Title of a multi-volume set

I was looking for a Web board or mailing list in which civilians might ask librarians cataloging questions and LibraryThing came up. This entire concept looks great.

I work with small publishers and self publishers to prepare their books for cataloging and identification, trying to get publishers to understand that, yes, a library might acquire the book. Getting it cataloged in publication reduces a library's cost of acquisition. I've written a lengthy memo on cataloging and identification of books, on information I've picked up over the years on these topics. https://catalogingforpublishers.com/

If anyone reads it and finds an error, please let me know. Thanks.

For the purpose of the bibliographic record, is the title of a multi-volume considered to be a series title, or is there a different field to use? I need to know which field to enter the metadata at Bowker. MyIdentifiers is poorly documented and ProQuest Web site maintainers broke the help text links from bowkerlink over two years ago. I've read through data entry instructions in the MARC21 fields related to series title at OCLC bibliographic formats training site, and comparable information about ONIX 3.0. I gave up before looking for the answer in AACR2.

I haven't found any hints that a distinction is made between the title of a multi-volume set and the title of a monographic series, but that doesn't mean I'm not missing the obvious.

No one I communicated with at Bowker came up with the answer yet.

It's time I consult with experts. Is the title of a multi-volume set a series title or is it entered in another field?

I am aware that in some multi-volume sets, each volume doesn't necessarily have its own bibliographic record. If there's just one bibliographic record for the whole set, is the set title simply entered as a title and not a series title?

Answering my own question and with help from Bowker, a multi-volume set isn't a series for cataloging purposes and would never be entered in the series title field. I re-read the definition of series, serials, and continuing resources in the ISSN manual.

I found your OP and answer illuminating, though for my purposes it's strictly curiosity. I'm not trained as a librarian, but sometimes I wish I were.

When cataloguing multivolumes I would do a single bibliographic record for the set, with an individual copy record for each volume. I think that's how most cataloguers would do it - and most library management systems I've used have that facility.

The ISBN issue depends on whether each volume is sold separately (each with an ISBN plus an ISBN for the set) or sold only as a set (ISBN for the set only). Bowker's MyIdentifiers inferface is inadequate for providing metadata for multi-volume sets. I think there are additional fields in ONIX, so I'd probably have to ask them to enter it as a special request.

If the volume has its own ISBN (because it's sold separately), I can provide its title. There is a volume number field, but no field to reference the ISBN nor title of the multi-volume set. Again, I can't use Series Title field because, now that I've looked up the technical definition, I know that multi-volume sets are not series. The only comment field is Main Description, so I'd put it there.

I believe there would be an ONIX field for the set title but I haven't looked it up. If it exists, I cannot access it through the MyIdentifiers interface. Is anyone familiar with ONIX?

If I'm entering metadata for the set, the set title is entered into the Title field. I can provide the ISBN of each volume in the set (if each volume has its own ISBN) but not the title of the volume. Again, I'd have to provide it in Main Description.

Electronic CIP Publisher's Manual has Library of Congress's instructions to publishers about bibliographic records in publishing. Because they provide examples of when each volume of a multi-volume set has its own bibliographic record versus when they don't, they've made it reasonably clear on how to apply for CIP data for multi-volume sets. There is also an explicit instruction NOT to enter the set title in the series title field. See section 12.2.

I looked up the technical definitions of continuing resource, serial, and series. I understand "continuing resource" as it includes a work that gets updated that's not a serial, like a loose-leaf publication or a Web page. Serial and series are both continuing resources but have different definitions but as a practical matter, I don't understand why a work might be one but not the other.

However, I now fully understand that a multi-volume set isn't a series, so I learned something.