The Worst of the Worst: Celebrating Twenty Years of the Worst Serial Title Change of the Year Award

Abstract

Serials librarians untangle some of the most complicated bibliographic control problems. The year 1994 marked the twentieth anniversary of the best known attempt at consciousness raising: the Worst Serial Title Change of the Year Award. Among significant efforts to lower the number of possible title changes was the implementation of the second edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. Librarians continue to work on initiatives to improve communication with publishers and to increase awareness of problems caused by title changes. While much work has been done to decrease the number of new bibliographic records for title changes, there remains room for improvement and further streamlining. We propose that the United States Newspaper Program’s cataloging guideline—which specifies that if a title change lasts for less than one year and then reverts back to the previous title, the change does not require a new record—be extended to all serials. In addition to the changes proposed above, more empirical research is needed to aid serial catalogers in handling title changes.