Series Authority Control at Oregon State University after the Library of Congress’s Series Policy Change

Abstract

The Library of Congress (LC) decided to suspend creating series authority records on May 1, 2006 and to transcribe all future series statements as untraced. To evaluate the effect on cataloging workload at Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries, bibliographic records were examined for untraced series statements from June 1, 2006 to December 31, 2007. Series titles were then searched in the Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) and corrected to match the authority record, if necessary. Series titles not found in the LCNAF were evaluated according to current cataloging rules and corrected if necessary. Of the 53,911 records added to OSU Libraries’ catalog during the study, 977 (2 percent) had an untraced series statement. Only 60 (6 percent) of the 977 were records created by the LC after the 2006 decision. The majority of records (64 percent) with untraced series statements were records created by the Government Printing Office. Many untraced series were also found in records for materials with publication dates before 2000, most resulting from a serials retrospective conversion project. The data suggest that the LC’s policy change has not created a large cataloging burden and, with relatively little effort, OSU Libraries catalogers are able to continue to provide users with authorized series title access.