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May 26, 2006
LC's Recent Announcement Regarding Series Authority Records
The Library of Congress has recently announced that they will cease providing series authority records (SARs) as of June 1, 2006. Here is a list of what LC will and will not do after that date (from the LC decision announcement):
"As a result of the Library of Congress decision, the following explains what catalogers will and will not do, related to series.
What LC catalogers will do:
--Create a separate bibliographic record for all resources with distinctive titles published as parts of series (monographic series and multipart monographs).
--Give series statements in 490 0 fields.
--Classify separately each volume (i.e., assign call number and subject headings appropriate to the specific topic of the volume). (Imported copy cataloging records will have series access points removed and series statements changed to 490 0.)
What LC catalogers will not do:
--Create new SARs
--Modify existing SARs to update data elements or LC’s treatment decisions
--Consult and follow treatment in existing SARs
--Update existing collected set records
--Change 4XX/8XX fields in completed bibliographic records when updating those records for other reasons "
The library community has made various responses to the announcement, including those by the American Library Association and the Music Library Association.
How this affects the Music Library:
--Although Technical Services has not made any policy decisions yet, we have traditionally followed LC policy
--That means that ALL series currently classed as a set WILL NO LONGER BE SO after June 1 (this includes the M2 sets such as "Recent Researches...")
--Please note that the current proposal does not include any provision for the retrospective dispersion of existing series. So, in the case of Recent Researches, volumes already cataloged will remain as M2.R23x v.xx, but anything cataloged in the future would be done separately. In other words, existing volumes would be shelved together, future volumes shelved separately and there is no plan either at Library of Congress or here at University Libraries to go back and class the older volumes separately
--It is unclear at present how the M3 composer collected works will be affected.
What you can do
--Express to the powers-that-be (Technical Services Management Group, Collections council, etc.) how important series access is to music materials:
Barb Stelmasik, Director of Technical Services, University Libraries
Gordon Anderson, Arts and Humanities Collections Coordinator, University Libraries
Charles G. Spetland, Collection Development Officer, and Collections Council chair, University Libraries
--Stay abreast of developments both here locally and nationally; to contact the Library of Congress about this decision:
Beacher J.E. Wiggins, Director for Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access at the Library of Congress
Questions? Ask Mary
Posted by huism002 at 3:15 PM | Comments (0)