Required Data for Series Descriptions

Owned by Betts Coup
Nov 29, 2022

If you are only describing material at the series level, additional fields should be used such as Extent and Scope and Content. Both of these notes are extremely important. Scope and content is particularly important at the series level for users to understand what is in that portion of the collection, especially if it is not being described in greater detail. Extent allows researchers to understand how much material related to their specific interests is present and estimate their time spent with a collection.

As with all multilevel description, it is assumed that lower levels of description inherit information from the collection level. Thus you only need to use fields when information differs from that at the collection level. For instance if the collection is predominantly in Russian but you have a series of material in English, you would create a Language of Material note at the series level for the English language material but not for the material that is in Russian. 

The principle of inheritance applies to creator as well. Do not include the creator in your title if it is the same creator as the collection level. Also, do not use the title field for recording authorized names. Agents are the more appropriate place. 

Basic Information Tab

TITLE

The title of your series, ex. Correspondence; Printed Ephemera; Photographs and Slides (no punctuation)

IDENTIFIER

Roman numeral indicator of your series, ex. I, II (no punctuation)

LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION

Select ‘Series” from dropdown menu

Dates Tab

LABEL

Keep “Creation” selected

EXPRESSION

Use to describe the natural language expression of your series date(s)

Example: circa 1990 March-2000 (no end punctuation)

TYPE

Select from dropdown menu the type of date you are describing (inclusive, bulk, single)

  

Extents Tab

PORTION

Keep “Whole” selected

NUMBER

Input the numeric measurement of linear feet, ex. 7

TYPE

Select “linear feet” from the dropdown menu

CONTAINER SUMMARY

Input the number of boxes, volumes, reels, ex. (14 document boxes) (use parentheses)

Notes Tab

SCOPE AND CONTENTS

Describe the contents of your series. Identify significant themes, people, organizations, and formats.