Procedures


Cataloging Services

Recently the Cataloging Department had a large reduction in permanent staff. In order to accomodate our new staffing level, we are changing task assignments and rewriting procedures. Old procedures are identified in the pre-1/7/9 section. The New procedures will be labeled as 2009. The purpose of Cataloging is to provide to the user the groundwork for finding accurate and meaningful search results. The Syracuse University Cataloging staff remain dedicated to the provision of high quality metadata.


When cataloging, either a record exists or one must be created to describe the item in hand. If a MARC record already exists in OCLC for the item you are cataloging, use the following checklists.


Projects

OSS Maps


Explanation of Tag Table changes

National documentation

AACR2 provides rules regarding the content of records. How to find and format information that go into the MARC record. Please refer to AACR2 (currently located in Catalogers Desktop) Catalogers Desktop if you have questions such as:

  • If a corporation is the author should it get a main entry?
    • (Rule 21.1B2)
  • What do I do when the book is in 2 languages?
    • (Start with the parallel title rule 1.1D, For note information look at 2.7B
  • When there are 5 names what is the main entry?
    • (Rule 21.6B1)
  • What is the difference between a leaf and a page?

(Check the Glossary)

What about when pages aren't numbered? (Rule 2.5B7)

  • My book has many dates. Which one do I use.

(Rule 1.4F)

See the Terminology Cataloging Terminology page for descriptions of continuing resource and integrating resource.


Bibliographic Formats and Standards Please refer to Bib Formats and Standards if you have questions regarding MARC field, indicators and subfeilds. Questions such as:


OCLC Connexion If you have questions specific to OCLC, Please refer to OCLC OCLC Help Sample questions:

  • How do I search for an ISBN?
  • How do I setup a constant data?
  • How do I control my headings? And what does that do?


Please refer to Classification Web if you have questions about Classification or Subject Headings such as:

  • What does class number mean?
  • If have have a class number what is a related subject headings?
  • If I have a subject heading, what is a related class number?

For information about National Documentation for Specific Formats look in the Procedures document for that format.

Local documentation

Procedures document what we do currently locally at SU. There are lots of examples of past practice in the catalog, please ignore those. There are lots of paper copies of old procedures, ignore those.



Pre-1/7/9 documentation: