Parentheses are used whenever you do not wish a caption to be displayed.
Usually this means that enumeration captions in 853 $a-h are not enclosed in
parentheses but chronology captions in $i-m are e.g.

      853   \a v. \b no. \u 4 \v r \i (year) \j (season) \w q \x 21
      863   \a 1 \b 1 \i 1996 \j 21

will display as:

      v. 1 no. 1 spring 1996

if you did not use the parentheses it would appear as:

      v. 1 no. 1 season spring year 1996

> I'm having trouble understanding the $i-m subfields in the Holdings
> 853-855 fields.  If I understand correctly, these subfields are used to
> indicate how chronological data will be displayed on screen.  According
> to the MARC manual, an entry in one of these subfields would be
> something like (year), (week), etc.  Do I type in the parentheses?  How
> come these are not control subfields like 853 $w?  Could someone please
> give me some details or examples?

The National Library of Scotland uses the VTLS serials control module and
there is no problem with either alphanumerics or ordinal numbers.  With
alphanumerics we don't have to specify the type of enumeration used, the
system will recognise and augment the letters sequentially e.g.

      853   \a v. \b pt. \u 4 \v r \i (year) \j (season) \w q \x 21
      863   \a 1 \b A-B \i 1996 \j 21-22

will display as:

      v. 1 pt. A-B spring-summer 1996

However, if the second level of enumeration lacks a caption we would specify
letter in parentheses e.g.

      853   \a v. \b (letter) \u 4 \v r \i (year) \j (season) \w q \x 21
      863   \a 1 \b A-B \i 1996 \j 21-22

will display as:

      v. 1  A-B spring-summer 1996

As regards ordinal numbers, VTLS uses a "+" symbol in the appropriate position
e.g.

      853   \a (year) \b +quarter
      863   \a 1997 \b 1-3

will display as:

      1997  1st-3rd quarter

As far as I am aware this is not part of the USMARC format.

> The examples given in the MARC manual for Holdings 853 $a-f seem to
> assume that the type of enumeration is numeric i.e., vol. 1 no. 4.  But
> some serials have other types of enumeration: alphanumeric, ordinal,
> roman, etc.  Where in the Holdings record do I specify type of
> enumeration?  If I don't specify, then how does the system recognize
> that after pt. B comes pt. C?

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John E. Nicklen                                 E-mail: j.nicklen@nls.uk
Head of Serials Cataloguing Unit                Phone:  +44 (0)131 226 4531
National Library of Scotland                    Fax:    +44 (0)131 220 6662
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh EH1 1EW

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