Supplements and special issues

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.