Monographic Series Published by Serials


A common practice in Slavic and Eastern European periodical publishing is for a magazine, journal, or newspaper to issue a series of monographs as a companion publication to the original periodical. Readers thus can subscribe to the monographic series in addition to subscribing to the periodical itself. Some examples include:

What is necessary to remember when creating a new series authority record (SAR) or editing existing SARs for such series?

The entity responsible for the series work is the periodical itself. While series are most often associated with corporate bodies in terms of responsibility, a periodical is a work, not a corporate body. This situation of a work being issued by another work necessitates several decisions regarding treatment.

Recording the issuing periodical’s title in the SAR.

It is recommended to record the issuing periodical’s title in the SAR to help identify it and/or to collocate with any other related works. A 430 field for a See From Tracing for the periodical’s preferred title should be added, with the subfield ǂp for the series name as part of the title. See LC-PCC PS for 6.27.4, Other situations, 3: “Title of series/serial. Consider giving a variant access point from the name of the serial and title of series when the name of a serial is contained in the title proper of the series”.

The name for a periodical in the 430 field, subfield ǂa, should be given in its preferred form, i.e., the form that appears on the serial record, if a serial record for the periodical exists. Per Series Training for PCC Participants, Session 6a: Qualifiers: “If a CONSER record for the series (cataloged as a serial) exists, generally use the same AAP [Authorized Access Point] that is used on the CONSER record, if the form is RDA or RDA compliant. However, if you establish the AAP of the series in a different way (e.g., with a different qualifier), ensure that the CONSER record is revised”.

Example (in MARC format):

130 _0 Biblioteka zhurnala "Geografii︠a︡ v shkole"

430 _0 Geografii︠a︡ v shkole (Moscow, Russia). ǂp Biblioteka zhurnala "Geografii︠a︡ v shkole"

The title for “Geografii︠a︡ v shkole” appears on the serial record as “Geografii︠a︡ v shkole (Moscow, Russia)” and should be given in this exact form on the series authority record. If no serial record for the periodical exists, it is necessary to check for possible conflicts for periodicals with identical names in the WorldCat database.

Please note that the name of the issuing periodical may appear in the genitive case in the title of the series, and should be changed to nominative case in the 430 field, so “Rudého práva” should be transformed to “Rudé právo” in the 430.

Example (in MARC format):

130 _0 Knihovna Rudého práva

430 _0 Rudé právo. ǂp Knihovna Rudého práva

The name of the periodical should be capitalized when it appears in the middle of the access point, for example: “Knihovna Rudého práva”, not “Knihovna rudého práva”.

Changes in issuing periodical = Changes in the series title?

Often an issuing periodical will change its title when its issuing body changes. Does that mean that its associated monographic series should be changed too? Not necessarily. Even when a periodical changes its title, as long as the series is published under the same title, no changes to a series authority record are required.

Change required: issuing serial undergoes a major title change with the change reflected in the series title

Change not required: The issuing serial undergoes a minor title change or a change in its issuing body, publisher, or publication place, while the series title remains the same.

Example (in MARC format):

130 _0 Biblioteka zhurnala "Ėkonomika i vremi︠a︡"

430 _0 Ėkonomika i vremi︠a︡. #p Biblioteka zhurnala "Ėkonomika i vremi︠a︡"

430 _0 Ėkonomika i vremi︠a︡ (Analiticheskiĭ t︠s︡entr I︠U︡rii︠a︡ Levady (Levada-T︠S︡entr)). #p Biblioteka zhurnala "Ėkonomika i vremi︠a︡"

Per Series Training for PCC Participants, Introduction, the decision whether to create a new SAR or edit an existing one is based on whether there is a major or a minor change to the series. For monographic series published by serials, one type of change -- change in responsibility -- may become a source of confusion.

Per Series Training for PCC Participants, Introduction, a change in responsibility is a major change necessitating the creation of a new SAR, so a change in the issuing body would necessitate the creation of a new SAR. However, in the case of monographic series issued by periodicals, the entity responsible for the series work is the periodical itself. While the issuing body responsible for the periodical or the series work may change, as may the publisher, as long as the series work is issued by the same periodical, there is no need for a ̇new SAR.

An example of this situation is the long-running Russian series Biblioteka "Ogonek", a monographic series issued by the Soviet magazine Ogonek (Огонек). The publisher of Ogonek changed several times over the years, from Izdatelʹstvo Ogonek, to Zhurnalʹno-gazetnoe ob"edinenie, to Izdatel'stvo "Pravda", as did the numbering for the series. These changes caused confusion for catalogers and led to the creation of multiple SARs (Biblioteka "Ogonek" (Izdatelʹstvo "Ogonek" (Moscow, R.S.F.S.R.)), Biblioteka "Ogonek" (Zhurnalʹno-gazetnoe obʺedinenie), Biblioteka "Ogonek", and Biblioteka "Ogonek" (Unnumbered)) for what is in fact one series. (Note that per Series Training for PCC Participants, Introduction, series numbering is considered to be a minor change and does not require the creation of a new record). The example below demonstrates how the Biblioteka "Ogonek" situation would ideally have been dealt with.

In cases like this one, having a 430 for the serial title in the SAR is critical, so that catalogers could see that the entity responsible for the series work is still the same, regardless of the change in publisher. The appropriate procedure is to add to the existing SAR multiple 643s, reflecting publisher changes, and multiple 642s reflecting changes in numbering.

Example (in MARC format):

130 _0 Biblioteka "Ogonek"

430 _0 Ogonek. ǂp Biblioteka “Ogonek”

643 Moskva ǂb Izdatelʹstvo Ogonek ǂd 1925-1931

643 Moskva ǂb Zhurnalʹno-gazetnoe obʹʹedinenie ǂd 1932-1937

643 Moskva ǂb Pravda ǂd 1938-1991

642 no. 1 ǂd items published <1925-1931>

642 1932, 48 ǂd items published <1932-1991>

641 Double numbering occurred in issues published 1932-1938

641 Some issues unnumbered, 1938-1991


See also: Change of Place of Publication in Series Titles with Geographic Qualifiers Qualifiers for Serial Uniform Titles

(Submitted by Kirill Tolpygo and Larisa Walsh, August 14, 2020)