Travel Guides, Graphic Novels, & Monographic Serials

Single vs. multipart records

• Items Grouped Under a Single Record:
  • Serials published bi-annually or more frequently and that do not belong to the Weeklies list
  • Booksets complete across multiple volumes

To ensure holds are placed on the correct item, familiarize yourself with the |z analytic placement in multi-volume records. 

• Items Receiving Individual Records per Volume or Edition:
  • Serial publications published annually or less frequently that are part of the Weeklies list
  • New editions of annually-published books
  • Graphic novels

Examples: Travel guides, college guides, test prep books, holiday publications.

Boxed sets

It is SWAN policy that boxed sets be circulated as a single unit, including but not limited to television series. These items have a single barcode and circulate as one item. Please do not include season information in the volume area of call numbers for these items.  

Please refer to the documentation on Boxed sets.

Items published before 2017

Prior to 2017, SWAN practice was to use multi-part records for many graphic novel, manga, and annual publication series. Many of these items still exist on these multi-part master records. The 2017 change in practice did not include a systematic clean-up of existing records because of the time-intensive nature of this work.

The transition to using individual records per volume applies to anything published starting in 2017 or any series not already in the catalog. For new volumes published after January 1, 2017, if there is a multi-part record in the system collecting earlier volumes, "close out" that record and begin cataloging volumes individually.

For example, if volumes 1-4 of a series were already cataloged in the SWAN database on a single record, and you receive vol. 5, perform the following steps:

1. Create a pre-cat or import a full record for volume 5.
2. Inform SWAN that the existing record needs to be closed. We will perform the following actions:
   • Insert the volume range represented by the record into the 245 title statement.
   • Close the range of publication dates in the 260/264 publication field and fixed field as appropriate.
3. Cataloging libraries may perform these steps on their own.

The resulting records will be along the lines of:

Multi-part record:

245 10 Title of book.$n[Volumes 1-4].
264  1 Place of publication :$bPublisher,$c2013-2016.

Single-volume record:

245 10 Title of book.$nVolume 5.
264  1 Place of publication :$bPublisher,$c2017.

Splitting existing records

While we do not clean up existing multi-part records systematically, SWAN staff can split a multi-volume record into its constituent parts by request. We typically do this when a record meets one of the following criteria:

• We receive duplicate records through migration that do not match our current framework. For example, the SWAN record is multi-part and the incoming records are single-volume.
• Cataloging is consistent and requires cleanup.
• A title is causing confusion for a patron or staff member.

Member catalogers cannot split multi-volume records because it requires the manipulation of other libraries' item records. If there is a title you would like to see split into its constituent parts, please send in a help ticket.