Page 220 - DLIS003_LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

Unit 12: Periodical Section

Describe about different types of Periodicals. Notes
Discuss how to Create, maintain and handle appropriate records, registers and files of the
periodicals department.

Introduction

Periodicals are publications which are issued at regular intervals, such as journals, magazines,
and newspapers. They are also often referred to as serials. Periodicals usually consist of a
collection of articles, which may range from a single page story in a magazine to a 40 page study
in a scholarly journal.

Periodicals can offer some advantages over books depending upon your information need.
However, when using periodicals, it is important to understand the difference between scholarly
and popular periodicals.
This unit describes the scope and functions of this department, and the planning processes
involved in the selection, acquisition and receipt of periodicals. All these jobs are to be carried
out by designing suitable forms, registers and records to ensure the smooth supply of every
issue of a periodical.

12.1 Periodicals Department

Since periodical publications are now a major information disseminating media, the work of
the Periodical Publications Section assumes great magnitude and importance in libraries of
universities, research institutions and other learned bodies. They, however, form one of the
“sources of perplexity” in library work. “Their vagaries may transcend all imagination arid
anticipation. It looks as if nothing relating to a periodical publication can escape the sport of
caprice-publishing society, name, periodicity, format, pagination, excrescential attachments to
all story volumes and, last but not the least, the span of the lives and resurrection”,
says Ranganathan. In other words, the kinds of complexities pertain to irregularity in volume –
number, irregularity in publication, change of title and sponsor, amalgamation, splitting,
supplement, etc. For details regarding each, the reader is referred to Ranganathan’s Classified
Catalogue Code. These vagaries not only create problems to the cataloguer but also break the
back of the Periodical Section which is entrusted with the task of acquiring periodicals. In
addition, if the non-receipt of a particular issue is not brought to the notice of the publisher, the
chances of the library getting it later are rather slim.

Definitions of Periodical

A periodical is defined as “a publication issued in successive parts usually at regular intervals
and as a rule intended to be continued indefinitely” by A.L.A. Glossary of Library Terms. On the
other hand, Ranganathan defines a periodical publication as a Conventional Document with the
following attributes:

1. A volume, or a small group of volumes of it, is intended to be published or completed
normally once in a year (or at other regular intervals), though irregularity in interval is
not ruled out.
2. Each successive volume, or periodical group of volumes, is usually distinguished by the
year of publication and/or by a number belonging to system of simple or complex ordinal
number. Such a number is usually called the Volume Number.

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