---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 14:28:45 CDT
From: Fogler Patty <pfogler@MAX1.AU.AF.MIL>
Subject: designations & dates

Greetings-

        I catalog serials for our library... I've been working with
serials for about 6 months now and have a question that will probably seem
quite obvious, but I'd appreciate any insight into the reasoning involved
here. A lot of my serials cataloging is not from a first issue of a
serial.  For example I have a 1994 copy of the title Legislative review
activities of the Committee on Foreign Affairs on my desk.  The OCLC
record (with GPO and DLC holdings among others) that matches it (8750019)
shows this title beginning in 1980.  We've recently become a depository
library, I understand, so we will be getting many later issues of these
type of titles.  This situation is also true for non-depository serials
that I catalog.

        My question then, is:  is it really necessary to remove all
dating/designation information that I can't personally verify?  If I don't
have the first issue in hand (or know personally what it is) the way I
read CONSER is that I must remove the 362 and use only a 500 Description
based on: note.  It seems to me that if I were to keep the 362 and/or
change it to an unformatted tag (with either a ? mark or perhaps to read:
362 1b Began in 198u) that the patron would have at least some information
concerning the dating of the item.  Any thoughts on how others handle this
situation would be much appreciated.

Patricia Fogler
Cataloger
Air University Library