[DCRM-L] Advice requested for Rare Book Cataloging preparation

[Sapp, Masha]

Here's a bit of a half-baked idea:


Maybe ask potential students to find 5-10 (or more) books in their personal library that they've loved since childhood, pre-1970, and have them look them up in OCLC. Chances are they'll find several records. Have them compare the books in hand with the records and try to fill in the blanks (on a blank MARC workform or something) with all the information they think is missing--either from their formal cataloging knowledge or based on instinct. Have them compare the records and decide what they find useful about them, what they find misleading or distracting. What kinds of subjects or genre/forms would they add? Do they agree with the classification? Is their book a particular edition (or printing?) that may differ from one or more of the master records?


Also, you could send out specific examples of rare books that do have good records, and have students try to catalog as much as they can without peeking. Then they could look and see what they missed.


Certain things, like signatures or the whole u/v i/j thing, are pretty much impossible to learn outside of a class like yours, but I feel like if one's eye is trained in looking critically at rare book records, it's a head start, at least.


Best of luck!


Masha Sapp (RBS '07)

Special Collections Catalog Librarian

Olin Library, Washington University

Campus Box 1061

St. Louis, MO 63130

msapp at wustl.edu

________________________________
From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> on behalf of Deborah J. Leslie <DJLeslie at FOLGER.edu>
Sent: Monday, May 8, 2017 9:13:12 PM
To: 'DCRM Users' Group'
Cc: Amanda Nelsen <an2b at eservices.virginia.edu>
Subject: [DCRM-L] Advice requested for Rare Book Cataloging preparation

Dear colleagues,

I’d like to brainstorm ideas for preparing potential students to take my Rare Book School class<http://rarebookschool.org/courses/library/l30/> who don’t have original cataloging experience. I’ve always considered it essential that students walk into the class with enough active mastery of general cataloging rules that they can competently populate a blank MARC workform, and that experience doing original cataloging is what provides necessary active competence.

What can I tell people whose jobs involve cataloging rare books, whose institutions are willing to invest in their training, but are not in a position to give them background experience with original cataloging? What about people whose ambition is to be a rare book cataloger, but again, are not in a position to develop experience in original cataloging of general materials? It seems neither fair nor ultimately beneficial to shut these people out.

When pressed in the past, I’ve recommended that individuals sit down with the rules and practice original cataloging of older books (published before 1970 or so) at hand, advising against looking them up in OCLC or the LC catalog; older books don’t have CIP and are unlikely to have AACR2 or RDA cataloging.

Are there more effective ways to get adequate practice in original cataloging? Better ways to gain the necessary competence so they can hit the ground running on Day 1 of class?

All thoughts and suggestions welcome, even half-baked ones.


Deborah J. Leslie, MA, MLS | Senior Cataloger, Folger Shakespeare Library | djleslie at folger.edu<mailto:djleslie at folger.edu> | 201 East Capitol Street, S.E. | Washington, DC 20003 | 202.675-0369 | orcid.org 0000-0001-5848-5467

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