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 rather than Houghton staff; HL ITS staff take care of payment, check-in and claiming. Houghton staff do, however, 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 The 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 Library Technical Services staff.
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 information.