Series & Serials — University Libraries
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Series Titles

“Series” in the Digital Collections are designated by Series Titles. These are often used to collocate groups of items to take advantage of the way that series and serial titles are browseable across collections and as a facet option for search results. Here are some broad categories of series used in the Digital Collections:

Series Types

Examples

Items related by chronology or created in a specific time period that may not be a calendar year.

Fiscal Year 1975

Academic Year 2013

112th Congress

80th Legislature of Texas

Series titles authorized by the Library of Congress (generally used for government documents)

AEC research and development report

Biological services program FWS/OBS

Research report (Southwest Region University Transportation Center (U.S.))

Archival collections and/or archival series

Schuhmann Family Photograph Collection

United Orthodox Synagogues records (MS 712)

Charles B. Moore Family papers, 1832-1917

Austin Papers: Series IV, 1831-1834

Published series

Publications of the Texas Folklore Society

War and the Southwest series

General categories of items within a collection that may improve browsing

Flood Insurance Rate Maps

The Ship and the Sacred Tree: Textiles from South Sumatra (exhibition title)

10th Annual Texas Folklife Festival

[North Texas Politics & Public Officers]

For series titles to be most useful, the patterns for similar titles need to be consistent, particularly for chronological titles (e.g., Fiscal Year YYYY) where a single year generally refers to a range of time other than a calendar year. So, Fiscal Year 1970 would start summer/fall 1969 and end around summer 1970; Academic Year 1932 would start with the fall semester in 1931 and end in summer 1932.

Serial Records

As a general rule, formatting and values for serial records align with the Input Guidelines, however, some fields are more consistent across serial records than other kinds of records, or fit in common exceptions. The general characteristics of serial records in the Digital Collections include:

A standardized Main Title that fits a patterned template to ensure consistency, sorting, and findability for users

Many fields that stay essentially the same across all items in a serial with changes to numbers (e.g., volume/issue/quarter/etc.), dates, and personal names

Inclusion of Citation field information for publications with volume/issue numbers

This section provides an overview of general rules and common concerns specific to serial records in the Digital Collections with example values. It does not repeat in-depth formatting explanations covered by the general Input Guidelines for Descriptive Metadata.

Title

Overview:

All serial records have one Main Title and at least one Serial Title

Serial records may have additional titles, as appropriate

Guidelines

Examples

Common Issues:

If the volume/issue (or another) number is written in Roman numerals:

Use Arabic numbers and include a note

Main Title: The Hexagon, Volume 98, Number 2, Summer 2007

Display Note: “Vol. XCVIII, No. 2.”

If a title includes abbreviations such as “Vol.”, “No.”, etc:

Write out full words in the title and include a note

Main Title: Cheiftain, Volume 12, Number 3, March 1964

Display Note: “Vol. 12, Number 3.”

If the issue covers multiple volume/issue numbers or months/seasons:

Include both/all with a hyphen or slash – generally match item formatting, but choose the most common/logical punctuation to keep titles consistent across a particular publication

Scouting, Volume 70, Number 3, May-June 1982

Hillviews, Volume 42, Number 1, Fall/Winter 2011

If information on the item is known to be incorrect (e.g., if the Roman numerals are not changed from volume to volume, or are written incorrectly):

Put the correct information in the title using [square brackets] and include a note as needed

Main Title: The Age, Volume [10], Number 10, October 1989

Display Note: “Vol. XII, No. 10.”

Main Title: Chieftain, Volume [1], Number [2], October 1952

Creator/Contributor

Overview:

Name formatting and entry should align with Creator or Contributor guidelines, e.g.:

Names of persons should be inverted (Last, First), with a space between initials

Hierarchical organizations should have a period after each level of the hierarchy (and at the end)

Whenever possible/applicable, an authorized form of the name should be used, if available (this is particularly true for government agencies and organizations)

Every creator/contributor must include a type and role

Guidelines

Examples

Common Issues:

Publisher

Overview:

Guidelines

Examples

The publisher is often the same agency listed as the primary creator (or parent agency)

Name formatting should align with publisher guidelines, e.g.:

Hierarchical organizations should have a period after each level of the hierarchy (and at the end), listed from largest to smallest

Whenever possible/applicable, an authorized form should be used, if available (particularly for government agencies and organizations)

Location names are written out (e.g., city, state ; city, country)

Name: United States. Government Printing Office.

Location: Washington D.C.

Name: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

Location: Austin, Texas

Common Issues:

Language

Overview:

Guidelines

Examples

Common Issues:

Description

Overview:

Guidelines

Examples

Common Issues:

If the frequency of the publication changes:

Change the content description to match, or remove the frequency reference, if it isn’t consistent

If the pages are not numbered or the pagination changes many times:

Include the total number of content pages in [square brackets] (i.e., pages that would have page numbers if they were printed/sequential)

[44] p. ; 25 cm.

If the pages are numbered continuously across each volume:

A page range may be used (e.g., 60-88 p.), but in the interest of parsing information without duplication, consider:

using the total number of content pages in brackets (so that users know “how long” the issue is) and

adding the page numbers to the Citation field in Page Start and Page End entries (for search engines)

Always add a display note

Physical Description: [28] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.

Citation Page Start: 60

Citation Page End: 88

Physical Description: vii, 180 p.

Citation Page Start: 1

Citation Page End: 180

Display Note: Pagination is continuous across volumes.

Subject

Overview:

Add terms that would aid users in finding the items

Use terms that are generally applicable to the entire publication, but you may also include some terms that are specific to an issue

Type

Guidelines

Examples

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)

These are not required, but can be included if available (e.g., from an OCLC or catalog record)

Omit geographic subdivisions (these duplicate coverage) and form subdivisions (prefer LCGFT)

United States. Bureau of Mines

Texas Tech University – Curricula

Texas. Office of Public Insurance Counsel – Appropriations and expenditures

North Texas State University

Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms (LCGFT)

All serials should have the term “Periodicals”

When relevant/appropriate, use the search modal to add relevant term(s) related to the type of publication

Periodicals

Newsletters

Course catalogs

Student yearbooks

Statistics

Annual reports

Conference papers and proceedings

Law reviews

University of North Texas Libraries Browse Subjects (UNTL-BS)

At least one UNTL-BS term is required for Portal records

Choose term(s) that describe the general concept of the entire

Use terms appropriately, e.g., “State Agencies” would apply to annual reports or newsletters about an agency, but may not apply to publications issued by an agency on other topics; financial reports about “Finance” rather than “Money” (physical currency)

Government and Law - State Agencies

Business, Economics and Finance - Medicine - Doctors

Education - Colleges and Universities

Social Life and Customs - Clubs and Organizations

Keywords

When relevant, add general keywords that reflect the content of the entire publication or specific topics for an individual issue

Keywords should be lowercase and plural, unless they are proper names

Do not duplicate words that are in other subject terms

organizational planning

monthly reports

water conservation

financial reports

budgets

Common Issues:

If you cannot find an appropriate UNTL-BS term for a Portal item:

Look for a general, top-level term that may be appropriate and then add more specific keywords (or other available subject headings)

If there is truly no relevant subject, contact metadata administrators about adding a new term

Government and Law

Social Life and Customs

Coverage

Overview:

Type

Guidelines

Examples

Place Name

When appropriate, add the place(s) that are described in the content

This may the the same as the publication location, but may be more general (e.g., state agency reports are published in Austin but about activities in the whole state; a document about a state park may be at a county level; etc.)

United States

United States - California - Los Angeles County - Los Angeles

United States - Texas - Jeff Davis County

Dates

If the serial describes a set time, include the single coverage date, or date range

Date ranges reflect the time or first/last dates covered by the content (e.g., stories in a journal or magazine; events, announcements, calendars in a newsletter; etc.)

Common date ranges for serials:

Academic start/end years

Fiscal year start/end months or dates

Quarterly start/end months or dates

Other explicit start/end dates for work completed or data collected (e.g., grant periods)

1942/1943

1963-09-01/1964-08-31

2020/2021-01

1999-03

1956-03-11/1956-06-10

1980-07/1980-09

Time Period

For Portal records, add the relevant time period(s) that correspond to the content of the item

Time period(s) can be included even if specific dates are not listed/ uncertain

Time periods are not used in the Digital Library

mod-tim (Into Modern Times 1939-Present)

Common Issues:

If the timeframe is known but ambiguous (e.g., fiscal year 1970):

Briefly, look at the item for any statement (e.g., in an introduction or copyright page) to see if there is an explicit statement or a list of previous publications on a regular cycle

If you can reasonably determine the timeframe, add the dates as a range

If you cannot find clarification (or if there is reason to think it may have changed), add general dates (e.g., years rather than dates) and mark one or both of the dates as approximate as appropriate

Note: Remember that fiscal/academic years almost always span two calendar years and they are named or identified by when they end (e.g., Academic/FY 2017 starts in fall 2016 and ends in spring or summer 2017)

1969-01-01/1970-12-13

1969~/1970

Citation

Overview:

For some types of serials (especially those that have multiple parts – e.g., volume, issue, etc.), citation segments can be parsed out

Each part should go in a separate entry with an appropriate label

Type

Guidelines

Examples

Publication Title

This is the Serial Title for the item

Scouting

Las Sabinas

Southwest Retort

Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling

Volume/Issue

Include the volume and/or issue number(s) as single Arabic numerals

Volume: 40

Issue: 2

Pages

These parts are generally only relevant for items that have continuous pagination (e.g., across a whole volume)

Include the starting and ending page numbers for the issue as single numbers in separate entries

Page Start: 211

Page End: 282

Common Issues:

If the volume/issue/other numbers are known to be incorrect:

Use the correct numbers in the Citation field and ensure that the error has been documented in a Display Note

Main Title: The Message, Volume [3], Number 24, April 8, 1949

Volume: 3

Issue: 24

Display Note: The volume number is misprinted as “Vol. II.”

If the issue has multiple issue numbers:

Add separate entries for each issue number

Main Title: The Beekeeper’s Item, Volume 5, Number 11-12, November-December 1921

Volume: 5

Issue: 11

Issue: 12

Resource Type/Format

Overview:

Guidelines

Examples

Choose the most appropriate resource type

Journal/Magazine/Newsletter (text_journal)

Report (text_report)

Yearbook (text_yearbook)

Book (text_book)

The format should match the type

text

Common Issues:

If you are uncertain about the type:

Choose the type that most closely matches, based on the glossary

Identifier

Overview:

Guidelines

Examples

Include any known identifiers on the item or from an OCLC/catalog record, e.g.:

ISSN

OCLC number

LCCN (validated, in normalized format)

Call number

SuDOC or TxDOC number

Report number

OCLC: 16855105

ISSN: 0038-478X

LCCN: 12020299

TxDOC: A900.3 ST82

Common Issues:

If you do not have an OCLC record or standard identifiers:

Identifiers are not required and not all serials have externally-assigned identifiers (e.g., ISSNs or LCCNs). If there are identifiers on the title or cover page (e.g., report numbers, series numbers, etc.), include those with appropriate labels; otherwise, leave the field blank

Report Number: LF-16