Bibliographic Records of Persian Serials in the Catalogue of National Library and Archives of Iran

Study of level, accuracy and mistakes of serial bibliographic records entered into the catalogue of National Library and Archives of Iran.
The population of this survey consists of 12700 Persian serial records in RASA, 375 of which selected as sample (25125 fields). Data was collected using a checklist created based on UNIMARC guideline for serial cataloging.
Twelve percent (12%) of fields have data and 88% do not. Sixty-five percent (65%) of data are accurate while 35% are not. The most mistakes belong to non-Unicode fields with 49% followed by unauthorized by 33%. Cataloger mistake in choosing the right field was seen in 11.5% of fields, additional character and words in 4%, incomplete data in 2% and spelling errors in 0.5%. Data entrance was mostly neglected in block 4 (linking data) and 5 (title data).
Lack of an accurate and well-defined policy for cataloging and cataloger mistakes are the main factors for bibliographic data deficiencies. It is suggested that National Library and Archive of Iran (NLAI) prepare a comprehensive guideline for serial cataloging.