Friends,

I've been following the thread of successive vs latest
entry cataloging with some interest.

What I am dealing here at the Baha'm World Centre Library is
an active collection of approximately 350 to 400 "Little
journals" produced by volunteers in over 300 countries
/regions reporting on the activities of the Bah^a'^i
community in their area.

When I first arrived at this library 10 years ago, I started
to clean up the collection by bringing title changes to the
attention of the cataloger.  I found that his choice at that
time was to re-cutter the number to reflect the latest title,
which meant re-labelling each issue in the file so that they
could be re-filed correctly after use.  It only took a couple
of instances of the following title change pattern to quickly
decide that the cutter number would not be changed from what-
ever it was first no matter what title changes occured
afterwards.

(I have collapsed the 4 cards into one for ease of viewing)

 BP        Bolet^in Bah^a'^i [Costa Rica]. -- no.1 (julio
 300.2       1963) - edicion #27 (2 de Marzo, 1989). --
 .C67        San Jos^e : Asamblea Espiritual Nacional de
 B65         los Bah^a'^is de Costa Rica, 1963-1989.
             (?) nos : ill. ; 28-24 cm.

             Title varies : Noticias Bah^a'^is, no.1
           (julio 1963) ; Boletin Baha'i, no.1 (julio
           1964) - no.4 (19 enero 1965) ; Noticias
           Baha'is, before no.3 (oct. 1965) ; Boletin
           Baha'i de Costa Rica, before no.14 (apr.
           1969) - no.25 (feb. 1970) ; Noticiaticas
           Baha'is, (marzo 1971) - (enero/feb. 1972)
           ; Boletin Bah^a'^i Costa Rica, no.1
           (junio-julio 1972) - (set. 1973) ; Boletin
           Baha'i, (9 set./16 oct. [1976]) - (4/23 nov.
           1974) ; Noticias Bah^a'^is, (Ridvan 1975) -
           (july 1976) ; Bolet^in [name of Bah^a'^i month
           in bold letters], no.2 (julio 1978) - (#4,
           [set. 1978]) ; Bolet^in Bah^a'^i no.1 ([july
           1981]) - [17 May 1983] ; Noticias Baha'is,
           [aug. 1983] - Oct. 1983 ; Bolet^in Bah^a'^i,
           (nov. 1983) - #26 (9 feb. 1989) ; Baha'i
           Costa Rica, #27 (2 marzo, 1989) - # 5 ([27
           set. 1978])-May-June 1981] ; Bolet^in Bah^a'^i
           Costa Rica, v.1

           Title: Noticiaticas Baha'is [Costa Rica].
           III. Title: Bah^a'^i Costa Rica. IV. National
           Spiritual Assembly of the Bah^a'^is of Costa
           Rica.

           card 4 of 4                  SPA
           0000019143/16-MAR-91         COS

My next challenge is to try to find or develop an automated
check-in system that can handle the extremes of changes
typified by the example above.

Any thoughts warmly welcomed.

Bryn Deamer
Periodicals Acquisitions
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