Date: Tue, 02 May 2000 10:29:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: Michael Borries <MSBBH@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Re: Cataloging serial backfiles on CD-ROM (Ryan Finnerty)

>Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 09:32:28 -0700
>From: Ryan Finnerty <Ryan@LIBRARY.UCSD.EDU>
>Subject: Cataloging serial backfiles on CD-ROM
>
>     I was hoping for some guidance on how to catalog serial backfiles on
>CD-ROM (or another direct access CF carrier)  that come out as a one-time
>issuance.  I have looked in CCM30 but this only seems to cover computer files
>that are serially issued.
>     Even though I find many examples in OCLC that treat them as monographs
>(e.g. AIM report, Agricultura y sociedad), I am inclined to catalog them as
>serials.  This way they would be included in serial limits, journal title
>indexes, serial scopes, plus they would be in serial databases. This is
>important for UC since our union catalog is divided into serial and mono
>databases.  The 006 field has future potential to accomplish these things,
>but it not quite there yet with most of our present systems.
>     We presently catalog print reproductions of a serial as a serial,
>even if it complete in one volume and it makes sense to use the same model
>for computer files.  This certainly fits the content over carrier model that
>we have moved towards.

Conser manual 17.7.3 says to catalog reprints of a serial as a serial,
unless several originally unrelated serials are published together, in
which case, you treat as a monograph.  Also, reprints of single or only
a few issues are treated monographically.  A quick search in OCLC did
not retrieve the records you described, but my guess is that they fit
one of these catagories.

Of course, catalogers have always cataloged individual issues of a serial
as monographs, if they were analyzing them -- but at least in the catalogs
I have seen, the series tracing went in the serial catalog.  I will agree
that if CD-ROMS with multiple serials are cataloged as monographs, people
are not likely to find this version.  However, if there is only one title
on the CD-ROM, or several successive titles, presumably it should be
cataloged as a serial.

The problem becomes even worse with Web sites, of course.

Michael S. Borries
Cataloger, City University of New York
555 West 57th Street, 16th Floor
New York, NY  10019
msbbh@cunyvm.cuny.edu
(212) 541-0376