Deirdre Wildy wrote in response to Michele Kohler:
> Descriptive cataloguing of rare books, 2nd ed., 1991, publ by
> Lib of Congress, ISBN 0844406902 - this is a good guide, there
> is also a companion vol of examples
>
> there are protocols - i.e. use of brackets if date of publ is
> found elsewhere (other than title page/colophon)
<snip>
> > Could someone direct me to rules for dating books in library catalogue entries? I am trying to identify copies of books that do or don't have the date of publication on the title-page but it isn't clear if library catalogue entries recognise a difference.
Yes, and the rules change. A date taken from the verso of the title page used to need brackets; now
it doesn't. I use brackets if I have to transcribe a date from a different form, wherever it
appears; e.g., Roman numerals on the title page are transcribed in 260 $c exactly as they appear
with the bracketed date in Arabic numerals immediately following.
Also, if the date comes from an unusual place, include a 500 note in the record, e.g.:
500 Date from colophon.
500 Date from tail of spine.
500 Date inferred from acrostic, p. vii.
500 Date inferred from date of preface, p. xiv.
500 Range of possible publication dates inferred from publisher's records.
etc.
I hope this helps you, Michele.
Cheers!
Eric
--
Eric v.d. Luft, Ph.D., M.L.S.
Curator of Historical Collections, Health Sciences Library
SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210
<http://web.upstate.edu/lufte/> -- 315-464-4585
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[Autobiography, 1834, title page]