LTI Recommendations Regarding LC's Series Decision

On June 1, 2006 the Library of Congress implemented its decision to discontinue providing controlled access to series in bibliographic records and to cease creation of new series authority records. Effective that date, series statements in LC-created catalog records will only be found in 490 0 [untraced] fields. The overall impact of this decision on national bibliographic standards will probably be slight, at least in the near future. No one disputes that the number of series authority records will grow less rapidly. Still, there remains a substantial backfile of LC series authority records and NACO libraries will continue to create new series authority records as the need arises, as well as maintain existing ones, and these will be issued as part of LC's authority record distribution service. Moreover, other library cooperative user groups and programs, including OCLC and PCC, along with hundreds of individual libraries, are stepping up to the plate to minimize the adverse impact of LC's decision making on national cataloging standards. LTI users also have the benefit of thousands of proprietary in-house series authority records created since 1989 to authorize incoming headings in the absence of a national-level record.

There is one immediate action that we recommend. While untraced series have generally been excluded from authority control processing, it now becomes important for libraries not inclined to follow LC's practice to have a mechanism to control series. This can be accomplished by taking advantage of LTI’s no-charge “untraced series” option that allows for the authorization of 490 0 fields. Under this option, if the first indicator in a 490 field is set to '0', it's value is changed to '1' and an appropriate 8XX (traced series) field is created. If the new 8XX field is linked to an authorized heading during authority control, the 490 1 and authorized 8XX are retained.

If an LTI-created 8XX field remains unlinked following authority control, libraries can opt to either: (1) delete the LTI-created 8XX field and change the 490 first indicator back to "0"; or, (2) retain the 490 (traced differently) series with a first indicator of '1' and the LTI-created (but unlinked) 8XX series heading. When the form in the 8XX field cannot be matched to an authority record, LTI recommends that the 490 1 / 8XX combination be retained. Should an authority record later be distributed, it will be provided to the library when the heading is authorized during a continuing [AEX or AUP] authority control run. For libraries retaining the 490 1 / 830 series, we further advise that 490 1 fields not be indexed. The same advice would apply to 490 0 fields but, under this option, none of these fields will remain in the database. Note that some libraries may have made local decisions about indexing series fields that might require a reversion to 490 0.

Current LTI clients who wish to change their library's configuration profile to authorize untraced series, should send an email to Marsha Hunt. Libraries who are preparing for batch processing should select the 'Special series 490 0 processing' option on the Work Specification Profile (item 2 under Other Authority Control Options).

If you are considering LTI's services for the first time, please review the Authority Control Services information on our site or contact us using the 'For more information' link from the menu to the left.