Page Comparison

^{Preliminary notes and Draft workflow - November - December 2021}

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

Dueling definitions

“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 Artists' Books (and their near relatives) below (Artist’s book, Private press, Small press, or Livre d’artiste?)

Draft Workflow

Fixed Fields : most commonly cataloged as Monographic Book or Visual Materials format

Book format:

• The item’s primary content is textual (or wordless with relatively flat pictures)

• The item’s format is that of a “regular” book (has page(s) of some kind)

Visual Materials format:

• The item’s primary content is non-textual

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

These categories are fluid:

• Use cataloger’s judgment

• Also, don’t completely redo another catalogers judgement in format when copy cataloging

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:

...

• $e engraver

• $e lithographer

• $e papermaker

• $e printer

• $e publisher
  

Item-level:

• $e binder

250 Edition statement

250 Special deluxe edition.

3xx Description and format fields

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

• 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.

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• 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

5xx Notes

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.

...

• 245 10 Spring opens the mountain green : ǂb a poem for Yosemite ; with a quote by John Muir / ǂc Peter and Donna Thomas.

• 500 One-of-a-kind artist’s book.

• 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     Limitation Statement: Number in/of edition, etc.

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

500 Sphere books signed and dated. Coptic bound book signed and numbered by the artist.

590 Number our library owns, etc.

590    Utah State University Library has number #

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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?

• 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 at same time be an Artist’s book)

• Private press is a “guy in a garage” (but can also be used to produce an Artist’s book)

• Privately printed is something printed for an individual (old rare books, 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:

When using LCSH to describe what the item is, always follow the a genre term by Specimens to distinguish it from a book on the topic of a term.

...

650   0   Toy and movable books |v Specimens.

655 Genre and Format terms:

• RBMS Rare Books Thesaurus (often used in SCA)https://rbms.info/vocabularies/index.shtml

  • When using RBMS terms, use the individual thesaurus as a parenthetical (except for RBMS genre):

    • Accordion fold format (Binding) ǂ2 rbbin

    • Bark papers (Paper) ǂ2 rbpap

• 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)

  • In practice, prefer lcgft for non-SCA items, unless the term does not exist in there.

The genre Artists' books can be found in many thesauri

655   7   Artists’ books. |2 lcgft ←Preferred for non-SCA artists books

655 7 Artists' books. |2 rbgenr ← RBMS Thesaurus genre term (no parenthetical qualifier for genre)

655 7 Artists' books (books) |2 aat ← Art and Architecture Thesaurus term (capitalize 1st letter)

There’s no need for three identical 655 fields for the same term, but we can include similar 650/655 combos in the same record. Also, we leave in all OCLC fast subject headings even though they duplicate the 650 text:

• 650 0 Artists' books |v Specimens.

• 650 7Artists' books.ǂ2 fast ǂ0 (OCoLC)fst00817660

• 655 7Specimens. ǂ2 fast ǂ0 (OCoLC)fst01423861

• 655 7 Artists' books |y 20th century. |2 lcgft

...

655   7    Broadsides (Posters) |y 20th century. |2 lcgft

655 7 Accordion fold format (Binding) |z United States |y 20th century. |2 rbbin

655   7    Private press books (Publishing) |z United States |y 20th century. |2 rbpub

655 7 Livres d’artistes |2 rbgenr

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

The name of the producer of the Artists book is useful to add to records, if missing. Sometimes it is difficult to find. If there is no publisher information on or with the item, check the title in dealer’s catalogs; they will often have the publisher/press and other useful details listed.

710 2 Midnight Moon Press, |e publisher. ← check authority record for form, if available

Art Book Room Sierra codes, Locations, and labels:

949 Automatic item creation field

949 N 7433.4 .call number ǂi barcode ǂl iab ǂt 6 ← Basic ABR 949 field

949 N 7433.4 .call number ǂi barcode ǂl iabov ǂt 6 ← ABR oversize

949 N 7433.4 .call number ǂi barcode ǂl ialoc ǂt 6 ← ABR case and ABR case oversize

907 Overlay Sierra Bibliographic Record field

907 .bnumber

909 CMS signature/statistics field

See 909 full guide here: 909 MARC field - Statistics

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909 Jane Doe|b2021-10-03|cEDIT|dCMS STATS|eISSUE: 520 ADDED ← Sierra Bib Record Edit

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

  • USU Digital Commons copy here: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1143&context=lib_present – see slides 36-66 for Cataloging Artists’ Books by Allison McCormack.

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