Serials Spreadsheet Documentation
August 2008
The Union Stacks collection contains a large number of serials, many of which are not fully cataloged or labeled. While GAs were checking books for barcodes they also recorded information about the serials in the Union Stacks. The data gathered include call numbers of the serials, titles, holdings, and housing. The primary way to find these serials in the future is by call number since only partial titles were recorded, and the titles on boxed serials are not always accurate. GAs noted when a serial appeared to have gone through a title change (column “TC” on the serials form) but did not record details of the title change. Holdings information focused on quantity – one volume, under six volumes, under twelve volumes, and more than twelve volumes – rather than exact volume and issue numbers. The intention here was to identify which call numbers have longer runs of a serial. GAs also indicated whether the serials were unbound, bound, in acid-free housing, or in housing that is not acid free. Many of the Union Stacks serials are in acidic boxes, and knowing where these boxes are should help a future project target which serials are in need of rehousing.
The serials spreadsheet is in the U:\ drive in the folder BeckyDean. It is also included in the U:\ Final Documents folder of documentation about the Burke Library Offsite and Backlog Projects. The data also exists in paper form at Burke in a file folder of documents relating to the Burke Library Offsite Project.
Some single-issue serials that appear on the spreadsheet may have been withdrawn from the collection. Subject specialist Michael Boddy went through the single-issue serials and decided whether to keep or withdraw them. The withdrawn serials were usually tangential to Burke’s collections and/or available through online databases. These titles were removed after the completion of the serials spreadsheet and have not been taken off this list.
A project to gain bibliographic control of the serials in the Union Stacks will need to start by checking for serials that already have bibliographic records and holdings records in CLIO. It is expected that some of the Union Stacks serials are already in CLIO, either because other Columbia libraries have them or because they were uploaded from Burke’s catalog. Many of these pre-existing records may need to have their holdings updated. Other serial titles will need to be imported from OCLC and have holdings added. Still other titles will require original cataloging. This is a large future project; there are more than 2200 serial titles to check.
Initials: ______
Date: ______
Union Stacks Serials DataHoldings Information
(# of volumes) / Housing Information
Call Number / Title / T C / Sing. / <6 / <12 / >12 / Unbound / Bound / Acid-free Housing / Other Housing