Currently received/active serials (paid subscriptions) use the 853-5/863-5 paired fields and predictive check-in. Most active serial subscriptions are handled by Harvard Library Information Technology Services staff in the Serials Acquisitions department for payment, check-in, and claiming, not Houghton staff, although Houghton staff do perform the binding and final barcoding of the volumes after they have been delivered to the Houghton Acquisitions Section, and we still update holdings records to reflect these arrivals. This includes the three rotating titles in the Houghton Reading Room, which the Bibliographic Assistant processes and places on the shelf: The Library, The Book Collector and Papers of the Bibliographic Society of America. Some other journal subscriptions, which include titles pertaining to Emily Dickinson for example, are handled by the Houghton Technical Services Library.
Non-active serials can employ either the 853-5/863-5 paired fields or the 866 Summary holding statement. See the MARC Holdings documentation for more information. Irregular, gift serial titles such as book dealer catalogs deemed worthy of bibliographic cataloging should be treated in this manner as well.
Each volume should have its own item record. The item record should include the volume information in both the Description field and in the appropriate Enumeration levels. See VII. Item Record for more informationActive serials for Houghton are mostly handled by the Acquisitions Assistant who will update holding and item records, and route the items to end-processing for labels and barcodes only. See the Serials section under the Acquisitions Unit for details.
For serials that require cataloging by the Rare Book Section catalogers, consult the ITS wiki and follow the examples of recording holdings data for single part monographs, multipart monographs, and serials. Also consult the V.5. Multi-Part Items & Serials section for details.