----------1
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 09:06:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: Nancy Burns <nburns@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Subject: Re: Determining the title of a piece

> Can anyone tell me if there is one spot in a serial that carries the
> most weight when determining the actual title?

        The chief source for cataloging information for serials is the
title page of the earliest, or earliest available, issue.  However, many
serials lack a true title page (table of contents pages, etc., don't
count!), and so the cover becomes the "title page substitute".  Other
areas may be used as title page substitute, but in probably 99% of cases,
the title is taken from either t.p. or cover.
        If the title appears in different forms on the chief source, other
rules apply.  For example, if the title appears in both full form and
initialism, the full form is generally used as title proper unless the
initialism is the only form that appears elsewhere.  Which one appears
first, and the size of the type, are irrelevant.
        If there is ambiguity on the chief source as to what words
are/aren't part of the title proper, other locations on the piece may be
consulted to determine what the title is intended to be.

                        Hope this is helpful!

                                Nancy Burns
                                Cataloging Unit IV (Serials)
                                Princeton University Library
                                nburns@princeton.edu

----------2
From: RGildem550@aol.com
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 12:05:59 EDT
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Determining the title of a piece (2 messages)

In a message dated 7/15/2002 8:40:27 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
tuttle@EMAIL.UNC.EDU writes:

>
> The CONSER Cataloging Manual specifies that the title page is generally the
> chief source of information for a serial.  If there is no title page, the
> following order of preference obtains:  Cover, caption, masthead, editorial
>

pages, colophon, other pages.  The main exception is a case in which there is

> *no title page*  [correction] but one source consistently uses a "stable
> title" (e.g. title on
> cover varies but caption title remains stable. In this sort of case,
> disregard order of preference and use caption title.
>