[DCRM-L] Signature marks that include parentheses

[Manon Théroux]

Could you take one of the following approaches?:

Signatures: [symbol]4-([symbol]4); the symbol is a colon surrounded by inverted parentheses: ):(

Signatures: :4(-:4); colons enclosed by inverted parentheses.

Signatures: [colon]4(-[colon]4); colons printed within inverted parentheses: ):(

Manon

> On Aug 8, 2014, at 3:34 PM, "Young, Stephen" <stephen.young at yale.edu> wrote:
> 
> Eileen Smith, who has served as a lab assistant for Advanced Descriptive Bibliography at Rare Book School,  suggested to me that inserting a space would help to clarify things in these situations. Your example would become:
>  
> ):(4 (-):(4)
>  
> This is what I have been doing lately. The space helps the eyes a little bit.
>  
> Stephen R. Young
> Rare Book Catalog Librarian
> Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
> P.O. Box 208240
> New Haven, CT 06520-8240
> Tel.: 203-432-8385
> Email: stephen.young at yale.edu
> The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library will close for a major renovation in May 2015, reopening in August 2016.  We will maintain a reading room in Sterling Memorial Library during this time, but access to various collections will be limited as early as April 2014 while we prepare for closure. For details, please visit our renovation website.
>  
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> From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Deborah J. Leslie
> Sent: Friday, August 08, 2014 3:27 PM
> To: DCRM Users' Group
> Subject: [DCRM-L] Signature marks that include parentheses
>  
> Formatting present: best read in html or RTF
>  
> Dear colleagues,
>  
> Jason LeMay, an alumnus of this year's RBS Rare Book Cataloging course, sent me a query about recording the signature mark ):(  With his permission, I'm reposting it and a version of my response below for discussion.
> I am finally trying to put my Rare Book Cataloging into action. I’ve come across an odd little pamphlet I had previously dealt with, and now I’m preparing to review and enhance my previous cataloging. The entire item is a single gathering of four leaves, and they are signed “):(“, “):(2”, and “):(3” (fourth leaf unsigned).
> 
> For the signature, would I actually record ):(4?
> 
> DJL:
> 
> Jason, yes, you’ve got it right. Since our character set has parentheses and a colon, you can use them to represent the signature mark.
> 
> The difficulty comes when you need to qualify signatures. Parentheses are used to introduce the qualifications, but when the signature mark also has parentheses, the resulting statement can be almost impossible to parse. Let’s imagine that the gathering in your book wasn’t regular and needed to be qualified. Say, that the gathering only has three leaves, you’ve ascertained that the fourth leaf isn’t present, and that your 3-leaf gathering represents a perfect copy.
> 
> Signatures: ):(4(-):(4) A-Z8.
> 
> I’ve resorted to a couple of different ways to ameliorate the situation. One is to use square brackets and an extra space instead of parentheses for qualification. So:
> 
> Signatures: ):(4 [-):(4] A-Z8.
> 
> Which is still enough to make one’s eyes cross.  
> 
> What do you, the community, think about this use of a descriptive phrase in the following signature statement for an actual book.
> 
> Signatures: [inverted parentheses]-3[inverted parentheses]4 4[inverted parentheses]4 (-[inverted parentheses]4) A-C4 D4 (±D1) E4 F4 (±F1) G-3H4 3I4 (-3I4).
> 
> This book is signed with )( instead of ):(, so "inverted parentheses" is accurate. For the latter, one possible remedy I just thought of was to pick a single character to represent the ):( and explain it. Something like  
> 
> Signatures: %-3%4 4%4(-%4) A-C4 D4 (±D1) E4 F4 (±F1) G-3H4 3I4(-3I4); preliminaries are actually signed ):(.
> 
>  
> Deborah J. Leslie | Folger Shakespeare Library | djleslie at folger.edu | 202.675-0369 | 201 East Capitol St., SE, Washington, DC 20003 | www. folger.edu
>  
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