MARC PROPOSAL NO. 2009-06/2

1. INTRODUCTION

At the March 2009 Joint Steering Committee meetings the following change to an RDA instruction was approved:

“RDA will allow for the recording of the ISSNs for a main series and a subseries when they both appear in a resource.”

The RDA instruction for Recording the ISSN of a Subseries has been revised as below:

2.12.16.3 Recording the ISSN of a Subseries

If the ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) of a subseries appears in the resource, record it as it appears.
Optional omission:
When recording the ISSN of a subseries, omit the ISSN of the main series.

Currently in the MARC 21 Bibliographic format, subfield $x is not repeatable in fields 490, 800, 810, 811, and 830.

2. DISCUSSION

To accommodate the RDA option cited above, subfield $x in the 490 field needs to be repeatable. To accommodate current NACO Series Cataloging practice, subfield $x in the MARC 21 Bibliographic 8XX fields does not need to be made repeatable, because when a bibliographic resource is published as part of a subseries, 8XX tracings for both the subseries and the main series are provided in the bibliographic record in separate 8XX fields. That is, even though the bibliographic record may contain only one 490 Series Statement with both series and subseries in it, there will likely be two 8XX Series Added Entry fields – one 8XX for the main series, and a separate 8XX for the subseries. Each of these 8XX added entries may include the ISSN in subfield $x.

Note that the Optional omission in RDA’s instruction has been included to align with AACR2 and with the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). Preliminary consolidated edition (2007). Catalogers applying the Optional omission would omit the ISSN of the main series when recording the ISSN of the subseries.

3. EXAMPLES

Example 1

490  0#  $a  [Main series title], $x 1234-3456 ; $v [Main series numbering].
         $a  [Subseries title], $x 4567-6789 ; $v [Subseries numbering]

Example 2

490  1#  $a Lund studies in geography, $x 1400-1144 ; $v 101.
         $a Ser. B, Human geography, $x 0076-1478 ; $v 48
830  #0  $a Lund studies in geography. $n Ser. B, $p Human geography, 
         $x 0076-1478 ; $v 48.
830  #0  $a  Lund studies in geography, $x 1400-1144 ; $v 101.

Example 3

490  1#  $a Collection de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, 
         $x [ISSN-XXXX] ; $v 33. $a Série épigraphique et historique, 
         $x 0985-6471 ; $v 5
830  #0  $a Collection de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée. 
         $p Série épigraphique et historique, $x 0985-6471 ; $v 5.
830  #0  $a Collection de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée,
         $x [ISSN-XXXX] ; $v 33.

4. PROPOSED CHANGES

In field 490 (Series Statement) of the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format:

• Redefine subfield $x International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) as repeatable