Page Comparison

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Use in conjunction with our Art Book Cataloging workflow for now.

Dueling definitions (some broader, some more restrictive)

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“Books that are produced by artists and intended as visual art objects.”--Library of Congress Genre/Form Headings

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See also our attempt to further pin these Artists' Books (and their near relatives) down: Artist’s book, Private press, Small press, or Livre d’artiste?

Draft Workflow:

Fixed Fields : most commonly cataloged with OCLC Books workform or Visual Materials workform

• Use the Book workform ifformat:

  • The item’s primary content is textual

  • The item’s format is that of a “regular” book

• Use the Visual Materials workform ifformat:

  • The item’s primary content is non-textual

  • The item is a deck of cards, kit, 3D object, or other non-book format

• Remember that these categories are fluid!

  • Use cataloger’s judgment and respect the decisions made by other catalogers

  • And use other formats if they better suit the Artist’s book

050/090 LC call numbers:

• N7433.4.A-Z (Special artists), A-Z
  Under each artist:
  .xA7-.xZ6 Individual artists' books. By title, A-Z

• or N7433.3 (general works) for several artists working together or artist unknown?

100 and 700 artists and other creators:

Common relationship designators include:
Work-level:

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• $e engraver

• $e lithographer

• $e papermaker

• $e printer

• $e publisher
  

Item-level:

• $e binder

500     Artefactual details

500 Leaves bound together with brass wire.

500 Printed on double leaves; sewn to boards

500 In slipcase.

 500       Number in/of edition

e.g.:

500 “Limited edition of 50 copies, signed by artist.”–Colophon.

590 Number our library owns:

590    Utah State University Library has number #

590 Library has copy 26.

650 and 655 Subject and Genre

Artist’s book, Private press, Small press, or Livre d’artiste?

• Artists books are produced by artists and intended as visual art objects; they often play with the form or idea of a book.

• Small press are put out by a small press and finely produced (handmade paper, etc.) with runs of less than 500 .(but can also be an Artist’s book)

• Private press is a guy in a garage . (but can be an Artist’s book too)

• Privately printed is something printed for an individual (older old rare books, in SCA, not usually a 20^th century thing).           

• Livre d’artiste is an overlapping term for books containing collections of original works of art, usually printed directly from a source created by the artist themselves, rather than from a source that was created by a technician from the artist's design. Originated in France around the turn of the 20th century.

• However: if an artist states that the item is an Artist’s Book, then catalog it as an Artist’s Book

650 Library of Congress Subject Headings:

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When using LCSH to describe what the item is, always follow the term by Specimens to distinguish it from a book with the subject of Artists books.

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650   0   Toy and movable books |v Specimens.

655 Genre and Format terms:

In the past we have used Rare Books Binding & Genre Thesaurus (in SCA) or from the Art and Architecture Thesaurus, but there are also newer sources available, such as LCGFT and Allison Jai’s Artists’ Book Thesaurus, created for ARLIS/North America: http://allisonjai.com/abt/vocab/index.php On occasion, we have used our own Local genre, but usually only in SCA.

       655   7    Artists’ books |y 20th century. |2 rbgenr

655   7    Private press books (Publishing) |z United States |y 20th century. |2 rbpub655   7     Fine press printing. |2 local

655 7 Livres d’artistes |2 rbgenr 

655   7    Broadsides |y 20th century. |2 rbgenr

710 Name of the Press/Publisher is useful to add, if you can discover it.

710 2 Name of Press (check for authorized form, if available)

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