[DCRM-L] Determining bibliographical format

Sat Jun 15 14:04:35 MDT 2019

A question prompted by Richard's comment about "Format = Spine height is not just in recon records."

Are you referring to use of format in the 340 field only, Richard, or also possibly in the 300 Phys Desp field under $c, as the optional format detail, added in addition to size?  (e.g. something like "$c 10 cm (16mo)."   We/ I sometimes add that optional format info for 'early' books, sometimes in tandem with signature statement in a 500 note.

I've always assumed it meant actual format (how the hand-press book was assembled), not shorthand for size.  But that might explain some odd format info I've occasionally seen in records I've seen or even exported from OCLC to add our copy-specific info to -- the format (or what I took to be format) can seem at variance with the book I have in hand.  As I recall I've also occasionally noticed that in ESTC records too, (perhaps only the tentative ones with notes about consulting an actual copy or comparing copies to see what's uniform, if anything).  I've found this puzzling, but use of format to indicate general size shorthand, not actual format, would seem to explain this curiosity.

Thanks to all for raising this question and presenting context!

Jeff Barton

Cotsen Children's Library Cataloger

Rare Books & Special Collections

Princeton University Library

jpbarton at princeton.edu

________________________________
From: DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> on behalf of Lapka, Francis <francis.lapka at yale.edu>
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2019 3:58:48 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Determining bibliographical format

The RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee is working with OCLC’s Jay Weitz on a separate project; and I think OCLC’s John Chapman is a subscriber to this list. I am happy to reach out to the two of them for more information.

Francis

Francis Lapka  ·  Senior Catalogue Librarian

Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts

Yale Center for British Art

203-432-9672  ·  francis.lapka at yale.edu<mailto:francis.lapka at yale.edu>

From: DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> On Behalf Of Noble, Richard
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2019 3:45 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Determining bibliographical format

Should some formal-ish inter-organizational inquiry be made to OCLC Quality Control, concerning the addition of and criteria for these 340s?

RICHARD NOBLE :: RARE MATERIALS CATALOGUER :: JOHN HAY LIBRARY

BROWN UNIVERSITY  ::  PROVIDENCE, R.I. 02912  ::  401-863-1187

<Richard_Noble at Br<mailto:RICHARD_NOBLE at BROWN.EDU>own.edu<https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fown.edu&data=02%7C01%7Cfrancis.lapka%40yale.edu%7C7ea0855d37dc4608754308d6f100e4d2%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C636961383496182647&sdata=7x0NewU5WUTILEpk%2BrG3XuqmwaATU0zcFGIc8HHQ2HE%3D&reserved=0>>

On Fri, Jun 14, 2019 at 3:09 PM Mark Seidl <marseidl at vassar.edu<mailto:marseidl at vassar.edu>> wrote:

I double-checked Bibliographic Formats and Standards and found that the 340 |m does, indeed, contain printing format. Even so, with this confusion between format and height floating around, we'll need to be extra vigilant to make sure format does end up in the 340 |m and size, as Christine points out, in the 852 |k where it belongs.

On Fri, Jun 14, 2019 at 3:02 PM Christine DeZelar-Tiedman <dezel002 at umn.edu<mailto:dezel002 at umn.edu>> wrote:

Yes. Size designators should be in 852 $k, NOT 340

On Fri, Jun 14, 2019 at 1:45 PM Moody, Honor M. <honor_moody at harvard.edu<mailto:honor_moody at harvard.edu>> wrote:

I saw one of those 340s (presumably added in batch) earlier today, and was not pleased. I know Jackie Dooley was on this list before her retirement, does anyone know if there is an OCLC employee currently subscribed and/or monitoring the list? I think this is worth raising with them (and requesting a deletion in the vast majority of cases).

Honor

From: DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu>> On Behalf Of Mark Seidl
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2019 2:39 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>>
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Determining bibliographical format

I just want to second Richard's comment and offer my own institution, Vassar, as an example. In Special Collections, we shelve books by three sizes: folio, quarto, and octavo. These denote height and have only a coincidental relationship to the printing format of the books. Further, these distinctions don't appear in our records, except for "Folio" which leads the call numbers for books of that size.

If I understand correctly Richard's remarks about the RDA 340 field, I'm bothered by the possibility of this size information ending up in records where it could be mistaken for printing format designations, which traditionally appear in the 300.

Mark Seidl

On Fri, Jun 14, 2019 at 2:12 PM Noble, Richard <richard_noble at brown.edu<mailto:richard_noble at brown.edu>> wrote:

Format = Spine height is not just in recon records. There seems to be a recently initiated program (centered I know not where) of wholesale insertion into OCLC records of 340 rda "format" fields, which are clearly a reversion to this ancient and (for rare catalogers) potentially highly misleading descriptive practice. It would seem to be a device for assigning shelving locations, which are in many places given as 12mo, 8vo , 4to, folio. This has nothing to do with the printing format, especially with respect to modern books which may really be e.g. 32mo in 8s or some such thing.

RICHARD NOBLE :: RARE MATERIALS CATALOGUER :: JOHN HAY LIBRARY

BROWN UNIVERSITY  ::  PROVIDENCE, R.I. 02912  ::  401-863-1187

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On Fri, Jun 14, 2019 at 2:00 PM Moody, Honor M. <honor_moody at harvard.edu<mailto:honor_moody at harvard.edu>> wrote:

It’s not uncommon to see a bibliographic format meaning spine height in recon records in OCLC. If the only/primary difference between the OCLC description and the piece in hand is a difference in bibliographic format, and no height is given in cm, I’ve found it worthwhile to check the public catalog of the creating library (in case they updated locally), or to contact the library to confirm.

Honor

From: DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu>> On Behalf Of Erin Blake
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2019 12:29 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>>
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Determining bibliographical format

Something else to keep in mind is that the words used for bibliographic format can also be used for spine height. One of my prized possessions is an "old style" librarian's ruler that shows centimeters on the left edge and spine high terms on the right. See the "Same words, different meanings" section of the Folgerpedia article "Bibliographic format" for my attempted explanation:  https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Bibliographic_format<https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.proofpoint.com%2Fv2%2Furl%3Fu%3Dhttps-3A__folgerpedia.folger.edu_Bibliographic-5Fformat%26d%3DDwMFaQ%26c%3DWO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ%26r%3DgfxDZP5m9KyeWhmono1ADELcLUOEQEwGHybTpd5N2Wk%26m%3Du2kCy4rmLlifYSau3mLugGhb4QZPyPoOuPYelFoBCRw%26s%3DD27RVllZjipF8kQnzyyb5LtZi6Fg6J4wpc_oLfyMcjU%26e%3D&data=02%7C01%7Cfrancis.lapka%40yale.edu%7C7ea0855d37dc4608754308d6f100e4d2%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C636961383496192651&sdata=f8wb9QahM3r3O6gBJVBy7iILRuQCfcDrd%2BiMUXYzViM%3D&reserved=0>

See attached for a photo of my beloved ruler!

Erin.

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Erin Blake, PhD (she/her) |  Senior Cataloger  |  Folger Shakespeare Library  |  201 E. Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC, 20003  |  eblake at folger.edu<mailto:eblake at folger.edu>  |  www.folger.edu<https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.proofpoint.com%2Fv2%2Furl%3Fu%3Dhttp-3A__www.folger.edu%26d%3DDwMFaQ%26c%3DWO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ%26r%3DgfxDZP5m9KyeWhmono1ADELcLUOEQEwGHybTpd5N2Wk%26m%3DZsE7-rtinnHIFfdVnhMOedq1xh1mjZFbliiTX9eSA3o%26s%3D5o9CMJ09HVQhFIUX_Bf8kJyF-27r671ffCyztB6pMi8%26e%3D&data=02%7C01%7Cfrancis.lapka%40yale.edu%7C7ea0855d37dc4608754308d6f100e4d2%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C636961383496202668&sdata=NteSKVyLliIZKcIjFhB2km%2F8lsZn%2FmDdgc9eb08%2FwQs%3D&reserved=0>

On Thu, Jun 13, 2019 at 10:54 AM Mark Seidl <marseidl at vassar.edu<mailto: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<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

--

Mark Seidl
Special Collections Librarian/Cataloger
Vassar College Libraries
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Mark Seidl
Special Collections Librarian/Cataloger
Vassar College Libraries
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Christine DeZelar-Tiedman

Metadata and Emerging Technologies Librarian
University of Minnesota Libraries
160 Wilson Library
309 19th Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55455

(612) 625-0381

dezel002 at umn.edu<mailto:dezel002 at umn.edu>

pronouns: she/her/hers

--

Mark Seidl
Special Collections Librarian/Cataloger
Vassar College Libraries
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