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I have printed this out and will stick on my pin-board for future perspective when I’m bogged down in cataloguing guidelines.

 

Jacqui Grainger

 

From: Mailing list for rare books and Special Collections librarians [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Barton
Sent: 24 September 2009 20:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Cataloguing bindings

 

What is needed by just about all booksellers and cataloguers, is an enormously detailed system of

description, with illustrations where necessary, clearly divided by type distinctions into at least three levels

of detail. Such systems can be very useful as 'memory joggers'. But must never be allowed to become a substitute for the human brain. So often, we know exactly what we want to describe, but cannot quite

retrieve the exact words from "that crazy structure", .....where..."the wind tears off the tiles, the floors give way, the ceilings fall, strange birds build untidy nests in the rafters, and owls hoot and laugh in the tumbling chimneys".

Encylclopaedias could be written on wormholes (shape, number, extent, marginal or text, recent or inactive, size, etc) and might be relevant in a description of the Vinland map.Edges can be dyed (specify colour), gauffered, uncut, gilt, fore-edge painted, sprinkled, inscribed...).

Surely the only reasonable course is to be allowed to select only the criteria germane to the item. To be required to state for legal reasons that a paperback has no umbones, clasps or catches- or a Gutenberg bible no dust jacket-  makes as much sense as editors requiring contributors to a biography to begin

with, say, "Lord Kitchener. Sexual orientation -heterosexual". Tools are never good enough to become our masters.

 

John Barton

----- Original Message -----

From: [log in to unmask]">McLaughlin Joseph

To: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]

Sent: Friday, September 25, 2009 6:50 AM

Subject: Cataloguing bindings

 

Colleagues, virtual and otherwise:

 

I am interested in finding out how many of you are engaged in describing bindings as part of the cataloguing process (if any one is cataloguing any more!), and to what extent you describe them.

 

Are you following the guidelines of the CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Group, and if so to what degree – minimal, higher or enhanced, as laid out in the following headings from the guidelines. Or is anyone doing his or her own thing, and would like to share?

 

C.3.2: At the recommended minimum level, the nature of the binding is briefly described. The description should

include the following elements:

􀂃 colour and nature of the covering material.

􀂃 summary description of decoration (for example, ‘blind-tooled’, ‘gold-tooled’).

􀂃 approximate date.

C.3.3: At the higher level, the nature of the binding is more fully described. The description should include the

following elements:

􀂃 colour and nature of the covering material.

􀂃 nature of boards (for example, wood, pasteboard).

􀂃 description of decoration.

􀂃 approximate date.

􀂃 country of production (or place, if known).

􀂃 binder, if determinable.

􀂃 reference is made to published sources which refer to or reproduce either the binding

being described, bindings to which it is clearly closely related (for example, by sharing

the same tools), or particular tools used on the binding.

Optional enhancements at this level may include:

􀂃 nature and decoration of spine.

􀂃 presence of ties, clasps, or other furniture.

􀂃 description of headbands.

􀂃 decoration of leaf edges.

􀂃 decoration of edges of boards.

􀂃 description of endleaves.

 

 

All answers gratefully received, thanks

 

Joe McLaughlin

University Archivist and Rare Books Curator

Room L016

Information Services - Archives

University of Ulster

Cromore Road

Coleraine

BT52 1NN

Northern Ireland

+44 (0)28 70324671

 



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