While magazines are coded up in the same way as books, there are a number of special ways in which data is handled when indexing magazines as discussed below. These include:
The first record in a magazine file should be a special form of the book record known as a "header" or "features" record. This only uses a subset of the fields in a normal book record and, by default, is as follows:
Example:
A0~Armchair Detective␢␢␢[features]~~~~6~~~~~~mg~*[␢␢␢␢ACD]~The ~
This record should then be followed by one or more Book Note Records describing the magazine, followed possibly by one or more of the special item records specifying editors, publishers and such-like.
In some cases, a single "magazine" appeared under a variety of titles during its lifetime. In such cases it is usually desirable to group all the issues together (no matter what the magazine title was) while also indicating when the title changed and providing cross-reference links from the variant titles. To handle this the file that contains all the issue data should first start with a group header record specifying the "usual" name of the magazine where:
This is then followed by a sub-header record for the first group of issues (even if the magazine title is the same as on the group header record). This is similar to the normal header record described above except that:
Each time thereafter that the title changes, another sub-header record is required to define the new title (and abbreviation). All such subsequent sub-header records are also followed by a Book Note Record indicating the change of title. If a second or subsequent sub-header record represents a change in magazine ID then it must specify the magazine ID, but this may be omitted where the sub-header record indicates a minor name changes (e.g. for Astounding). Conversely, any change in magazine ID must have an associated sub-header record (except for magazine issues identified by book IDs which are ignored in such checks).
Example:
A3~Flynn's:␢␢␢[features]~~~~6~~~~~~mg~*[␢␢␢␢FLY]~
D1~Under a variety of titles {Flynn's (Weekly) (Detective) (Fiction) (Magazine)} was one of the~
D2~most popular, and longest running, of all the detective pulps^--notching up an impressive 929 issues~
D3~over a period of 28 years, maintaining a rigid publication schedule for 17 of those years.~A0~Flynn's␢␢␢[features]~~~~6~~~~~~mg~*[␢␢␢␢FLY]~~~SUB-HEADER~
E A0~[publishers]~Red Star News Company; 280 Broadway, New York, NY| Flynn's}~pu FLY~The ~{~
E A0~Flynn, William J.!ed.~Editor| Flynn's}~en FLY~~{~<<details of issues under title Flynn's>>
A1~Flynn's Weekly␢␢␢[features]~~~~6~~~~~~mg~*[␢␢␢␢FLW]~~~SUB-HEADER~
D1~Title changed from {Flynn's}.~
E A0~[publishers]~Red Star News Company; 280 Broadway, New York, NY| Flynn's Weekly}~pu FLW~The ~{~
E A0~Flynn, William J.!ed.~Editor| Flynn's Weekly}~en FLW~~{~
If the variant has a significantly different title to the group header then a cross-reference record should be created linking the variant title to the group header. In this case the file for the variant title should contain just a header in the usual format followed by a Book Note Record containing "--- see under {xxxxx}." where xxxxx is exactly the same title as on the group header record.
Example:
A0~Detective Fiction Weekly␢␢␢[features]~~~~6~~~~~~mg~*[␢␢␢␢DFW]~
D1~---␢see under {Flynn's}.~
Note that the use of group headers also has an effect on the formatting of the index, with the group header listed first, followed by each of the variant (sub-header) titles indented below it. There are occasions when it is useful to create such cross-references without the "baggage" of defining a group header. To achieve this the "target" of the cross-reference should have a "%" character appended to the magazine title in the (normal) header record (this is no longer required in the v2 software).
Example:
A0~Detective Casebook%␢␢␢[features]~~~~6~~~~~~mg~*[␢␢␢␢+DtCsb]~
D1~One of the many British magazines in the 1940s published as a series of booklets~
D1~with different titles to avoid paper restrictions~A0~Bedside Detective Casebook␢␢␢[features]~~~~6~~~~~~mg~*[␢␢␢␢+BdDtC]~
D1~--- see under {Detective Casebook}.~
For sub-header records, the magazine name on the record should match the entry in ABBREV.CVT for the associated magazine ID (there may be exceptions in specific cases which can be handled in the normal way). For group headers and standalone features records, the magazine should match the entry in ABBREV.CVT as far as it goes but may be followed by a disambiguation qualifier in the form of a space followed by free text in brackets, as in:
A0~Mystery Tales (1950s)␢␢␢[features]~~~~6~~~~~~mg~*[␢␢␢␢+MTlAt]~
D1~A short-lived magazine with an assortment of well-known and lesser-known authors~
D1~writing crime-adventure stories, oriented more to fast action and swinging locales~
D1~than to mystery.~
It is not uncommon for the same magazine title to be used by different magazines at different times - there at least 11 different magazines with the title Romance for example. While these are easily differentiated in the lower levels of the Issue Index, it can cause confusion in the intermediate level (which just lists magazine titles) to have multiple listings with exactly the same name. By convention this is addressed by adding a date, in brackets, to the magazine title on the header record as in:
A0~True Gangster Stories (1941)␢␢␢[features]~~~~6~~~~~~mg~*[ +TruG2]~
Note that the date is only specified on the header record and not on the individual issue records.
A similar problem occurs when there is a British or Canadian (or similar) Reprint Edition (or variant) of a magazine, published under the same title. In this case, both the header records and the individual issue records have "UK" or "Canada" (or whatever) appended to the magazine title, as in:
A0~Popular Detective (Canada)␢␢␢[features]~~~~6~~~~~~mg~*[ +PDTCA]~
D1~Canadian reprint edition of {Popular Detective}~
There are also occasions when both approaches need to be combined, as in:
A0~True Gangster Stories (UK) (1942)␢␢␢[features]~~~~6~~~~~~mg~*[ +TrGU2]~
After a magazine header (or sub-header) record, a series of Item Records may be specified to document the editor(s) and publisher(s) of the magazine. While these have the same basic format as ordinary item records they also have a unique format specific to themselves. Specifically, we have:
Editors:
E␢␢␢␢A0~<<editor name>>!ed.~<<role>>| <<magazine title>>}[, <<dates>>]~en␢␢␢␢<<magazine abbreviation>>~~{<<magazine title additional>>~
Publishers:
E␢␢␢␢A0~[publishers]~<<publisher>>}[, <<dates>>]~pu␢␢␢␢<<magazine abbreviation>>~~{<<magazine title additional>>~
where:
If an editor or publisher is only valid for a certain period then the "dates" field should be specified to indicate (as far as is known) the dates of validity. By default the format of this field is:
yy/mm - yy/mm
where yy indicate the start and end years (implicitly in the 20th century) and mm indicate the start and end months as a 2-digit month number (with a leading zero where appropriate). Extensions to this format include:
#nn #nn
Examples:
E␢␢␢␢A0~Horn, Roy de S.!ed.~Editor| Two-Books Detective Magazine}~en␢␢␢␢+2BksD~~{~
E␢␢␢␢A0~Reiss, Malcolm!ed.~Editor| Two Complete Detective Books}, 39/Wtr - 43/01~en␢␢␢␢+2CpDt~~{~
E␢␢␢␢A0~Oliphant, Ronald!ed.~Editor| All Fiction Detective Stories}, 1942 - 1943~en␢␢␢␢+AlFDS~~{~
E␢␢␢␢A0~Raab, John!ed.~Editor| Suspense Magazine}, 2010/07 -~en␢␢␢␢+SusMg~~{~
E␢␢␢␢A0~[publishers]~Three Star Publishing Corporation; 80 Lafayette Street, New York, NY| All Star Detective Stories}~pu␢␢␢␢+AlStD~~{~
E␢␢␢␢A0~[publishers]~Digitalent Ltd.; P.O. Box 38, Wylam, Northumberland, NE41 8YU| Bullet}, 2004~pu␢␢␢␢+Bullt~~{~
E␢␢␢␢A0~[publishers]~Better Publications, Inc.; 10 East 40th Street, New York 16, NY| Black Book Detective}, ??/ - 53/Win~pu␢␢␢␢BBD~~{~
Each issue of a magazine in the index is introduced with its own Book Record. This is fundamentally the same as a normal Book Record except that:
The magazine issue title contains the magazine title (which must, except in extreme cases, match the expansion of magazine abbreviation specified in the publication details) followed by two spaces and the issue details specified within square brackets. The precise format of this is relatively undefined but there are some general guidelines:
In addition to the above, two special cases should be noted:
Quite often, even if full contents information is not known, the existence of a magazine issue may be known, possibly together with partial contents (e.g. from an associated cover scan). It is obviously desirable to include as much information as is known about each such issue, while at the same time making it clear that full contents are still needed for the issue. This is addressed by the creation of a special entry known as a "placeholder" entry which has the following three characteristics:
Example:
A0~Lariat Story Magazine [v4 #2, February 1928]~~192802~~1~~~20c~~pulp~mg~w![|LRT|1928|Feb|(v4:2)|]~
D1~Incomplete Data - Issue not found.~
E A0~~ Need Contents~hd~
E A0~Coburn, Walt~Brave Maker~ss|LRT|1928|Feb|(v4:2)|~The ~
E A0~Cunningham, Eugene~Buck from the Border [Part 3 of 5]~sl|LRT|1928|Feb|(v4:2)|~
Note that the four most common contents for the Book Note Record are:
D1~Issue not found.~
D1~Incomplete Data - Issue not found.~
D1~Issue not found - probably identical contents to the US issue of the same date.~
D1~Incomplete Data - Issue not found - probably identical contents to the US issue of the same date.~
with the latter two typically used for Canadian Reprint Editions from the 1930s or late 1940s/early 1950s when they were typically simply reprinted versions of the US issues. Subtle variations of these texts may also be used for Australian (or similar) Reprint Editions reprinted UK issues, or for identical reprints for which the dates were not exactly the same.