Adding Records With SERIAL Primary Key

I may have missed this in the docs; if so, please tell me where to find the
answer there. If not, I still need to learn how to resolve this situation.

The database schema has been designed and the tables are ready to be
created. Once they exist, I want to load data into the tables in batch mode
(rather than one at a time, manually). The core table has a SERIAL data type
field as the primary key. How is this field assigned values? Then, how do I
load the related tables so they reference the proper records?

Thanks,

Rich

--
Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com> Voice: 503-667-4517 Fax: 503-667-8863