Serials Cataloging Team Mission Statement

The Serial Cataloging Team is a division of Harvard College Library Technical Services. The team supports the mission of the Harvard College Library by assuming primary responsibility for the organization of print, microform and digital serial collections in all Roman-alphabet languages held by the Library. The Team works in concert with many other units in the Library including the languages divisions of HCLTS, Area Studies and Preservation services. The Team works closely with the Serial Records Team, which has responsibility for acquisition of new serial materials and maintenance of ongoing serial orders.

The Serial Cataloging Team is committed to providing professional quality service to the faculty, students and staff that use the Harvard College Library (and, when appropriate, to other scholars worldwide). This is accomplished by creating, maintaining and making available to the international library community quality bibliographic, holdings and authority records according to established local and national standards, policies and guidelines in a timely manner.

The Team actively participates in the CONSER program and catalogs all currently received material to CONSER standards. The Team possesses expertise in the bibliographic control of serials and acts as a resource for the bibliographic description and access to these materials. It provides leadership on an institutional, national and international scale on issues relating to the descriptive and subject cataloging of serials, and it cooperates with other cataloging units on campus and elsewhere, nationally and internationally.