Journal Learnin'

I'm taking a short workshop on serials cataloging, and learned the following important things that define a continuing resource as a serial:

1. It is issued in "a succession of discrete parts"*
2. These parts are usually numbered (though occasionally other means of distinguishing said discrete parts may be seen)
3. It has no predetermined conclusion, but is intended to continue publication indefinitely

I started thinking about things in daily life that might be cataloged as serials, and decided that breakfast is a good bet.

Each incidence of 'breakfast' will be a discrete event, with the possibility of sequential numbering according to the day on which the breakfast occurred, and there is no predetermined end point, since I plan on eating breakfast on a regular basis into the foreseeable future.

Cataloging 'breakfast' as a serial will save a lot of effort over considering each separate event as a monographic item that needs its own record.

This is what I think about, when I'm refreshing my cataloging knowledge while anxiously waiting for the muffins to arrive.


*Basic Serials Cataloging Workshop: Trainee Manual. Library of Congress, 2010.

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