Our goal is to class in LC current Rand publications as they arrive and to shelve where they class. Older Rand publications remain together in Government Documents as a collection, accessible through the Rand abstracts. That collection will be weeded and the remaining titles may be cataloged and shelved where they class.
Many of the new cataloging records use 710 2 Rand Corporation as an added entry when it appears only as the publisher or as RAND in a 260 field. The authority file notes state that Rand Corporation is preferred, not RAND (Firm).
Since many current Rand publications have good copy and use Rand Corporation as an access point, we should use that form of the name. If the name does not appear in the record in a 710 2 field, it needs to be added.
"Rand series statements" appear in various forms. Very few series titles are actually authoritized. The Rand series statements which appeared in OPAC were for books published by a firm other than Rand Corporation and are not duplicated in the Rand collection in Government Documents. The series statements have been tagged 500 as of May 1996 and Rand Corporation is the new common access point.
Books will probably continue to arrive on order or approval with series traced. The series statement may be the only clue on the title page or verso that this has any connection to Rand Corporation. Revision of cataloging records with Rand series traced would best be done by using series statements in quoted note tagged 500. An added entry of Rand Corporation would provide consistent indexing.
Periodicals may have Rand in title. Periodicals records without the common access entry should have it added to the record.
By using a common access point, a keyword search using "Rand" and topical subject should retrieve items. The file under Rand Corporation would lose value as the number of titles increase. The most recent items would appear at the beginning of the list.
Note: If there is a document number, enter it in the record as a 500 note: 500 "MR-705-FF/IF"