Cataloging the tangled web of serialized novels

University Libraries Friday, August 7, 2026

By Rebecca Ammerman

We all know the anticipation of waiting for the next episode of our favorite show to be aired. Or the next book in our favorite series to be published. This phenomenon is nothing new, and at the University of Minnesota Libraries (UMN Libraries), the Archives and Special Collections’ Cataloging Unit is making sure that the next story is at your fingertips.

A long tradition

Literature buffs have long loved a cliffhanger. The popularity of serializing novels peaked in the 19th century, with works by Charles Dickens, Henry James, Honore de Balzac, and Edith Wharton all released in a slow drip that left their audiences anxious for more.

But the tradition goes back further. As both Balzac and Dickens told the French and British press at the time, their inspiration for this “new prose format” was “One Thousand and One Nights,” an oral history associated with India and Persia that was eventually serialized and published in English in the early 1700s.

In this famous story, the protagonist Scheherazade exploits the very human desire to know “but what happens next?” as she weaves a tapestry of suspenseful tales.

Cover of "Analog" magazine from March 1965 — “Dune” by Frank Herbert, published as two serialized stories, “Dune World” and “The Prophet of Dune,” in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine.

Cover of "Analog" magazine from April 1977 — “The Dying of the LIght” by George R. R. Martin, published as “After the Festival” in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine.

While serialized storytelling dropped off in some literary circles, it continued to thrive in the realm of speculative and science fiction. Analog magazine published part of Frank Herbert’s science-fiction opus “Dune” in 1963, as well as George R. R. Martin’s “Dying of the Light” in 1977.

Several high-profile 20th-century authors, such as Tom Wolfe and Stephen King, followed this tradition and released novels serially, with Wolfe releasing his 1980s novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities” in excerpts for Rolling Stone magazine and King initially releasing “The Green Mile” in six volumes.

But how do you ensure that these works are categorized in a way that makes them easy to find and accessible? And what makes serialized stories special in the first place?

It’s not just the story

For librarians, documenting the journal or magazine numbers and dates of publication is just as important as capturing the story itself, said Metadata Management and Outreach Librarian Rebecca Ammerman.

“A record for a serialized story features the story itself but also captures its unique container, the format and form of original publication, which sets it apart from reprints and is essential information for researchers and patrons,” she explained.

Librarian at her computer holds up two copies of archival magazines with collections tags sticking out — Rebecca Ammerman, a metadata management and outreach librarian, poses for a portrait with copies of Analog magazine, on Friday, August 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. Adria Carpenter

After all, stories could be published months, or years, apart and finding the story amid millions of library records is not an easy task. But the documentation is not only about the practicality of finding the next part of a particular story.

“We document the publication schedule, which reveals insights into the readers’ experience of the original work. In obtaining a work in its original form, we are preserving a piece of history, a cultural artifact,” Ammerman said.

The cataloging captures the moments in between the stories, the moments of anticipation and how a particular serialized work impacted culture.

“The serial format provides a unique, shared experience of unravelling a story, or storyline, with others,” said Ammerman. “It can become an event. It can create a wider cultural touchstone where spontaneous conversations happen between strangers.”

Cataloguing a new collection

When UMN Libraries’ Upper Midwest Literary Archives acquired a collection of serialized works by science-fiction author Lois McMaster Bujold, the Archives and Special Collections Cataloging Unit in the Cataloging, Metadata, and Digitization Department got to work.

McMaster Bujold, a four-time recipient of the Hugo Award for best science-fiction or fantasy works, wrote several serialized novels. Her archive, now housed at UMN Libraries, included issues of Analog magazine featuring the original serialized versions of some of her most well-known work, including “Barrayar” and “Falling Free.”

“We looked at similar items as a cataloguing model,” said Ammerman, “in an effort to preserve the integrity of these works in their original publications.”

Three copies of Analog science fiction magazine spread out on a table — “Weatherman,” “Labyrinth,” and “The Mountains of Mourning” by Lois McMaster Bujold, published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine.

Magazine spread showing a sketch of a man pointing a laser gun into the office of another man — Splash page from Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine.

Two copies of Analog science fiction magazine stacked on top of each other — “Falling Free” by Lois McMaster Bujold, published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine.

Existing analytic catalog records for Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of Baskervilles” in its original, serialized form provided one such example. As a regular cataloger of non-archival materials in the Sherlock Holmes Collections, this title immediately sprang to mind when Ammerman was looking for a suitable record to reference.

The resulting catalog records for “Barrayar” and “Falling Free” provide access and context.

“These records act as digital proxies for the materials themselves, and readers and researchers can discover McMaster Bujold’s work as a serialized story across several issues of Analog,” Ammerman said. “Given the uniqueness of these materials, as catalogers for Special Collections, we are responsible for doing the best we can to capture what it is that makes these materials special in the first place.”