Extremely preliminary notes - November 2021
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3xx Description and format fields
Can Artists' books can be difficult to describe concisely, especially more the more unusual formatsitems. The rarer unusual aspects of the Artist’s book can be obscured by brief 300’s. Give 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
it can be difficult to describe concisely artists' books. Add more 500 notes to give more details.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.
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.
500 Leaves bound together with brass wire.
500 Printed on double leaves; sewn to boards500 In slipcase
500 One-of-a-kind artist’s book.
Specific example:
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.n ←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:
In the past we have used Rare Books Binding & Genre Thesaurus (for SCA) https://rbms.info/vocabularies/index.shtml or the Art and Architecture Thesaurus, but there are many newer sources available, such as Library of Congress Genre and Format Terms (available in Classification Web) https://classweb.org/ or in OCLC authority files (sca ge: artists' books)
On occasion, we have used our own Local lists of genre terms, usually for SCA items.
Selection of examplesArtists' books genre terms (just a few):
655 7 Artists’ books. |2 lcgft ←in general, prefer lcgft for non-SCA items, if the term exists in there
But our older or SCA records might have:
655 7 Artists' books. |2 rbgenr
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← Rare Books Genre Thesaurus
655 7 artists' books (books) |2 aat ← Art and Architecture Thesaurus
We do not don’t need three identical 655 fields for the same term, but we can have 650/655 combos in the same record. Also, we are leaving leave in all OCLC fast subject headings even though they often duplicate the 650 terms text (by their very nature as a being LCSH-derived list)
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 in more detailed genre/form terms.
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655 7 Livres d’artistes |2 rbgenr
655 7 Coptic bindings (Binding) ǂz United States ǂy 20th century. ǂ2 rbbin
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
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