Digital Library Center - University of Florida Smathers Libraries

Digital Library Center : Serial and Series Guidelines

I. Serials : Entering Serial Metadata

Most Serials should come to you relatively complete. Usually, they’ll need at least one of the following three things:

The Volume, Number (Issue), and/ or Date must accompany the TITLE.
There must be a SERIES TITLE.
The Serial Hierarchy must be correct.

Fig. 1 illustrates the first 2 things:

As seen in Fig. 1, Volume and Number must be entered. They must always be abbreviated (Vol., No.) and should be in Arabic numerals (as opposed to Roman).

Note the spaces between the data in each field – spaces ensure the searchability of the field later on.

The SERIES TITLE is an exact copy of the TITLE, but remains consistent throughout breadth of the life of the document.

A calendar Date is usually not entered unless it is the only descriptor available. This will often include a Season (Fall) or Month (October) and a Year (2006).

Fig. 2 shows the 3rd thing:

There are 5 rows and 2 columns. Typically, only the first 2 are used, and rarely more than 3. The DISPLAY field contains literal metadata, or, information the user will actually see. In the case of Fig. 2, Volume 11 has been entered in the first field, because Volume is broader a category than Number or Issue. Number 1 has been entered second because it is more specific than Volume. As above, the same rules of abbreviation and number type apply.

The ORDER field contains ONLY numerical metadata. Our system will order the documents not by the information entered in DISPLAY, but by the numbers entered in ORDER.

Should you encounter a Month, Season, or Year, the same rules apply. For Months enter the numerical equivalent (October = 10 etc.), for Seasons consider Winter through Fall 1 through 4; and for Years, just enter the year (2006 = 2006).

I. Serials - How to Tell

Serials

Serials come in many forms and can be confusing, often coming to you in a somewhat disheveled form.

There are several clues that can tell you what document type you’re dealing with. The first and perhaps most obvious, is shown in Fig. 1:

The BIB folder will be filled with VID folders. VID stands for Volume ID and contains the files that make up one Volume of a particular Title. If there is a single VID, but that VID is greater than “00001”, you’ve probably got a serial.

For example, Fig. 2 shows a particular Volume (vol xi, number 1) from a particular Title (Dateline: UVI).

Fig. 2 well-illustrates some of the other clues: Volume, Number (Issue), and Date. These bits of information tell you that whatever document you have, is part of a Serial and is inextricably linked to other Volumes in that Serial. Volume, Number (Issue) and sometimes Date should alert you to that fact.

II. Series - How to Tell

Series are different than Serials in that they are not dependent on the other documents in that group. Each document is its own Title but is also designated as part of a particular Series.

Fig. 1 shows a document with a unique title that belongs to a larger Series. The elements of that Series are circled.
The clues circled above are arranged to form a SERIES TITLE. The structure is: DOCUMENT TYPE – ENTITY ; NUMBER.

Document Type: the name/classification ascribed to the document (Bulletin, Technical Report, Mimeograph etc.)
Entity: The organization or group responsible for the document (University of Florida, ICTA, Agricultural Experiment Station etc.)
Number: tells in what order the document falls in relation to other documents in a Series.

In Fig. 1 the circled element “Bulletin” is the Document Type; the circled element “University of Florida Agricultural Experiment Station” is the Entity; and the circled element “551” is the Number.

Fig. 2 shows how this structure looks when entered into a record.

There is one common document type that does pose somewhat of a problem, at least when first inspected. Sometimes a document will be a Serial, meaning it relies on a chain of sequential documents concerning the same thing, and part of a Series, in that it is part of a larger, unrelated grouping.

Fig. 3 shows the front cover to a good example of a Serial/Series.

As you can see, there is a Series Title (Economic information report – University of Florida Food and Resource Economics Dept. ; 31) and an indication that there are other documents with the same title (1973).

In this case you merely add “1973” onto the end of the Title and the Serial Hierarchy; and you copy the consistent title into the Series Title field, as would be done in any other Serial.

The only difference is that you add the Series Title (Economic information report…) to the ALTERNATE TITLE field.

Fig. 4 shows the combination as it would appear in a record.

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Digital Library Center : Serial and Series Guidelines