Bibliographic Control Practice of Japanese-Language Serial Title Changes
Cases of Japanese-language serial changes, as to differences between those treated as major in Japan and as either major or minor in North America, are quantitatively analysed and discussed. A sample set of all bibliographic records listed in the one full-year worth of 51 weekly issues of NDL's Japanese national bibliography, no. 2534 (1 July 2005)-no. 2584 (30 June 2006), as retrieved over the Internet between 5 and 16 July 2006 matching the criterion of note word "keizoku" in the section of "Chikuji kankōbutsu no bu" was extracted for subsequent data analysis, coding, and manipulation. A total of 703 bibliographic entries were identified and categorised into 20 groups according to North American provisions of serial changes. Among those 703 bibliographic entries, after exclusion of 49 cases with a note for "keizoku kōshi," 3 cases of entries reflecting additional serial change patterns to the one-to-one continuation, 12 cases of serial reprints, and 35 cases of both pre- and post-change titles proper in other languages than Japanese, a total of 614 bibliographic entries, to which 635 serial change categories were assigned, were examined. The ratio of minor serial changes by North American provisions to the 635 assigned serial change categories for the 614 bibliographic entries that NDL determined as major serial changes was 0.20157. Cases of ISSN changes based on NDL rule interpretations on major serial changes were found in the sample set, which would cause failed or misleading electronic linkage establishment at North American libraries from indexing and abstracting services to local library holdings records and/or issue-level item records. Mention is made of further research possibilities with an expanded sample set of Japanese-language serial changes and on treatment of Japanese-language serial changes at libraries outside Japan and North America.