[MinervaCats] Cataloging Tip of the Week

[Ellen Conway]

Dear Catalogers,

Recently I have received quite a few messages from catalogers who for
various reasons have found it difficult to determine the publication date of
an item. It can be very confusing when a book or a nonprint item lists a
variety of publication and copyright dates and it is not clear which one
should be used.  For this reason, I will try to list below the basic rules
regarding publication date, and what to do when the basic rule does not
apply.

The Concise AACR2 states in Rule 4E1: "Give the year of publication,
distribution, etc., of the edition named in the edition area.  Ignore dates
of later issues of the same edition. * If there is no edition statement,
give the year of first publication of the item in hand*."   In other words,
if your book is newly published and is the first edition, put that date in
the 260 field of the bib record.  If your book states that it is "revised
edition", or "2nd. ed. (or 3rd, 4th, etc.)", use the publication date of the
edition.  (Remember, too, that for non-serial records, a new edition
requires a new bib record.)

 What if the item is a multi-part resource?  Use the beginning and ending
dates, as in "|c1998-2001."

What if the book does not give a publication date?  Use the copyright date.

What if neither a publication date or copyright date is given?  Use a
printing date if available.

What if the item has a copyright date (1998 for example) that is different
from the publication date (1997) of the *same edition*?  You may exercise
the option to add the copyright date after the pub date in this manner:
"Harpers,|c1997, c1998."  However, this is not required.

What if the item has more than one copyright date?  If the item has not been
revised, and the first copyright date is before 1978, use the earliest
date.  If the earliest date is after 1977, use the latest date.  The
following explanation for this rule is quoted from D. Fritz's "Cataloging
with AACR2 and MARC21:"

*"Before 1978 copyrights were sometimes renewed simply in order to be
kept legal.
So if a publication has more than one copyright date, but it does not
state that
it has been revised in any way, and it was first copyrighted before 1978, the
important date to convey an idea of when the work was written is the initial
copyright date. After 1977 copyrights only have to be renewed if changes
have been made to the work. So if a publication has more than one copyright
date and the first copyright date is after 1977, we can assume that the work
must have been revised, even if it does not state that it has been revised.
Therefore the important date to convey an idea of when the work was revised
is the latest copyright date."*

Publication dates must also be entered correctly in the 008 field of the bib
record.  After expanding the field, the position labeled "Date 1" should
contain the first date from the 260 field.  The "date 2" position should
contain an additional date if present in the 260.

There are many more "what ifs" that catalogers may have to contend with when
working on publication dates.  I have tried to cover the most common ones
here.  If you have any questions about this process that I have not
addressed, please get in touch, and we can try to figure it out together.

Also, suggestions for future "tips" are most welcome.  If you have any
persistent doubts or pet peeves, send them to me!
Thanks,
Ellen









ay
Maine InfoNet Cataloging Consultant
797-9464, cell ph. 329-5443
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.informe.org/pipermail/minervacats/attachments/20070606/d42cacba/attachment.html