AV Materials: Descriptive Cataloging Policy
![[rainbow bar]](http://www.fiu.edu/graphics/rain.gif)
The goals of descriptive cataloging are to provide sufficient detail to allow the patron to correctly identify a work, to determine if the work described will meet the patron's needs, and to avoid misidentifying a work.
To achieve these goals, our policy is that AV materials in the Libraries’ collections will receive full descriptive cataloging based on the provisions of AACR2, 2002 revision, and LC cataloging practices where appropriate. Tagging and subfielding will follow OCLC/MARC practices, I level.
On the other hand, our policy is to catalog series or sets on one record--in other words, not analyzed. Whenever the individual programs have distinctive titles, we will provide individual title access on the set or series record. In cases of doubt about the usefulness of tracing individual titles, we will check with the AV Department Head.
We will deviate from this policy of using series or set records only in rare cases–such as 1) a specific request from the AV Department Head; 2) a decision by the Cataloging Department Head that fuller subject access is needed than can be provided by a single record; or 3) when we would have to input an original set record and high quality individual records already exist on OCLC.