490 - Series Statement & Tracings

"Series: A number of separate works, usually related in subject or form, that are issued successively. They are usually issued by the same publisher, distributor, etc., and in uniform style, with a collective title."-- Bohdan S. Wynar Introduction to Cataloging and Classification (8th ed.) by Arlene Taylor, p. 587.

The 490 tag, subfield a, contains the title of a series of which the material being cataloged is a part. This single subfield is the holder for all the bits of a series title: dates or volume numbers appearing as part of the title, other title information, statements of responsibility, initial articles in transcribed titles, parallel titles, and subseries titles. 

The reason this tag can be such a catch-all is that it was not created to be searchable. It displays to anyone viewing the record, but there isn't usually a dedicated index for it. Though you may find a record for part of a series based on the 490 with broad keyword searching. If the cataloger wants people to be able to find an item by the series title then a tracing should be added to the record. The first indicator in the 490 tells you if the series entry in that tag is traced (value=1) or not (value = 0). The second indicator is undefined and should be blank.

When library catalogs were printed on cards tracings were very important to finding all the cards related to a particular title. Tracings referred to the list, printed on the main entry card, of subject headings, names, serial titles, etc. for which separate cards had been created and filed in the catalog. In online library catalogs the term tracing is used mainly to refer to the 8XX tags that provide access points to the series information transcribed in the 490 tag. 

It is very common to see a 490 tag with a subfield v which is the "volume number or other sequential designation used in conjunction with the series statement."  You may also come across, particularly in the case of a serial issue being cataloged as a monograph, subfield x which contains an ISSN.

There are four 8XX tags that might be used to provide an access point (aka searchable information) to a series statement. Each of them is structured the same way as the corresponding 1XX tag.

• 800 -- Series Added Entry--Personal Name (used when there is a statement of responsibility for the series included in 490/a) 
• 810 -- Series Added Entry--Corporate Name
• 811 -- Series Added Entry--Meeting Name
• 830 -- Series Added Entry--Uniform Title (structured like the 130 tag)

Most of the time you will have both a 490 and at least one 8XX tag. Occasionally you will see a 490 without any 8XX tags; be cautious about using such records in your local system as they may not be as complete as they ought to. It is also possible to have 8XX tags in records where there is no 490 -- in those cases the presence of traced series information should be supported by a general note in the 500 tag.