Changes in Cataloging by the British Library
Posted by Jennifer on 6 January, 2009 in Cataloging
In response to the decision by MARBI (2008-07) to make the MARC field 440 field obsolete, the British Library is changing its policy on recording series information in its bibliographic records. The revised policy takes into consideration the Library of Congress series policy and the BL’s requirement to ensure consistency and accuracy in derived records with minimal intervention.
Starting January 12th, 2009 the 440 field will no-longer be used to record series titles in records created or edited by the British Library as announced on their website in December, http://www.bl.uk/bibliographic/nbsnews.html.
From that date it will be our practice to transcribe the form of series appearing on the item in a 490 field for every volume in a series. The 830 field will only be created when the series title is ‘generic’. In such a case the generic title will be made unique by qualifying it with the authorised form of the issuing body and adding this to the record as an 830 access point.
According to the British Library, they have far too many records containing 440 fields to consider converting them all to 490 fields at this time. However, they will change any 440 fields on derived records to 490 and change any 440 fields to 490 fields on existing records which are being edited for any reason. BL will retain any additional 830 fields which already exist in derived records, whether they contain a generic series titles or not.
The British Library contributes records to OCLC WorldCat so these changes may be apparent by other WorldCat users who derive or use BL records.
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