Question

Provide a brief overview of Voyager Complex Publication Patterns.

Answer

Do you have a serial for which creating a regular publication pattern in Voyager doesn't work, no matter how hard you try?  If so, then you may want to create a Complex Publication Pattern (CPP) in order to accurately predict issues for check-in.

CPPs are useful for "regularly irregular" titles -- that is, a title that has a predictable publication pattern, but the pattern is such that it does not fit into any of the patterns supplied by Voyager. Examples of such "regularly irregular" titles might be "monthly except for two issues in June" or "weekly except for the first week of the year."

CPPs are also useful when a publication pattern requires that issues be both omitted and combined (e.g., no January issue and a combined July/August issue), as the normal Voyager patterns do not allow issues to be both combined and omitted in the same pattern.

As it is rare for CPPs to be shared by more than one title, it is usually best to create a CPP for each title that needs one. Creating a CPP is a two-step process using a template, as explained in Chapter 8 of the Acquisitions User's Guide.

• Article last edited: 02-Nov-2020