University Libraries Cataloging and Metadata Services

Identifying Serials When Ordering and Receiving
How to Find Serial Records in The CAT

Table of contents:

How To Identify Serials
Search Commands (brief overview of how they work & practical applications for serials searching)
Examples of Searching Strategies

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How to Identify Serials

When any of the following words appear in a title (or series title), it could indicate that the item you are ordering is a serial. Please be sure to search The CAT thoroughly for a serial record before using a monographic record to place or receive an order.

Journal
Newsletter
Yearbook
Revista
Bulletin
Directory
Annual
Handbook
Advances in ...
Developments in ...
Progress in ...

Words indicating frequency of publication, for example:

Biennial report on ...
Annuaire de ...
Monthly report of ...
Quarterly digest of ...

Edition statements beyond 2nd ed. (i.e. 3rd ed. or higher)

3rd edition
10th revised ed.

Numbers or dates that appear to be part of the title, for example:

Evaluation report on drugs and crime, 1991
Cathedra 80
Progress in botany, vol. 22
Nursing 98 drug handbook
Writer's market, 1997

Ordering info includes an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) or you see that one appears on the piece you are receiving. ISSNs have 8 digits and are formatted like this: 1049-8213

Series statement on piece or in monographic copy record. ALWAYS search a series statement as a TITLE in Workflows - many are cataloged as serials.

The following list includes types of materials often cataloged as serials:

Memoirs, proceedings, transactions, papers, etc. (of societies, meetings, conferences, congresses, symposia, and other corporate bodies)
Annual reports of corporate bodies
Travel guidebooks
Numbered conferences, for example:
Eleventh World Meteorological Congress
Proceedings of the 13th annual conference of American ...
Advances in Superconductivity IX

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Search Commands

Brief Overview of How They Work and Practical Applications for Serials Searching

SEARCH: Operates like a keyword search. Word order does not matter. When using SEARCH, if you include the words "and," "or," or "not," they will act as Boolean operators - in other words they give a command to the system; the system does not search for them as words (note: BEGINS WITH will search them as words). So if you are using SEARCH, don't include these words when they appear in your title, corporate name, etc. In general, to find serial records, you will use the SEARCH command most often with the following indexes:

AUTHOR: limits search to Personal Names, Corporate Bodies, and Conference Names in 100, 110, 111, 700, 710 and 711 fields.
Practical Uses: use SEARCH AUTHOR to find conference proceedings & reports of corporate bodies.
Choose key words that would be likely to appear in the name of the body & be sure to omit any word indicating frequency and any numbering. For example, if you want to find:
Proceedings of the 23rd annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing
you could try:
SEARCH AUTHOR: ACM Symposium Theory Computing
(omitting "annual" and "23rd")

GENERAL: expands search to include just about every field in a record (numerics and notes, as well)
Practical Uses: You can use SEARCH GENERAL when you are really uncertain about the form of name and title. Use SEARCH GENERAL to search for an ISSN. SEARCH GENERAL can be helpful in locating serial travel guides - just plug in the name of the region and either the term "guidebooks" [current LC subject heading for travel guides] or "description travel" [earlier LC subject heading for travel guides]. For example:
SEARCH GENERAL: Africa guidebooks

PERIODICAL TITLE: searches the same fields as TITLE, but limits the search to records that have Record Type: "SERIAL" in the control tab.
Practical Uses: Sometimes the title given in the ordering information varies slightly from the one in the cataloging record. SEARCH PERIODICAL TITLE can help you find these. Can sometimes work more efficiently than SEARCH TITLE, because it doesn't return as many hits; however, keep in mind that it does omit all other formats.

TITLE: limits searches to title fields, but there are numerous fields that are considered to be "title" fields, including: 130, 240, 245, 246, 730, 740, 700 with |t, 710 with |t, and 711 with |t.
Practical Uses: Also helps you find serial records when the title given in the ordering information varies slightly from the one in the cataloging record. SEARCH TITLE will retrieve all formats (computer files, monographs, serials, etc.), while SEARCH PERIODICAL TITLE will retrieve only serials.

BEGINS WITH: Searches are dependant on word order. There are no Boolean operators (i.e. the system will consider the words "and," "or," and "not" to be part of the search phrase). Note that &/and are not interchangeable. If an ampersand or the word "and" appears in the title, try your BEGINS WITH search with both. Also note that if the title does contain an ampersand, the symbol will be omitted in the initial display. For example:

BEGINS WITH TITLE: arts & humanities citation index
will produce the following citation screen:
ARTS HUMANITIES CITATION INDEX
When you click on this entry, you will see that the 245 does say Arts & humanities citation index

BEGINS WITH searches offer a very effective means of limiting the number of search results, but only when you are certain about the form of name or title. When BEGINS WITH fails to produce a match, it is always safest to try SEARCH before importing a new record. In general, to search for serials, you will use the BEGINS WITH command most often with following indexes:

AUTHOR: limits search to Personal Names, Corporate Bodies, and Conference Names in 100, 110, 111, 700, 710 and 711 fields.
Practical Uses: use BEGINS WITH AUTHOR to find reports of corporate bodies when you are pretty certain of the form of name. For example, if you want to find:
Iceberg Lettuce Advisory Board annual report
you could try:
BEGINS WITH AUTHOR: Iceberg Lettuce Advisory Board

PERIODICAL TITLE: searches the same fields as TITLE, but limits the search to records that have Record Type: "SERIAL" in the control tab.
Practical Uses: BEGINS WITH PERIODICAL TITLE is very helpful when trying to find serial records for generic titles like "Nature."

TITLE: limits searches to title fields, but keep in mind, there are numerous fields that are considered to be "title" fields, including: 130, 240, 245, 246, 730, 740, 700 with |t, 710 with |t, and 711 with |t.
Practical Uses: You can use BEGINS WITH TITLE when checking series statements (440, 490 or 830) to see if they have been cataloged as serials.

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Examples of Searching Strategies

Ordering/Receiving information: (Title) Advances in health education : current research
Serial Clue: "Advances in"
Try: BEGINS WITH or SEARCH TITLE: Advances in health education

Ordering/Receiving information: (Title) Cathedra 80 : for the history of Eretz Israel and its Yishuv
Serial Clue: "80"
Try: BEGINS WITH or SEARCH TITLE: Cathedra

Ordering/Receiving information: (Title/Author) The metallurgy of 17th- and 18th- century music wire by Martha Goodway and J. Scott Odell
A search in OCLC yields a record that looks something like this:

100	10	Goodway, Martha.
245	14	The metallurgy of 17th- and 18th- century music wire /|cby Martha Goodway and Jay Scott Odell.
260		Stuyvesant, NY :|bPendragon Press,|cc1987.
300		xii, 143 p. :|bill. ;|c24 cm.
440	#4	The Historical harpsichord ;|vv. 2

Serial Clue: Series Statement in field 440
Try: BEGINS WITH TITLE: Historical harpsichord
(note: if this series had been recorded in fields 490/830, you would have searched the form of title given in the 830 field)

Ordering/Receiving information: (Title) Abacus (ISSN) 0724-6722
Serial Clue: ISSN
Try: SEARCH GENERAL: 0724-6722
      BEGINS WITH PERIODICAL TITLE: Abacus

Ordering/Receiving information: (Title) The encyclopedia of American facts and dates, 10th ed.
Serial Clue: "10th ed."
Try: BEGINS WITH TITLE: Encyclopedia of American facts and dates

Ordering/Receiving information: (Title) Minerals handbook 1996-1997
Serial Clue: "Handbook" and "1996-1997"
Try: BEGINS WITH or SEARCH TITLE: Minerals handbook

Ordering/Receiving information: (Title) The Daguerreian Annual, 1994
Serial Clue: "Annual" and "1994"
Try: BEGINS WITH or SEARCH TITLE: Daguerreian annual

Ordering/Receiving information: (Title) Bowes & Church's food values of portions commonly used, 17th edition
Serial Clue: "17th editon"
Try: BEGINS WITH TITLE: Bowes & Church's food values of portions commonly used   AND
     BEGINS WITH TITLE: Bowes and Church's food values of portions commonly used

Ordering/Receiving information: (Title) The El Oro metamorphic complex, Ecuador : geology and economic mineral deposits
(Series) Overseas geology and mineral resources, no. 67
Serial Clue: Series
Try: BEGINS WITH TITLE: Overseas geology and mineral resources

Ordering/Receiving information: (Title) Stepping-stones : the reminiscences of a women geologist in the twentieth century
(Series) Transactions / Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, v. 53
Serial Clue: Series and "Transactions"
Try: BEGINS WITH AUTHOR: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences
      SEARCH GENERAL: Connecticut Academy Arts Sciences and transactions
(NOTE: the word "and" in this example is working as Boolean operator to separate words
potentially in author field from word potentially in title field)

Ordering/Receiving information: (looks like title) Large dams, 18th international congress
Conference proceedings notoriously change names & titles from year to year, so it is best to use SEARCH GENERAL to locate serial records for them
Serial Clue: "18th" and "congress"
Try: SEARCH GENERAL: Large dams congress
Note: this title appears in Cat as:
     111 2 International Congress on Large Dams
     245 10 Transactions ... Congress on Large Dams

Ordering/Receiving information: (looks like title) Fullerenes IV
Serial Clue: "IV"
Try: SEARCH PERIODICAL TITLE: Fullerenes
This takes you directly to the right record. Note that the 111/245 are very different, but there is a 246 for Fullerenes. If this search had not given you anything, you could also try:
SEARCH AUTHOR: Fullerenes
SEARCH TITLE: Fullerenes

Ordering/Receiving information: (title) Africa (publisher) Lonely Planet Guides
Serial Clue: Lonely Planet Guides & Africa - this could be a Travel Guide
Try: BEGINS WITH PERIODICAL TITLE: Africa
      SEARCH GENERAL: Africa guidebooks

Ordering/Receiving information: (title) Balcanica : annuaire de l'Institut des etudes Balkaniques
Serial Clue: "Annuaire de"
Try: BEGINS WITH PERIODICAL TITLE: Balcanica
     SEARCH TITLE: annuaire Balkaniques

Ordering/Receiving information: (title) Energy statistics yearbook
Serial Clue: "Yearbook"
Try: BEGINS WITH or SEARCH TITLE: Energy statistics yearbook

Ordering/Receiving information: (title) Directory of AAAS fellows
Serial Clue: "Directory"
Try: BEGINS WITH or SEARCH TITLE: Directory of AAAS fellows

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last updated: February 1, 2007 (lal)