Rare Books and Special Collections Group

Contents | Description | Access | Provenance, etc. | Notes

These Guidelines are designed to assist libraries in drawing up local policies for the cataloguing of rare books. They have been constructed to reflect the concept of levels embodied in AACR2¹ (1.0D), although AACR2’s first level is to be considered inadequate for the basic accurate identification of rare, especially early, books. They are presented as guidelines rather than rules because different libraries have different aspirations, different availability of local expertise and reference material, and cannot all devote the same amounts of time to the kind of research which rare book cataloguing may involve. In the first instance, therefore, the aim has been to define a minimum level of detail which will meet the core needs of many researchers. A higher level has also been defined, incorporating recommended elements of information which are most likely to be of interest to catalogue users.

In recent years increasingly detailed records for rare books have become available online and individual libraries now need to create fewer records from scratch. This seems to have led to an increase in the general level of description of rare and early books records in online catalogues, and more copy-specific information is now included, particularly as regards provenance and acquisition.

Originally, these guidelines were based on the application of UKMARC, which had been augmented with the addition of a number of fields — for both general and copy-specific data — specifically designed to meet the needs of rare book cataloguers.² These changes resulted from a survey carried out for the Rare Books Group which found that the existing UKMARC format made inadequate provision for the special characteristics which rare book cataloguers needed to record, and had given rise to a wide diversity of practice using local fields.³ New fields were introduced to create opportunities for standardization, both of the elements which were recorded and the fields used to record them. These fields were increasingly taken up for use by libraries, but were not covered by any code or guidance outside the UKMARC Manual. Neither AACR2 nor any of the specialized rare book codes at the time dealt with these elements of information in any useful degree of detail, and therefore in the present guidelines they were treated in greater detail, with examples, in section C; other points covered in sections A and B were not so expanded because they are discussed and illustrated outside these guidelines.

Since then a great deal of progress has been made towards the standardization of rare books description and a large number of libraries in the UK now use the MARC 21 format and the Library of Congress/NACO Authority File (LC/NAF),⁴ including Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH),⁵ as standard bibliographic tools. The latest edition of DCRM(B) presumes the use of MARC 21⁶ for machine readable records and has expanded its level of information and guidance in many sections. In deference to the large number of UK libraries now using these standards the present guidelines have been revised with their use in mind, although libraries using other standards, for example ISBD, Dublin Core or even manual catalogues, will be able to adapt much of the information for their own use.

Another important change over the last ten years is the availability of online resources. Fee-paying subscription tools, such as Catalogers Desktop⁷ or Gale’s Eighteenth Century Collections Online, have revolutionized cataloguing processes, allowing easy access to a wide array of descriptive and comparative resources. Freely available information for the rare books cataloguer also abounds,⁸ with resources such as the English Short Title Catalogue, the 19th Century American Children’s Booktrade Directory and the British Library’s Database of Bookbindings available to all via the internet. If a cataloguer is still unable to decide the best way to proceed, then there are a number of specialist discussion groups and mailing lists where questions can be posted. The abundance of information extends to the availability of many libraries’ own policy documents for the cataloguing of rare books, which will no doubt prove invaluable for those drawing up their own policies.

It is beyond the scope of this document to offer any definitions of a rare book. Different libraries have different approaches and priorities and must decide their own policies. Most librarians recognize that certain categories of books deserve special treatment for storage and consultation arrangements, as well as cataloguing, separate from that applied to general stock in everyday use. The most common dividing line is based on date of production, with all books made before a certain date automatically defined as rare books, but other criteria apply, such as rarity, value, local interest, and provenance. The enhanced cataloguing treatment given to such material recognizes that researchers are likely to wish to investigate it from many angles, and to study such books as physical artifacts as well as texts.

Contents | Description | Access | Provenance, etc. | Notes