MEMBER LIBRARY WEEKLY BULLETIN

No. 02-20                                                                                                                                       May 17, 2002

ROBERT McLAUGHLIN, Cataloging Coordinator

Travel books, Repair manuals, and Test preparation books

In the past FLLS has cataloged travel books, repair manuals, and test preparation books in such a way that each new edition was attached to a single bib record and each of the holdings on a bib record had the date of a particular edition. This type of record is known as an open-entry bib. For example, all the editions of  “Fodor’s Israel” would have only one bib record on Dynix with each edition being listed so that the publication date and the call number would be displayed as:

                              915.694    or    915.694

                              Fodor’s            Fodor’s

                              1998                1999

On the bib record for these types of materials, the ISBN was added for each edition, and the publishing date displayed on the bib record would have only the beginning year of the first published title (for example 1975 – ). The reason for this type of cataloging goes back to the days when FLLS had to maintain card catalogs for the member libraries, and it saved time to initially produce only one set of cards with an extra card for listing each edition year. With as many libraries as we have in the System, this was the solution to having to type or print out for all the libraries multiple sets of cards each year for what were essentially the same titles. This approach still makes sense for some open-entry titles for regularly published materials (usually annually) that have titles that never (or rarely) change. Examples are “Information please almanac”, “Contemporary authors”, “Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy”, etc. However, now that libraries are adding their own holdings to Dynix, there is has developed the problem of what to do with regularly published materials such as travel books, repair manuals and test preparation books that undergo frequent title changes or title alterations. For example, the following are titles for essentially the same book published by Barron’s over several years:

                              “Barron's how to prepare for the GED high school equivalency exam”

                              “Barron's GED: how to prepare for the high school equivalency exam”

                              “High school equivalency diploma test”

                              “GED high school equivalency examination”

                              “How to prepare for the high school equivalency exam”

As you can see, it gets very confusing, especially since so many of the publishers of these types of materials have been combined as a result of corporate takeovers. In my opinion, these unnecessary title changes seem to be a perverse trend by publishers to drive catalogers nuts, and you a little less so when you try to determine if the book you have in hand can be added to an existing Dynix bib record, or if you need a new one. As a result of this confusion, FLLS will be cataloging each new travel, repair, and test book as unique titles with a bib for each edition. For example, the new edition of “Fodor’ Israel” is now on it’s own individual bib record, and the holding still has a date assigned to it (2001) so it will sit next to your previous editions in sequential order – which, by the way, should be weeded if more than a couple of years old. In addition, the bib record will have the actual publishing date (2001) instead of a beginning publishing date as was the case before, and on the previous open-ended bib record for this title I have closed off the publishing date so that the dates are displayed on the Dynix title summary screen as “1975-1999”.

I am in the process of cleaning up the bib records for these types of materials as new editions arrive for inclusion in Dynix. For the most part, all books owned by member libraries that were published through 1999 will remain on older style bib records and the bib dates will be closed off. Any publications published beginning with the year 2000 will be on individual bib records that will make it easier for you to make a match by ISBN when you get your current editions. You may notice that some open-ended bib records have 2000 or later holdings instead of them being on individual records; for these I will retrospectively move them to individual holdings as time permits.

One final note: I have noticed that some of the new Arco test books are being published with a new publishing copyright dates, but the edition numbers and ISBNs are the same as the previous editions (# % @ & publishers!!!). I am not sure if the content has actually changed, but I have decided to put each new year on an individual bib record with holdings that include the new date. 

If you have any questions, please call me.