[DCRM-L] Determining bibliographical format

[Deborah J. Leslie]

Not just a spanking new rare book cataloger, but a sleek one as well. (-;

What Mark (also sleek) said. When posting queries about a particular book, it's always helpful to have complete identifying information.

Deborah J. Leslie | Folger Shakespeare Library | djleslie at folger.edu |

From: DCRM-L [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Mark Seidl
Sent: Thursday, 13 June, 2019 10:54
To: DCRM Users' Group
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Determining bibliographical format

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<mailto: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




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Mark Seidl
Special Collections Librarian/Cataloger
Vassar College Libraries
http://specialcollections.vassar.edu/<http://specialcollections.vassar.edu/>
Gargoyle Bulletin<http://pages.vassar.edu/library> http://pages.vassar.edu/library/<http://pages.vassar.edu/library/>
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