Guidelines for handling fascicles

1. DEFINITION - Fascicles are, per AACR2, "one of the temporary divisions of a work that, for convenience in printing or publication, are issued in small installments, usually incomplete in themselves; they do not necessarily coincide with any formal division of the work into parts, etc. Usually the fascicle is protected by temporary paper wrappers and may or may not be numbered. A fascicle is distinguished from a part (q.v.) by being a temporary division of a work rather than a formal component unit." Fascicles are meant to be gathered and bound together in permanent units that are usually described and identified by the publisher.

2. HISTORY - Here at Bobst Library, up until 1987, all items issued in fascicles, regardless of their permanent shelving location, were shelved in BREF1 until they were ready to be bound. After binding they were shelved in their permanent location. There was no indication on the cataloging record that unbound fascicles were shelved in Reference. No one in either Reference or Technical Services was specifically responsible for gathering fascicles together when they were ready to be bound as a unit.

3. GUIDELINES -
   1. Fascicles waiting to be bound as a unit will be shelved in their permanent location along with earlier bound volumes.

   2. Newly received fascicles will receive a full Holdings Display in ADVANCE. The volume/part information will be very explicit to the piece in hand, i.e.,
      Cyfrol 1 A-Ffysur Rhan 38 Marchnerth-Melind

   3. Fascicles shelved in BMAIN will receive a temporary individual Class A binding, and when a unit is complete they will be rebound as a unit. (1" will be the maximum width allowed) Fascicles shelved in BREF will not receive a temporary binding, but will be bound once the unit is complete. NOTE: Reference staff will be responsible for deciding when a unit is deemed complete. They will send the items in question to the Bindery unit with appropriate instructions. Once the volumes are returned to Reference they will, in turn, send the volumes to Cataloging for appropriate database maintenance.

   4. Fascicles shelved in BMAIN will be barcoded. Fascicles shelved in BREF will not be barcoded.

   5. All fascicles will be designated "Non-circulating", in the online record and by way of a "Non-circulating" stamp, whether they're shelved in Reference or not; and, all fascicles will have typed spine labels.

   6. Fascicles designated as being located at Kevorkian should be directed to the attention of the Middle East Studies Librarian.

   7. Fascicles designated for IFA will be barcoded and labelled on their spine, however, they will not be bound.

   8. Decisions regarding the completeness of a unit and when to rebind may be handled in the following ways:
      1. the publisher may indicate that a unit is complete by way of a statement on the fascicle cover, or sometimes by supplying a binding cover and new title page.
      2. the appropriate selector may be asked to decide (the fascicle in question will be placed on the Bindery Decision shelves with an appropriate flag so that the selector can make the decision).
      3. the Copy Cataloger responsible for handling fascicles may determine that enough fascicles have collected to bind another unit. However, such a decision will be made only in the case of BMAIN items. Reference staff will handle their own decisions.

   9. Once a group of fascicles has been gathered and prepared for binding as a unit, the Copy Cataloger will delete all fascicle items and replace them with a single item which reflects the new unit. These units will be barcoded and then sent off for a final Class A binding.