discussed in several other sessions, as well, and has g e n e r a t e d considerable interest in serials and their i m p o r t a n c e in libraries. Following the workshops, the Serials Interest G r o u p held its annual business meeting. Since the structure of the group had been revised in 1987 to include three c o - c o n v e n o r s as well as a convenor, and since the convenors (who had been elected in V a n c o u v e r ) had agreed to serve for two terms, no election was held at the H a l i f a x business meeting. One item of business that was discussed was the question o f the interest group undertaking a survey to d e t e r m i n e the availability o f serials lists in Canadian libraries. This proposal had been suggested at the previous year's meeting, had been considered b y the c o - c o n v e n o r s during the year, and was presented to the m e m b e r s at this meeting. Enough interest was expressed for the matter to be given f u r t h e r consideration for the coming year. Topics for the 1989 c o n f e r e n c e were discussed and it was agreed that the group should sponsor a workshop on the cataloging of serial publications. The f o r t h c o m i n g revisions to A A C R 2 will present enough challenges to the serials c o m m u n i t y to make this a timely and useful workshop. Bob Brundin, of the U n i v e r s i t y o f Alberta, who is a c o - c o n v e n o r of the interest group, has agreed to coordinate the p r o g r a m for E d m o n t o n . A n o t h e r topic discussed was the N o r t h A m e r i c a n Serials Interest G r o u p ' s (NASIG) desire to forge closer links with the C L A Serials Interest Group. As the first step in this direction, it was decided that the c o n v e n o r of the Canadian interest group would serve as the liaison between the C L A and NASIG. The o b j e c t i v e is to share i n f o r m a t i o n about