Before placing a serial subscription or standing order, it is important to do a thorough search of the title. Be sure to write all your searching notations on the order request as you search. The information will be invaluable if the search must be put on hold, or if someone needs to later determine why a particular choice was made for a title during the order process. The search will verify:

• the correct bibliographic entry to be used (Title, ISSN, Publisher, etc.)
• whether the title is a monographic series, monographic set, or a serial title for proper fund designation and record coding
• whether the volumes have individual titles
• whether the library owns any issues already (have they all been treated/cataloged the same way, i.e. mono, serial, anals?)
• with which volume/issue the order should begin
• availability of title and which vendors can handle the order (what is country of pubication?)
• cost
• formats available (print, electronic, or both)
• frequency of publication to determine whether the title is taxable
• which volume/issue is current (is there a pubication delay?)
• if the publisher requires subscriptions to begin at specific times
• and to make note of any other information which may be important for ordering

The following steps are required for a thorough serial search. Click the links to jump to more detailed information involved in each step.

1. Review request
2. Search Millennium
3. Check Millennium Authority records
4. Search OCLC
5. Search Vendor sites
6. Determine approriate coding, starting vol. #, format, vendor, price
7. Create Order (Transfer Bib & Order from OCLC or Attach order to existing Bib)
8. Place order with vendor
9. Create backfile orders if necessary
10. Update Millennium order record(s) with ordering information
11. Make printouts of records for Subscription files. Give copy to staff who will be managing receipt of subscription, and to Margaret Hogarth if electronic journal processing required.
12. Staple all paperwork in upper left corner, count on statistics, write title across side of packet, file in subscription file by title.

1. Begin by reading the request carefully and make note of what the requestor actually wants.

• Has a specific starting volume been requested?
• Have backfiles been requested and how far back?
• Has the AUL for Collections and Scholarly Communications authorized the request?
• Are valid disciplines indicated (See Serials Disciplines for valid list)?
• Which formats are preferred?
• Has an appropriate fund been designated?
• Are the Bibliographer, Selector, and Requestor noted?

2. Search Millennium. Do we already have the requested title? Pay special attention to the publisher and ISSN of any serial titles we own. Is it an exact match or a similar title? Is it a previous title to the serial being requested? If it is an exact match, are there previous/later titles (780 and 785 MARC fields)? What is the call number (both request and any previous titles)? Do we have a subscription? Do we have access through CDL only? Do we have some issues? Have our previous issues come as individual monographic firm orders or as a previous, now cancelled, subscription? Is it cataloged as a monograph or serial? Have all our issues been cataloged in the same way (do we have some issues cataloged as monographs and others as serials?) Do we analyze all or some of our issues?

3. Is there an authority record in Millennium for this serial? View the authority record by highlighting the record in the browse screen and clicking the "View" button. Double clicking the title from the browse screen activates "Edit" mode. Only cataloging staff have authorization to Edit an authority record so access will be denied. How do the UCR Libraries treat this title?

To determine how UCR Libraries treat a series, look in the authority record for the title, check the 644 (analyzation), 645 (tracing), and 646 (how classed) MARC fields. I find it easier to read from the bottom-Up, starting with the 646, then 645, and finally the 644 field.

Please see "How to Read Series Authority Records for the Serial Subsription Order Searcher" for examples and more information about Series authority records

4. Search OCLC. Does the bibliographic information match the request? Verify ISSN, publisher, correct form of title, etc., make note of frequency. Are there bibliographic records for individual titles? Do any records have UCR holdings? Does Library of Congress (DLC) treat as a serial or monograph, analyzed or not? Check the call number classification. Does the requested location for title match the Call number designation? (Call numbers classed as Q, R, S, and T should be housed in the Science Library unless designated for Reference.)

5. Search vendor sites to determine/verify pricing, availability, frequency, formats available, which volume is currently being published, etc. Harrassowitz, Swets, and Ebsco sites can give valuable information to assist with the verification process and vendor selection. Check multiple vendor sites for each title. Each vendor can have different information (sometimes conflicting) that combined with other search points can solve possible problems/answer questions before they get out of hand. See the list of Passwords to Vendor sites. Pay particular attention to the price from each vendor, and which volume is currently being published. Note the Vendor's title # if applicable. (You will need to enter this number in Millennium tag f (Vend ID) field for the selected vendor.) Some vendors indicate publisher requirements for new subscriptions (i.e. subs must start with new vol. in Jan., etc.) This will help determine with which volume the subscription should be started. Vendors will also indicate whether online versions are available and what combinations of print/electronic are available. Double check that the print/electronic combination requested is available. Often the online URL will be listed. It is a good idea to attempt to access the online version, if given, to see if we already have access before placing an order. From there, you can get information about online coverage and publisher notes that might not appear elsewhere. Does online access include complete backfiles or only volumes beginning with subscription start volume?

6. Determine appropriate coding, starting vol. #, format, vendor, price. Review the information gathered in the searching processes above and indicate on the paperwork which volume and year the subscription should start with, which format(s) the library will purchase (print, electronic, print + electronic), select an appropriate vendor, and verify the appropriate price to be encumbered on the order.

7. Create Order (Transfer Bib & Order from OCLC or Attach order to existing Bib). Using the information gathered in the searching processes above, import a Bibliographic and Order record for the subscription. If a serial bibliographic record already exists for the serial, attach the subscription order to the existing bib. See Ordering Serial Subscriptions and Standing Orders procedures for more information on specific coding and record creation. If OCLC transferring both bib and order record, Edit the bibliographic record in Millennium and fix the BibCode 2 (Format) code from a (printed material) to s (serial). (There is a glitch in the interface between OCLC and Innopac/Millennium so the Bibliographic Format code will not transfer into Millennium correctly at point of transfer. It must be fixed manually.)

8. Place order with vendor. For Harrassowitz, Ebsco,... place the order using the vendor's online database. For other vendors, Queue a purchase order, have PO printed, verify information on PO is correct, handwrite in any information that did not print, specifically Fund. Mail Purchase order to vendor.

9. Create backfile orders if necessary. Check the order request carefully. If backfile volumes were requested and approved, or if the request indicated the subscription should begin with a volume earlier than the available subscription starting volume, order the backfile volumes from an appropriate vendor. See Ordering Serial Subscriptions and Standing Orders procedures, Section II for specific information about coding the backfile order records. If the serial is an analytic, the backfiles must be ordered under the individual titles. See "Serial/Analytics Ordering Codes for specific information about how to code the analytic order records. A search should be done before ordering to verify the Libraries do not already own a copy of the individual volume. On occasion, individual volumes get processed separately and cataloged as a monograph without tracing the serial record. If found, these should be given to the serials cataloger to recatalog as a serial issue.

10. Update Millennium order record(s) with ordering information. Add notes to the record with any vendor confirmation numbers, and specific information about the order and ordering process so other staff and patrons can determine the status of the subscription.

11. Make printouts of records for Subscription files. Give copy to staff who will be managing receipt of subscription, and to Margaret Hogarth if electronic journal processing required. A checkin record will normally be created at this point by the staff who will receive the issues. Copies of the records assists in accurate setup of the checkin so claims can be done in a timely manner if the issues fail to arrive.

12. Staple all paperwork in upper left corner, count on statistics, write title across side of packet, file in subscription file by title.

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