John Hostage wrote: <snip> The "v." is a specific material designation that tells you the serial is held in the form of volumes, rather than some kind of discs, microfiches, postcards, or bits and bytes. But it's true that this kind of information is probably lost on the user. </snip>
John is correct here, and while the information may be lost on the user, it still provides information to the experts who actually manage the collection and are the closest users of the records, themselves. Catalog records exist for two groups: the public and the librarians. I don't believe one is more important than the other, since if a collection is to function correctly, which I am pretty sure our patrons want, the managers need additional tools and information beyond what the public may need. There is so much on web pages that I do not understand, e.g. on Google, I have no idea what the Wonder Wheel does; in Microsoft Word and Excel, I probably understand about 30-40% of what I see there. It doesn't bother me, though. I think regular patrons are the same thing: they don't spend that much time or even care that much about the metadata record, since what they really want is the book, serial, article, film, etc. that the record describes. I question whether it is such a serious thing that the public does not understand everything they see, and that they may not understand little bits and pieces of a record. We can see it on lots of sites out there every day, and nobody seems to care very much. James L. Weinheimer j.weinhei...@aur.edu Director of Library and Information Services The American University of Rome Rome, Italy First Thus: http://catalogingmatters.blogspot.com/
