LCCN, December 11, 2012
ISSN 2324-6464
A Day in the Life of Maryvonne Mavroukakis, Serials Cataloger
By Maryvonne Mavroukakis
Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate
African, Latin American and Western European Division
Benelux, France and Italy Section
As a serials cataloger, my job consists of performing both descriptive
and subject cataloging as well as shelflisting all new serials retained
by LC in French, Italian, Dutch, and other languages coming from the
countries covered by my section, the Benelux, France and Italy Section
of the African, Latin American and Western European Division of ABA. In
addition, I catalog new serials from the Iberia/Rio Section, in Spanish,
Basque, Catalan, and Portuguese. I also catalog new serials in Romanian
and Greek from the Germanic and Slavic Division, and new serials in
various languages from the Rare Materials Section (U.S./Anglo Division).
After a Selection Officer decides to retain a title for LC, I search
this title against the LC database to make sure this title is really new
to LC. Next, I search the title against the OCLC database, where LC
serials are cataloged. If a valid record is found, it will be
amalgamated according to CONSER regulations; otherwise a new record will
be created. When duplicate records are found for the same title, they
must be reported to OCLC, and each of them is annotated with the valid
record number to be kept. When authority work is needed, I create name
authorities, but since I am dealing with foreign publications, the
authority work often requires more investigation than dealing with
English-language name authorities. I often have to search the World Wide
Web in order to establish names of corporate bodies in the original
language. The same situation exists when I need to ascertain
relationships between publications. I often do research that may require
me to consult an earlier or related title in the stacks to determine
when a title changed, or began, or ceased. This makes my work more
interesting but also more time consuming.
Because of the changing nature of serials, I constantly have to update
records of existing serials because elements such as frequency, place of
publication, publisher, or issuing bodies change in the course of the
publication. Sometimes these changes are brought to my attention by
technicians, but more often than not, they are discovered by doing
detective work instigated by clues, e.g. the numbering starts again, a
new designation appears, or a statement in the preface alludes to a new
format or other change. E-mail communications with the editor of a
serial publication may also be necessary to obtain information not found
in those publications.
Variations in title can create problems and account for duplicate
entries. It is important to be aware of them and have the publications
referred to me to determine if they fall into the "minor change"
category (no new record needed), or "major change" (new record). The
change of name of a corporate body causes the same problem, especially
if the serial cataloging record is entered under this corporate body. If
it is a legitimate change, then a new record is created with
earlier/later links, and the name authority record for the corporate
body gets annotated with the information about the new name. A new name
authority record for the new corporate body is created containing
information about the change of name. These updating activities are
important because they solve problems and prevent duplication.
Cataloging serials for the Rare Materials Section provide a different
aspect to my work. Often these serials are part of a special collection
and have unique attributes such as handwritten notes from the former
owner or donor that should be described since they apply only to that LC
collection, and can be significant to researchers, scholars, or
institutions with a particular interest in that collection. Some of the
special collections with numerous serial publications include the
Houdini Collection, the Paul Avrich Collection, the Third Reich
Collection, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Collection.
Other occasional duties include translation of documents for the
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
(IFLA), and participation in various committees involved with serials,
such as the Serials Access Workflow and Procedures Advisory Group (SAAG).
Melanie Polutta
Library of Congress
/LCCN/ Editor
[email protected]
