Extremely preliminary notes - November 2021Use in conjunction with our Art Book Cataloging workflow for Extremely preliminary notes - November 2021
Use in conjunction with our Art Book Cataloging workflow for now.
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Dueling definitions
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Artists' books can be difficult to describe concisely, especially more the more unusual items. The unusual aspects of the Artist’s book can be obscured by brief 300’s. So, give lots of detail in the 500 Artefactual details notes (see below). Often dealer’s websites or publisher’s description sheets are a useful source for 500 artefactual notes which can be quoted in full or part.
300 Concise physical description
Specific example:
245 10 Biosphere.
300 1 volume (unpaged) ; ǂc 12 x 9 x 3 cm + ǂe 4 sphere books + custom box (24 x 11 x 6 cm)
500 "Box divided into two sections by wooden piece. Sections contain coptic bound book on left side and four wooden spheres with accordion books on right side ... Spheres measure 1.5" diameter with each a different color. Each sphere is halved to contain an accordion structure book and has a magnetic closure"--Vamp & Tramp website, viewed on September 30, 2019.
336/337/338 fields format/type
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Add more 33x terms for other formats, as needed. In many cases text is minimal and the content is driven more by the illustrations. And other types might be enclosed such as sound or video discs.
Specific example:
245 10 Celsius 233 / ǂc Philip Zimmermann.
300 40 unnumbered pages : ǂb illustrations, ǂc 17 x 23 cm ǂe 1 Blu-ray HD DVD in box.
336 text ǂb txt ǂ2 rdacontent
336 still image ǂb sti ǂ2 rdacontent
336 two-dimensional moving image ǂb tdi ǂ2 rdacontent
337 unmediated ǂb n ǂ2 rdamedia
337 video ǂb v ǂ2 rdamedia
338 volume ǂb nc ǂ2 rdacarrier
338 video disc ǂb vd ǂ2 rdacarrier
500 "[H]andbound using a multi-needle coptic stitch with sewn-on hard covers made of acid-free solid-core black museum board. The paper is acid-free Pop-Tone French Paper. The images are printed using archival inkjet ink with three-color foil stamping on the cover, the title page and back cover. The interior flame sheets are loose-inserted in a slot in each interior folio. It is printed in a signed and numbered edition of 50 and comes in an acid-free phase box. A DVD is included with a one-channel video that can be used to create a viewing environment"--Publication information sheet
500 Artefactual details
Often dealer’s websites or publisher’s description sheets are a useful source for 500 artefactual notes which can be quoted in full or part. But briefer notes may be all that is needed.
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245 10 Spring opens the mountain green : ǂb a poem for Yosemite ; with a quote by John Muir / ǂc Peter and Donna Thomas.
500 Four original watercolor paintings of named locations in Yosemite on handmade paper, mounted on double leaves, accompanied by text or maps on alternating leaves. Lettering in black, with illumination in blue and green.
500 Nested double-leaved accordion-fold book; endpapers attached to bound covers, double leaves not attached to spine; marbled paper strips woven into page edges. Covers bound in brown leather with colored leather inlays depicting mountain landscape, front and back. Issued in blue-grey paper-covered clamshell box with watercolor title label mounted on top.
500 Number in/of edition
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590 Utah State University Special Collections and Archives has number 12. ←for SCA items.
Subject and Genre
Artist’s book, Private press, Small press, or Livre d’artiste?
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655 Genre and Format terms:
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RBMS Rare Books
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Thesaurus (
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often used in SCA)https://rbms.info/vocabularies/index.shtml
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When using RBMS terms, use the individual thesaurus as a parenthetical (except for genre):
Accordion fold format (Binding) ǂ2 rbbin
Art and Architecture Thesaurus https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/
Library of Congress Genre and Format Terms (available in Classification Web) https://classweb.org/ or in OCLC authority files (sca ge: artists' books)
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In practice, prefer lcgft for non-SCA items, if the term exists in there.
Artists' books genre terms (just a few) is found in many thesauri:
655 7 Artists’ books. |2 lcgft ←in general, prefer lcgft for non-SCA items, if the term exists in there
655 7 Artists' books. |2 rbgenr ← Rare Books Genre ThesaurusRBMS Thesaurus genre term (no parenthetical qualifier for genre)
655 7 artistsArtists' books (books) |2 aat ← Art and Architecture Thesaurus term
We don’t need three identical 655 fields for the same term, but we can have similar 650/655 combos in the same record. Also, leave in all OCLC fast subject headings even though they often duplicate the 650 text (by their very nature, being LCSH-derived):
650 0 Artists' books |v Specimens.
650 7 Artists' books. ǂ2 fast ǂ0 (OCoLC)fst00817660
655 7 Specimens. ǂ2 fast ǂ0 (OCoLC)fst01423861
655 7 Artists' books |y 20th century. |2 lcgft
Feel free to add more narrowly defined terms as well, if such would be useful to patrons. And, if familiar with the Rare Books genre/form terms, feel free to add more detailed genre/form termsthem. Or Art and Architecture Thesaurus, if that is the only list that has the term.
655 7 Broadsides (Posters) |y 20th century. |2 lcgft
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655 7 Coptic bindings (Binding) ǂz United States ǂy 20th century. ǂ2 rbbin
655 7 Conceptual art (general art genre) ǂ2 aat
710 Name of the Press/Publisher
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710 2 Midnight Moon Press, |e publisher. ← check for authorized form, if available
Selection of training resources
Lewis, N., McCormack, A., Skeen, B., Wiederhold, R. (2019, May 15). Beyond Books: Cataloging Special
Format Items [Pre-conference training workshop]. Utah Library Association Annual Conference, Sandy, UT
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