Date: Tue, 09 May 1995 09:56:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Enrique E. Gildemeister" <EEGLC%CUNYVM.bitnet@uvmvm.uvm.edu>
Subject: Gov Doc serials

An interesting discussion came up on Autocat about using SuDocs classification
as call numbers for federal government documents in general. What seemed to be
most problematic were the serials. Often the first volume of a government
report serial will carry a monographic SuDocs number, which then will change
to a serial number once someone at GPO decides it's a serial. There was talk
about doing annual reports as monographs in order to give access to the
appropriate SuDocs number for each particular volume of the serial cataloged
as a monograph! And then there was a general discussion on documents catalo-
ging gov docs.

I interjected that at Lehman College we do a very thorough selection of
everything we want cataloged, and then we actually classify each item using
LC classification. I added that we're thinking of abandoning this practice,
as we are in retrenchment and are trying to cut costs. We're considering
loading GPO tapes from MARCIVE on a subscription basis. Some of our sister
colleges in CUNY are quite satisfied with this.

I did give a caveat about the serials, because, as I mentioned before, they
tend to disperse all over the place. I'm going to insist that we continue
classifying them in LC. What with all the title changes, merges, etc. I
feel using SuDocs and monographic treatment very cumbersome and ultimately
just plain not desirable. We are actually going to add a new feature to our
operation: we have never given any bibliographic access to GPO periodicals,
newsletters, etc. We're going to start checking them in in Acquisitions, just
like any other periodical, and even though we won't catalog them, we'll do
what a number of OCLC libraries do, which is to dump a raw OCLC GPO cataloging
record into our NOTIS database, and create an OCLC Local Data Record (LDR) and
add that data to the copy/holdings statement in NOTIS. And, we will
continue classifying the reports that we treat as serials.

I thought I'd post this to Serialst, as the discussion was interesting, and
the special problems that need to be worked around involve the serials.
Perhaps others would like to share information on their practices. I thought
it could be interesting to hear that sort of discussion from a serials
point of view.

*******************************************************************
* Rick Gildemeister                                               *
* Cataloger/OCLC Enhance Coordinator                              *
* Lehman College, CUNY                                            *
*                            "Facilis descensus Averno"           *
* Voice: (718) 960-8831                                           *
* Fax:   (718) 960-8952                                           *
* BITNET:    eeglc@cunyvm                                         *
* Internet:  eeglc@cunyvm.cuny.edu                                *
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