Technical Services Procedures

Maintaining the Online Catalog - Authorities: Series-related Definitions

Page Author: Jim Latchney
Page Editor: Janet Baldwin
Last Updated: March 2, 2006

• Series: “A group of separate items related to one another by the fact that each bears in addition to its own title proper, a collective title applying to the group as a whole.  The individual items may or may not be numbered.”  (1st definition in AACR2)

• Subseries:  “A series within a series (i.e., a series that always appears in conjunction with another, usually more comprehensive, series of which it forms a section).” (AACR2)
  
  
• The word “series” is used in AACR2, in LCRIs, and in the MARC 21 formats to mean any comprehensive bibliographic resource whose title is given in the bibliographic 4XX field (series statement):
• Monographic series
• Other type of serial
• Multipart item
• Integrating resource
  
  
• Monographic series:  “A group of separate items related to one another by the fact that each item bears in addition to its own title proper, a collective title applying to the group as a whole.  The individual items may or may not be numbered.”   (AACR2)

• Serial:  “A continuing resource issued in a succession of discrete parts, usually bearing numbering, that has no predetermined conclusion.  Examples of serials include journals … and monographic series.”  (AACR2)
  
  
• Multipart item:  “A monograph complete, or intended to be completed, in a finite number of separate parts. The separate parts may or may not be numbered.”  (AACR2)

• Series-like phrase: “A character string (words, letters, combination of letters and numerals) not considered to be a series.”
  
  
• Integrating resource: “A bibliographic resource that is added to or changed by means of updates that do not remain discrete and are integrated into the whole … Examples … updating loose-leafs and updating Web sites.”  (AACR2)

• Preliminaries: “The title page(s) of an item, the verso of the title page(s), any pages preceding the title page(s), and the cover.” (AACR2).
• Per LCRI: “cover” = p. 1-4 of the cover, both flaps, and the spine.
  
  
• Analytic record:  The bibliographic record for a volume of a monographic series or a part of a multipart item.
• The analytic record may be for a single-part monograph, a multipart item, an integrating resource, or a serial.

• Collected set record:  The bibliographic record for the monographic series (serial) or multipart item (monograph) as a whole.
• The collected set record may also be for an integrating resource if that resource is analyzed [not covered in this training.]