A question for the cataloguers' discussion group meeting at NASIG:

How do Serials Cataloging departments staff for problem solving? i.e.
How do you keep current new titles flowing through and also do the
problem solving that arises from dealing with titles already cataloged?

Another question regarding staffing:  Do you use professional
librarians for cataloging serials or do you use high level support
staff or both?

I guess I had more than one topic because more questions keep coming to
me, so I'll just pass them on and you can do with them what you will.

A discussion regarding the use of Successive vs. Latest vs. Earliest
entry cataloging would be interesting.

Our Serials Cataloging Department includes an adding section, and all
bound volumes come through this department to be added to our online
catalog.  We do not yet have an automated Serials Control system, and
we're interested in how other large libraries handle the adding of
serial issues/volumes, as we will be moving into using the NOTIS
serials control system in another year or so, and know we'll have to do
things differently than we do them now.  Is adding of serial volumes
centralized or dispersed in the departmental libraries (we have about
25 departmental libraries)?

Do you do your serials cataloging directly online or do you do it on a
worksheet first?

These are not questions for SERIALST, but for the cataloguers'
discussion group at NASIG.  I'm sure there are lots of different
opinions out there on each of these.  I look forward to hearing the
discussion.

Joyce Gartrell
Head, Serials cataloging
Columbia University
(212) 854-2714
gartrell@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu