Cheers!

After a hiatus of 18 mos. I am back at my desk in the Serials dept.
Meanwhile we have changed over to the CatME for Windows software.  I'm
trying to get back into the groove with serials cataloging and I have a
question for your collective wisdom.

If you have a serial publication which does *not* have an ISSN number, what
is your most successful method of constructing a search key?  Our previous
practice was to cruise OCLC until a close matching record was found and
then request it to be downloaded by OCLC number.

My new instructions indicate that it is more cost effective to utilize a
search key and let the software do the searching.  This is all well and
good when there is an ISSN which is fairly direct.  What I am having
difficulty visualizing is what kind of search key to utilize in its
absence.  I have found that searching by ISBN numbers is less than
satisfactory as that generally results in finding the record of a serial
that has been cataloged as a monograph.

Any help here will be greatly appreciated.

Dee Neff
Serials Cat. Asst.
J.B.Duke Library
Furman University
Greenville SC
dee.neff@furman.edu