In addition to Michael Borries' points below I would add a note about my experience working with the catalog from the other side, as a Reference Librarian.

 

When I worked in Reference years ago, I found that patrons looking for engineering and science papers usually got their information from article citations that did not use the same name for the conference as we would.  Their citations included information such as conference theme (which they thought was the title of the proceedings as well as the name of the conference), the place that the conference was held, and the specific month and days of the year that it was held.  That information is not the single record.  Back then, I found that the only useful way to search for conference proceedings was to use these terms with "keyword anywhere" and perhaps some adjacency.  After we found something in the same conference series, then controlled conference names could be used to browse for the specific volume needed if we had not found it first.

 

One reason I don't like single records when title changes are involved, is that the alternate titles tend not to be displayed in the same prominent position as the title proper.  Patrons (and sometimes Reference librarians) may think that the record retrieved is the wrong one because they miss the 246 displayed less prominently.

 

For all of these reasons, unless the separate records would be all the same apart from number and date, I prefer using separate records containing the more specific information.  While my Reference experience is rather old, today I would still expect that patrons have the unique information from a specific conference more often than they have the conference name we use.  In that case, it is a lot easier to find the proceedings if separate records have been used.

 

By the way, I have always thought that there should be separate guidelines for conference proceedings.  It is assumed that they are just books.  Or it is assumed that they are just serials.  But they are those things and more.  It would be really nice to have a document that focusses in on the unique aspects of conference proceedings and how to apply the general rules to them.

 

Kimberly Montgomery    

Electronic Resources Cataloger Librarian    

Cataloging Services Department    

University of Central Florida Libraries    

Kimberly.Montgomery@ucf.edu    

 

 

I am going way back to my days as a serial cataloger.  At the time, the concept of what was a serial was expanding to where it is today, and LC (and I) preferred serial treatment for conference proceedings.  The idea was do it once and you don’t have to do it again.

 

I still like this idea, but it really does depend on the conference.  As you noted with the single record, there can be frequent title changes and frequent changes in the name of the conference.  And Leah makes an excellent point about URLs.  And if you have both electric and print, or some electric and some print, it’s probably best to have some consistency in treatment for the same conference.

 

Another plus in cataloging conference publications separately is that you can include a contents note for the individual papers presented at the conference, which may help access.  On the other hand, the titles of these papers may be indexed in other resources available to users.

 

So, I would say that decisions need to be made on a case by case basis, based on the considerations above.  And there may be others that I have not thought of.