In response to the decision by MARBI (2008-07) to make the MARC field
440 field obsolete, the British Library is changing its policy on
recording series information in its bibliographic records. The revised
policy takes into consideration the Library of Congress series policy
and the BL's requirement to ensure consistency and accuracy in derived
records with minimal intervention.
From January 12th 2009 the 440 field will no-longer be used to record
series titles in records created or edited by the British Library.
From that date it will be our practice to transcribe the form of series
appearing on the item in a 490 field for every volume in a series. The
830 field will only be created when the series title is 'generic'. In
such a case the generic title will be made unique by qualifying it with
the authorised form of the issuing body and adding this to the record as
an 830 access point.
The British Library has far too many records containing 440 fields for
us to consider converting them all to 490 fields at this time. We will,
however, change any 440 fields on derived records to 490 and change any
440 fields to 490 fields on existing records which are being edited for
any reason. We will retain any additional 830 fields which already exist
in derived records, whether they contain a generic series titles or not.
Brenda Young
Bibliographic Systems Manager
The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
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