Date:         Wed, 14 Jul 1993 10:20:21 EDT
From: "Enrique E. Gildemeister" <EEGLC%CUNYVM.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject:      Re: Uniform titles (Hannah King)

If a publication with variations in title is considered to constitute "one
title" for purposes of cataloging and bibliographic control, then the
uniform title should be based on the title proper; the title proper will
be taken from the earliest issue in hand, and variations explained and
traced.

The uniform title is not meant to "inform" the user; its purpose is to
identify a publication or "title" as unique. Just as the uniform title
will often carry a qualifier completely unrelated to current issues of
the serial, it is by the same logic plausible to have a uniform title
carried by a serial whose current title is different, but only if the
various manifestations of the title are judged to warrant being recorded
as one title.

This sounds a bit convoluted, I know, but this is my best shot. Would others
care to comment or give a better explanation?
----------

I would like to add to my previous message the following:

For serials whose titles vary radically but are judged to constitute one
serial, the title proper for the 245 field is taken from the earliest
issue in hand (serials of this type are generally considered to constitute
one publication retrospectively; i.e., it is only after considerable time
has passed and multiple variations have occurred that the decision to treat
the various pieces as one serial is made). It is only after the title
proper has been chosen that one makes the determination whether a uniform
title needs to be assigned at all.  Once it has been assigned, it serves
to represent the serial in all its variations, not only variant titles on
sources other than the chief source, but also titles presented on the
chief sources of various issues, but only when the various issues are
deemed to constitute pieces of one serial.

Rick Gildemeister
Cataloger
Lehman College of the City University of New York