Kevin,

    Well done!  Well written.  In fact I'm going to save this message in
my "E-mail Hall of Fame," even though I've known all this stuff for over
30 years!

John

John Radencich
Library-Cataloging Dept.
Florida International University
Miami, Florida 33199

Kevin M. Randall wrote:

> At 10:34 AM 11/16/2006, Shankle, Jean wrote:
>
>> When you have a periodical title that has had more than one title
>> change, and all the title changes are listed on the marc record, is
>> there a certain defined order they are supposed to go in or does it
>> matter (the original to the most recent or reverse)?  The current title
>> is in 245 and the former titles are in multi 246's.
>
>
> What you are describing is latest entry cataloging, the ALA standard
> from 1949 until the publication of AACR in 1967 (although Library of
> Congress continued using latest entry until 1971).  In latest entry,
> the current title is in field 245, and the former titles are in field
> 247 (not 246).  Although the MARC 21 definition for field 247 does not
> give any instructions on sequencing multiple 247 fields, the CONSER
> guidelines state that they should be arranged from earliest to latest
> (according to the dates given in subfield $f).  This is probably most
> important when the "Title varies" notes in the OPAC are generated from
> the 247 fields instead of a 547 note.  (If notes aren't being
> generated from the 247 fields, then it won't matter in the OPAC,
> although having them in ascending chronological order may be useful to
> people reading the record in a MARC tagged display.)
>
> But be aware that if you are cataloging according to AACR2, you need
> to use successive entry cataloging, and create a new record each time
> the publication has a "major change" in title.  If there is a "minor
> change", a new record is not created but the variant is put into field
> 246, and field 245 retains the title appearing on the earliest issue
> that the record represents.  Of course, if your records are purely
> local in nature (and not going to be shared with other
> libraries--e.g., by being entered into WorldCat) then you can use
> whatever method is best in your context.  (We did that for about 11
> years at Northwestern.)
>
> Kevin M. Randall
> Head of Serials Cataloging
> Northwestern University Library
> 1970 Campus Drive
> Evanston, IL  60208-2300
> email: kmr@northwestern.edu
> phone: (847) 491-2939
> fax:   (847) 491-4345