successive entry AALGIER@SCU.BITNET 13 Dec 1990 17:10 UTC
In response to Crystal's note regarding the fact that a change in editorial direction was an afterthought to the decision to adopt successive entry I would like to add the following: The fact that it was an afterthought and whether or not a practitioner or a theoretician made the decision to adopt successive entry does not change the fact that successive entry did not entirely solve the problem of having to recatalog a serial and thus save in processing time. In the case that I cited--Latin American annual reports--it actually increased the time in processing: not only did the cataloger have to recatalog the serial, but also the check-in staff now has to chase numerous linking entries to find the right title to check in the piece, as does the patron in order to ascertain if a library has the issue of the serial that he/she is searching for. It created more work for the cataloger and created a situation where the patron and the check-in staff remains confused as to what this bibliographic control is all about. My point is that if changes in editorial direction was used as a criteria for deciding to adopt successive entry, then serials people should be able to make that judgement in order to avoid creating unnecessary work and a bibliographic debacle. Investigating this issue could result in coming up with a set of objective criteria for determining whether the serial title change truly merits a successive entry. Two areas that I can think of off the top of my head are: the deletion or the addition of frequency in the title (Annual report vs. Report); and: changes in word order (Changes and perspectives of the Soviet Republics vs. The Soviet Republics, changes and perspectives OR The Soviet Republics : changes and perspectives). I believe it is much easier to work with existing rules (these added esceptions could be included in RI 21.2A) without having to revamp the entire concept of successive entry. To change the rules now after so much work has already been done would not sit well with alot of serial catalogers. This situation that I am describing is a compromise, where I believe proponents of both successive entry and latest entry could feel more satisfied if the issue has to be hashed out again. My intention was not to open up this old wound on bitnet but rather to suggest that this is an area that needs empirical investigation in order to analyze what successive entry really means to both catalogers, to check-in personnel, and to the end user. If objective criteria could be established for determining changes in editorial direction and if there could be a bit more room for cataloger judgement in this area, I believe it could solve some of the problems inherent in creating successive records for serial titles that do not merit so much of the cataloger's attention.