Supplements and special issues

As of June 19, 2013, the rules on this page have been approved in concept by the SCRAP committee, but the exact wording is still being adjusted. Please use these rules. Please send any feedback to SCRAP.

National cataloging rules (CONSER Cataloging Manual 17.4 and 17.5) allow supplements and indexes to be either cataloged separately or mentioned in a note on the record for the main work.

Follow these national standards:

• Supplements intended to be used with the main work should generally be cataloged on the entry for the main work.
• Supplements which provide different types of information or focus on a special feature may be cataloged separately.
• Single-serial indexes published by the same publisher as the main work should generally be cataloged on the entry for the main work.
• Indexes published by a different publisher than that of the main work should generally be cataloged separately.

Additional CCS standards:

• Supplements that are published 3 times a year or fewer generally should be cataloged on the main serial record.
• Supplements that are published 4 times a year or more generally should be cataloged on a separate record.
• If you are unsure how many times a year the supplement is published, prefer cataloging it on the main serial record until such time as you can be certain, in which case a change may be needed.

Given the nature of serials, there may be case-by-case exceptions to these rules.