[DCRM-L] Determining bibliographical format

[Jessie Sherwood]

Hi June,

I would check the location of the watermark if I wanted to be certain about
whether I had a 12mo or a 24 mo in hand. A 12mo will (normally) have a
watermark on the fore-edge. Gatherings of 12 or 8 are certainly more common
for 24mos, but a gathering of 6 is not impossible.

As to relying on dealer descriptions, like Mark, I take them with a grain
of salt.

Regards,
Jessie



On Thu, Jun 13, 2019 at 7:54 AM Mark Seidl <marseidl at vassar.edu> wrote:

> Dear June,
>
> Worry not--yours is absolutely and appropriate question!
>
> In my experience, dealers' catalogs/descriptions can be useful but also
> misleading. Some are excellent, others hastily thrown together. In any
> case, we catalogers need to treat dealer's descriptions with healthy
> skepticism. I always compare dealers' descriptions with my own collations,
> going with my own when I'm confident the dealer made a mistake. In short,
> always verify.
>
> As for your question about the OCLC record for a copy that resembles
> yours, I and, I think, others who post here would need to know a bit more
> about the copy you have.
>
> Hope this helps some.
>
> All best,
>
> Mark Seidl
>
> On Thu, Jun 13, 2019 at 10:36 AM Rutkowski, June <rutkowsk at fas.harvard.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> I am fresh off of Deborah J. Leslie’s Rare Book Cataloging course at the
>> Rare Book School, and I have my first rare book sitting in front of me.
>> It’s a French book from 1679.
>>
>>
>>
>> One question I have is about determining format.  The book dealer says
>> it’s a 24mo.  The gatherings have 6 leaves each, the chain lines are
>> horizontal, and the height is 13 cm.
>>
>>
>>
>> According to my chart a 24mo with horizontal chain lines cannot have 6
>> leaves.  I’m thinking it’s a 12mo.
>>
>>
>>
>> There is a dcrmb record in OCLC for a 12mo copy that is very similar to
>> mine (signatures and number of preliminary pages are different). 973455836.
>>
>>
>>
>> So, my questions are: how much weight does a cataloger give to a dealer’s
>> description?  And, is the information I’ve provided here (gatherings of 6
>> leaves, horizontal chain lines, height 13 cm) enough evidence to determine
>> that my book is a 12mo?
>>
>>
>>
>> If this is an inappropriate question please be gentle with me.  I’m an
>> old cataloger, but a spanking new rare-book cataloger, eager to participate
>> in this community.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> June Rutkowski
>>
>> Cataloger
>>
>> Harvard Library Information and Technical Services
>>
>> Cambridge, MA 02139
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
> Mark Seidl
> Special Collections Librarian/Cataloger
> Vassar College Libraries
> http://specialcollections.vassar.edu/
> Gargoyle Bulletin <http://pages.vassar.edu/library>
> http://pages.vassar.edu/library/
>


-- 
Jessie Sherwood, Ph.D., MLIS
Associate Librarian
The Robbins Collection
UC Berkeley, School of Law
Tel: 510.643.1236
jcsherwood at law.berkeley.edu
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