Serial closings

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General guidelines

When a serial has ceased publication, several adjustments to the catalog record are needed, as listed below. In the case of a title change, the closing of the old title is generally done in conjunction with the cataloging of the new. Most serial closings are handled by the SeERs Team.

Evaluate evidence of cease.
It may be helpful to verify by checking the publisher's web site, and/or by searching OCLC. Never close a serial bib. record simply because the title is no longer received. If a title has been canceled, or if issues have stopped arriving without explanation, any "current issues" or "current volume" notes should be removed from the holdings record, but the bib. is not affected.

Determine:
- which issue was the final one, or whether this is not known with certainty
- whether the title was continued by another one
- whether the serial record in our catalog was done according to AACR2 or RDA
Update the following bibliographic fields:

008 Publication Status	If definitely ceased, change to d. If probably ceased but unsure, change to u.
008 Date 2	If exact year is known, change "9999" to year of final issue. If exact year is unknown, fill in as far as possible and substitute u for remaining digits; e.g., 19uu if century is known but not decade. All 4 digits may be u in some cases. If probably ceased but unsure, change to "uuuu." Use designation year (from 362), not year of publication (from 260/264). If date designation of final issue is a span of years, use the latest example: for 1988/89 in the 362, use 1989 in 008 Date 2.
260/264 subfield c	If last piece is in hand, enter publication year of final issue after the hyphen. If there is no beginning date in the record, start the subfield with the hyphen. If only a copyright date can be found, use that as publication date -- on AACR2 records, including "c"; on RDA records, enclosing in square brackets and omitting "c". If no publication/copyright date can be found, a probable year (based on chronological designation and/or date received) may be entered in square brackets with a question mark. If last piece is not in hand, leave 260/264 open, unless information can be copied from OCLC or found on an online version. Some records may have multiple 264 fields to indicate publisher changes; subfield c should appear only in the first one (246 #1) even though that place/publisher does not apply to the final year.
300 subfield a	Before "v." (AACR2) or "volumes" (RDA), enter the total number of volumes if easily determined; i.e., if first and last issues are known and numbering is straightforward. example: 300 ‡a 19 v. 362 0 ‡a Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1970)-v. 19, no. 5 (Oct. 1989). The designator on pieces need not be "volume" to be used here, and need not correspond to the number of years published. example: 300 ‡a 50 v. 362 0 ‡a No. 1 (June 1969)-no. 50 (June 1979).
362 subfield a	If the record currently uses a formatted 362 (first indicator 0) and last piece is in hand, enter designation(s) of final issue after the hyphen. example: 362 0 ‡a Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1970)-v. 19, no. 5 (Oct. 1989). If the record currently uses an unformatted 362 (first indicator 1) and last piece is in hand, use unformatted style. example: 362 1 ‡a Began with: Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1970); ceased with: Vol. 19, no. 5 (Oct. 1989). If last piece is not in hand or not exactly known, use unformatted style. Field 362 is repeatable, so beginning and ending dates can take different forms in separate fields. example: 362 0 ‡a Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1970)- 362 1 ‡a Ceased in 1989. Alternatively, convert the existing 362 to unformatted style as in the previous example. Remember to change the indicator from 0 to 1.
588 and other notes	If last piece is in hand, add/update "Latest issue consulted" note to reflect this. Also review the whole bib. record and update any open note fields to the final date, if still relevant. Make additional adjustments, especially if a field that may impact searching or identification (e.g. publisher, issuing body, frequency) has changed.

Update any "current" fields in the holdings record.
"Current issues in" notes - Check acquisitions record for unbound issues; call in and add them; remove note after adding.
"Current volume in" notes - If volumes are not immediately being transferred, remove notes and change to simple holdings statements for each location.

Special cases

Title changes

In addition to the bib. record changes listed above, add a 785 field for the new title.
Make sure the 780 field on the new title record matches the old cataloged entry.
If available, include ISSN in subfield x of 780/785 fields.
Usually a "current issues" or "current volume" note from the old title MFHD will be carried over to the new title MFHD.
In more complex cases (splits, merges, etc.), there may be multiple 785 fields needed.

Ceased in print, continued online

In addition to the bib. record changes listed above, add a 776 field for the new title (instead of 785):
- Begin with subfield i "Continued online only:"
- Search the ISSN Portal so that subfield x for the online version can be included if available.
example: 776 08 ‡i Continued online only: ‡t Mountain geologist ‡x 2327-2945
Make sure the online version is activated in Alma, assuming we have access.

Additional references

CONSER Cataloging Manual 21.3, Closing records for serials that have ceased - for more examples, and more detailed instructions about special situations