[DCRM-L] Page, Leaf and Sheet again

Wed Mar 26 12:52:42 MDT 2014

Kathie Coblentz posted the following message to the RDA-L list early this month (where it received no replies), and I think it merits re-posting here. As Kathie notes, RDA's revised definition for 'leaf' is still not entirely satisfactory. Kathie usefully proposes a new definition for 'leaf' and an additional guideline at RDA 3.4.5.20.

If members of this list are in agreement with Kathie's suggestions, I would be happy to bring this forward to CC:DA as a revision proposal.

Best,
Francis
RBMS Liaison to CC:DA

-----Original Message-----
From: Kathie Coblentz [mailto:kcoblenz at nypl.org<mailto:kcoblenz at nypl.org>]
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 6:39 PM
To: rda-l at ala.org<mailto:rda-l at ala.org>
Subject: [RDA-L] Page, Leaf and Sheet again

In the February release of RDA, I am pleased to see that our lively discussion (July 2013) of the definitions of these three little words has borne fruit. In particular, for "Page" and "Leaf," "of text" has been deleted following "unit of extent," so that these terms are no longer restricted to use in describing the extent of textual content. Overall, these definitions are now considerably
improved:

"Page: A unit of extent consisting of a single side of a leaf."

"Leaf: A unit of extent consisting of a single bound or fastened sheet as a subunit of a volume; each leaf consists of two pages, one on each side, either or both of which may be blank."

"Sheet: A unit of extent consisting of a single flat loose piece of paper or similar material."

With "Page" and "Sheet" I have few quibbles. "Page" is unchanged except for the deletion of "of text." "Sheet," formerly just a "A flat piece of thin material (paper, plastic, etc.)" is now specified as "loose" and explicitly allowed as "a unit of extent." To be sure, some of the printed or illustrated sheets I've dealt with (tin, brass, cork, glass) haven't been very "similar" to paper, but let that go.

However, I still have a problem with "Leaf" (only altered by the deletion of "of text" following "extent" and "of paper" following "sheet"). As worded, it suggests that the same piece of material is called a "sheet" when loose and a "leaf" when "bound or fastened," with no other difference between the two terms. Each leaf is a unit "consisting of" a single sheet, and each leaf also "consists of" two pages, no more, no less. But in fact, a single sheet can be folded into many leaves and bound like that, or left unbound.

That is how books were traditionally made, and why rare books catalogers give signatures (in effect, a sheet count to check against the page count). Even in modern times, it's a not uncommon affectation for a finely printed book to be issued unbound, in loose sheets, each folded into a quire or gathering, and each divided into multiple leaves and pages.

RDA knows this. Also in the glossary, we find definitions of "Gathering" and "Book format":

"Gathering: One or more pairs of leaves - made up of a folded sheet, a fraction of a folded sheet, or several folded sheets tucked inside one another - that together form a distinctive unit for binding purposes."

"Book format: The result of folding a printed sheet to form a gathering of leaves (e.g., a sheet folded once to form a folio, twice to form a quarto, three times to form an octavo, etc.)"

This directly contradicts the definition of a leaf as a unit "consisting of a single bound or fastened sheet."

For bound volumes, this could easily be ignored; when giving extent, we all know we are counting the visible subunits (leaves/pages), not the larger sheets of which they may consist. But just as sheets can contain multiple leaves, leaves and pages do not need to be subunits only of "bound or fastened"
material. Aside from material accidentally or deliberately left in unbound gatherings, you may encounter a resource consisting of a group of unbound, unfolded  loose sheets, each of which may contain one or two numbered or unnumbered pages of textual or other content. You may also have a single folded sheet in "accordion fold" format, which looks like a book and is paged like a book, but is physically a single loose sheet. In all of these cases, you may want to include in the extent a count of the pages or leaves, or record printed paging or foliation.

But according to the above definitions, a page is a side of a leaf and a leaf is a sheet that has been bound, so if your resource has not been bound, you can have neither pages nor leaves. In fact, the instruction in 3.4.5.20, "More than one sheet," merely says "If the resource consists of more than one sheet, record the extent by giving the number of sheets and the term sheets." The only example is "3 sheets." I submit that "50 folded sheets"  (in the case of an unbound deluxe edition consisting of 50 sheets each folded in fours), while useful for inventory control, is less helpful to the reader than, say, "xx, 380 pages." Ideally, the extent statement should include both.

Here is my suggestion for a further improvement of the definition of "Leaf":

"Leaf: A unit of extent consisting of a single sheet or portion of a single folded sheet that may be bound or fastened as a subunit of a volume; each leaf consists of two pages, one on each side, either or both of which may be blank."

To the instruction at 3.4.5.20, I would add something like, "Optional addition.
If a resource consisting of more than one sheet contains material presented as pages, leaves, or columns, specify also the number and type of these subunits.
Record this information in parentheses, following the number of sheets, or in a note."

What all this is leading to is this: Bound volumes should be counted in terms of leaves/pages. Unbound loose material should be counted in terms of sheets.
However, it can be useful to give a page or leaf count of unbound material, particularly if the material is issued with numbered pages or leaves. The definitions of these terms should allow for all possible situations.

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Kathie Coblentz, Rare Materials Cataloger Collections Strategy/Special Formats Processing The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building 5th Avenue and 42nd Street New York, NY  10018 kathiecoblentz at nypl.org<mailto:kathiecoblentz at nypl.org>

My opinions, not NYPL's

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