Date: Fri, 02 May 1997 11:04:23 -0600
From: "Ann L. Jones" <ajones@ARTIC.EDU>
Subject: Authority Records for Uniform Title Headings

I am the only serials cataloger at my institution and the Head of the
Technical Services Dept. has asked me to consider adding authority records
for serial uniform title headings to our online catalog. Please note that I
am not being asked to create them, but merely to add them to our authority
file whenever I find them in the LC Authority Files. I objected that such
records are generally not created and, furthermore, that I had never seen
any in the LC Files but was told that they did indeed exist. I have never
actively searched for them when adding uniform title headings to my records
and feel that doing so would add an unecessary step to my cataloging. I
also see  little real benefit to doing so since the authority record would
only duplicate the index entry for the heading in the bibliographic record.

I double-checked the section on Uniform Titles in the CONSER Cataloging
Manual and found no mention of authority records for these headings (not
that I expected any). I then searched the LC Authority Files for the titles
"annual report #" and "bulletin #" (FYI for OCLC-users and others: # is the
RLIN truncation symbol) and found plenty of uniform title headings for
varient language editions as well as a few for analyzed series but none
whatsoever for straight serial uniform titles. There is the occasional LC
record for a serial title of which a single issue was analyzed (e.g.
NAFL425412), but those are used to record exceptions not to set precedent.

My question for this group is: Is there something I'm missing here or is
this request as off-base as I think it is? If it would actually do our
patrons some good to have these authority records in our system then I
would be happy to add them, but I'm not convinced.

Thanks much.

*************

Ann Leslie Jones
312-443-3526 (voice)
Assistant Head of Technical Services                    312-443-0849 (fax)
Ryerson & Burnham Libraries                             ajones@artic.edu
The Art Institute of Chicago