The levels of CONSER records are characterized briefly as follows:

Full level records contain a full complement of elements that are applicable to the serial and all elements contained are fully authoritative.

Core level records contain those elements essential to the description and access of the serial and all elements contained are fully authoritative.

Minimal level records contain the essential (i.e., core) elements for description but subject elements may not be present and one or more headings may not be authoritative.

Specific details concerning the description, subject elements, and authoritativeness of headings are given below. Classification, however, is not required at any level, with one exception: field 086, Government Document Classification Number, is input as supplied by the U.S. Government Printing Office. Many libraries do not classify a portion of their serial collection and a number of different classification schemes are used.

Computer-generated fields are also part of all CONSER records but are not specifically stated here because there is no conscious decision to include or exclude them. These fields are specifically labeled in Part II. Fields 012 (subfield $I) and 850 have been included for all levels of CONSER records (except newspapers) because they are needed to generate entries in the publication New Serials Titles. These fields are only needed for first time authentication, however, and CONSER institution who later use the record are not required to add their holdings to field 850. For more information, see fields 012 and 850 in Part II.

CONSER Record Requirements:

FIXED LENGTH FIELDS:

Full:

Core:

Minimal:

Type of record (Leader/6)

M

M

M

Bibliographic level (Leader/7)

M

M

M

Encoding level (Leader/17)

M

M

M

Descriptive cat. form (Leader/18)

M

M

M

Publication status (008/6)

M

M

M

Beginning/ending dates (008/7-14)

M

M

M

Place of publication (008/15-17)

M

M

M

Frequency (008/18)

M

M

M

Regularity (008/19)

M

M

M

Type of serial (008/21)

M

M

M

Form of original item (008/22)

M

M

M

Form of item (008/23)

M

M

M

Nature of entire work/contents (008/24, 25-27)

MA

O

O

Conference publication (008/29)

M

O

O

Successive/latest entry (008/34)

M

M

M

Language (008/35-37)

M

M

M

Modified record (008/38)

M

M

M

Cataloging source (008/39)

M

M

M

CONTROL FIELDS- -OXX:

 

 

 

010 LC control no.

M

M

M

012 CONSER fixed length field ($I- -NST code)

M

M

M

022 LSN

R

R

R

041 Language code

MA

O

O

042 Authenticated code

M

M

M

043 Geographic area code

MA

O

O

074 GPO item no.

R

R

R

086 Gov’t doc. class. no.

R

R

R

VARIABLE FIELDS- -1XX-9XX:

 

 

 

1XX Main entry

MA

MA

MA

240 Uniform title

MA

MA

MA

245 Title statement

M

M

M

246 Varying form of title

MA

MA

MA

250 Edition statement

MA

MA

MA

260 Publication, etc. (Imprint)

M

M

M

300 Physical description

M

O

O

310 Current publication frequency

R

O

O

362 Dates of pub., vol. designation

MA

MA

MA

4XX Series statement

MA

MA

MA

500 Source of title, DBO note

MA

MA

MA

5XX Notes

MA

O

O

6XX Subject added entries

MA

MA

O

700-730 Name/title added entries

MA

MA

MA

780/785 Preceding/Succeeding entry

MA

MA

MA

7XX Other linking entries

MA

O

O

850 Holding institution

M

M

M

8XX Series added entries

MA

MA

MA

936 CONSER variable length field

MA

MA

MA

Codes: M - mandatory, MA - mandatory if applicable, O-optional, R - required if available. See text for more information on the requirements for notes, added entries, linking title entries, and NST fields.

B6.2.1. Full record elements

B6.2.2. Core record elements

B6.2.3. Minimal record elements

See also:

B6. CONSER Record Requirements for Full, Core, and Minimal Level Records