Page 44 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

Descriptive Cataloging 29

serial: A pub li ca tion issued con tin u ously at reg u lar or irreg u lar inter-
vals with the intention of going on indefinitely. Jour nals and news-
papers are examples of serials.
series: Sep arate pub lications that are related in topic or form. Besides
having its own title, each series car ries a collective title so that the
whole set can be iden tified.
spe cific mate rial des ig na tion: Located in the phys ical descrip tion
area, this is a term indicating the specific type of mate rial, such as
sound cas sette (as opposed to “sound record ing” for gen eral material
designation); or microfilm reel (as opposed to “micro form” for gen eral
mate rial des ig na tion).

title proper: The chief part of the title, including the alternative title.

uni form title: In cat aloging, a title that is cho sen for a work pub -
lished under var ious titles so that the work is eas ier for the user to
retrieve.

INTRODUCTION

As ex plained in Chapter 3, de scriptive cataloging is the first step in
cat a log ing li brary ma te ri als. De scrip tive cat a log ing in volves de scrib -
ing the ma terial first, then deciding the entries to complete the pro-
cess. For the pur pose of con sistency, a ref erence book ti tled An glo-
Amer i can Cat a loguing Rules, Sec ond Edi tion, 1998 Re vi sion
(AACR2R) has been com piled and adopted by most li braries. This
book in cludes the rules that ev ery li brary must fol low when per form-
ing de scriptive cataloging. The rules were put to gether, and the book
pre pared, by the Amer i can Li brary As so ci a tion, the Aus tra lian Com-
mit tee on Cat a loging, the Brit ish Li brary, the Ca na dian Com mit tee
on Cat aloging, The Library As sociation (Great Britain), and the Li-
brary of Con gress. Be cause of au tomation and the utilization of large
central da tabases, more and more li braries have come to re alize the ad -
vantage of con forming to the standards of the AACR2R rules. When a
library joins as a member of a con sortium, the li brary takes on the re -
spon si bil ity of cat a log ing ma te ri als ac cord ing to AACR2R rules.
When the first edition of the An glo-Amer i can Cat a loguing Rules
was pub lished in 1967, most libraries be gan to cat alog ac cording to