Resources & Tools

Resources & Tools

There are numerous resources and cataloging tools, both in print and online, available to be used in the rare book cataloging process. The following is by no means a complete list of those resources, but it does include the most necessary and basic ones. There are also many resources located in the RBML reference collection that will be useful to project catalogers.

  • Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books) Washington, D.C. : Cataloging Distribution Service, Library of Congress, 2007.

    This work follows the precepts set forth in the AACR2 cataloging code, but greatly expands and amplifies the rules that pertain to rare books in order to meet the specific needs of scholars and researchers who use this type of material. These are the cataloging rules that catalogers must follow when creating or editing bibliographic records for the Mellon Project, and we insert ≠e dcrmb into the 040 field of our records to indicate that the record was created according to those guidelines.
  • Examples to Accompany Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books. 2nd ed. Chicago : Association of College and Research Libraries, 1999.
  • Standard Citation Forms for Published Bibliographies and Catalogs Used in Rare Book Cataloging. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C. : Cataloging Distribution Service, Library of Congress, 1996.
  • Carter, John. ABC for Book Collectors. New Castle, Del. : Oak Knoll Press, 1995.
  • Bowers, Fredson Thayer. Principles of Bibliographical Description. New Castle, Del. : Oak Knoll Press, 1994.
  • Gaskell, Philip. A New Introduction to Bibliography. New Castle, Del. : Oak Knoll Press, 1995.
  • http://estc.ucr.edu/EstcPassword.html
    English Short Title Catalog (ESTC), a database listing over 460,000 items published between 1473 and 1800, mainly in Britain and North America; primarily, but not exclusively, in English; from the collections of the British Library and over 2,000 other libraries
  • http://www.rbms.info/committees/bibliographic_standards/index.shtml
    ACRL’s Rare Book and Manuscript Section cataloging aids site, with links to various online resources
  • http://net.lib.byu.edu/~catalog/people/rlm/latin/names.htm
    RBMS site for Latin place names found in the imprints of books printed before 1801 and their vernacular equivalents in AACR2 form
  • http://www.rbms.info/committees/bibliographic_standards/controlled_vocabularies/index.shtml
    RBMS controlled vocabularies, including:
    • Binding terms
    • Genre terms
    • Paper terms
    • Printing and publishing evidence
    • Provenance evidence
    • Type evidence
    • Relator terms
  • http://net.lib.byu.edu/~catalog/people/rlm/glossary/glossary.htm
    Robert Maxwell’s glossary of common Latin terms found in imprints of early printed books
  • http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/don/don.html
    Online version of Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books : a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, by Matt T. Roberts (print version located in workroom)
  • http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home
    Early English Books Online (EEBO), a database which contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700
  • http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html
    ALA-LC Romanization Tables : transliteration schemes for non-roman scripts
  • http://www.oclc.org/bibformats/en/
    OCLC Bibliographic Standards and Formats manual, listing and explaining all the MARC variable fields, indicators, and subfields used in OCLC records
  • http://www.loc.gov/marc/
    Library of Congress MARC Standards site, in which code lists for Language, Country, and Geographic Area Code (043 field) are found
  • http://www.loc.gov/marc/holdings/
    Library of Congress MARC 21 Concise Format for Holdings Data site
  • http://desktop.loc.gov/ [requires login and password]
    Cataloger’s Desktop, which provides online access to a variety of cataloging tools, including AACR2, LCRIs, ClassWeb, and others
    username: uiuclib
    password: 41129267
  • http://www.vd16.de/
    VD16, Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts, is a bibliographical database of works printed in Germany in the 16th century (1501-1600) [print version located in RBML reference collection]
  • http://www.vd17.de/
    VD17, Das Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts, is a bibliographical database of works printed in Germany in the 17th century (1601-1700)

  • http://catalogue.bl.uk
    British Library’s integrated catalogue, which lists over 13 million items in the Library’s collections, including early printed works from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium

  • http://www.library.uiuc.edu/cat/rare.doc
    UIUC Library’s rare book cataloging policy