[DCRM-L] Main Entry Question

[Randal Brandt]

At The Bancroft Library, we tend to catalog items like this as 
manuscripts. I forwarded this question to our manuscripts cataloger, who 
recently attended the Western Archives Institute (WAI), sponsored by the 
California State Archives. Here is the response:

    So...based on my recent WAI experience where we had it drilled into
    us that the paramount question to be asked about /any/ "fond" or
    item is always.... what is the intent of the creator?

    And with that in mind I'd go with the CSA Post Office as the main
    entry.

    Acting in their official capacity the CSA used and altered a USPO
    form for their own purposes. It might not be the exact same thing
    but it's kind of like a check, that can be written on anything (i.e.
    a hotel souvenir napkin)  is still legal and payable by the creator
    of the check to the bearer if it is signed by the creator. It's not
    the form of the check that counts; it's the info on it that makes it
    legal. Or like using a shipping label from a package from UPS with
    the address showing but crossing out the UPS info in order to send
    it back using the same label via FedEx.

    But is the USPO an added author just because the creator used that
    form? I'm not as sure about that. Because that's an option the
    questioner doesn't list. CSA Post Office as the main entry with
    added author for the USPO?


Randal Brandt


On 8/24/2011 2:46 PM, Deborah J. Leslie wrote:
>
> I think you have a choice to catalog this as a printed item, in which 
> case the U.S. is the main entry, or a manuscript, in which the CSA is. 
> We would do the former, and add additional headings and title entries 
> designated with ‡5DFo
>
> Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. | Head of Cataloging, Folger 
> Shakespeare Library | 201 East Capitol St., S.E. | Washington, D.C. 20003
> djleslie at folger.edu <mailto:djleslie at folger.edu>| 202.675-0369 | 
> http://www.folger.edu <http://www.folger.edu/>
>
> *From:*dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] 
> *On Behalf Of *Will Evans
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 24 August, 2011 16:25
> *To:* DCRM Revision Group List
> *Subject:* [DCRM-L] Main Entry Question
>
> I’m sure there is a rule regarding this dilemma, but I’m hard-pressed 
> to find it.
>
> Item in hand is a quarterly account ledger form for the U.S. Post 
> Office with the following 245:
>
> Post Office at [blank] County of [blank] State of [blank] in account 
> current with the United States for the service of the Post Office 
> Department from [blank] to [blank] 186[blank].
>
> On the item in hand, however, the following manuscript annotations 
> have been made:
>
> Post Office at [Sangerville] County of [Augusta] State of [Virginia] 
> in account current with the United *Confederate* States *of America* 
> for the service of the Post Office Department from [1st day of June 
> 1861] to [30th day of June] 186[1].
>
> (Text in bold are added ms. annotations made above the line of printed 
> text)
>
> Some Background information: We have a number of forms from the 
> Confederacy that have been cataloged as published with extensive notes 
> added about the manuscript additions. This is the first form we’ve 
> encountered that has been so blatantly appropriated by a Confederate 
> office. So, does one make the main entry the U.S. Post Office, with an 
> added entry for the CSA Post Office? Or reverse the entries with CSA 
> Post Office as the main entry and USPO as an added entry? Make USPO 
> the main entry and leave it at that?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Will
>
> *WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW*
>
> Will Evans
>
> Chief Rare Materials Catalog Librarian
>
> Library of the Boston Athenaeum
>
> 10 1/2 Beacon Street
>
> Boston, MA   02108
>
> Tel:  617-227-0270 ext. 224
>
> Fax: 617-227-5266
>
> www.bostonathenaeum.org <http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/>
>
> **
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>

-- 
__________________________
Randal Brandt
Principal Cataloger
The Bancroft Library
(510) 643-2275
rbrandt at library.berkeley.edu
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu
"It's hard enough to remember my opinions without
remembering my reasons for them"--The Streets.

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