[DCRB-L] WG3: t.p. & wrapper titles

[Deborah J. Leslie]

Anyone who has tried to use DCRB for 19c books knows the frustration of a printed t.p. with information substantially different from that on a wrapper. Our decision here will force our hand on the issue, so to speak, of creating separate records for different issues. We have to come down on one side or the other.

For those who have not seen what we're talking about, it is a wrapper (that is, paper with usually the same or lighter weight than the text block, wrapped around same) with printing on the top side that looks just like a t.p. A wrapper printed with different information than a t.p. in the 19c has the same function as a re-issue of old sheets with a new t.p. in the HP period. It may or may not signal a different impression, but it certainly signals a different issue.

I will even go further to say that if preferring a printed wrapper over a t.p. as chief source in this case doesn't seem appropriate, then the  decision to use DCRM for 19c ought to be reconsidered. 

Deborah J. Leslie
Chair, RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee
Head of Cataloging
Folger Shakespeare Library
201 East Capitol St., SE
Washington, DC 20003
202.675-0369
djleslie at folger.edu
www.folger.edu