Month: October 2015

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Construction industry productiviy [sic] : examining the effects of omitted varialbe [sic] bias in the census construction price index models / by Bryan David Dyer. (OCLC #664555550)

We cataloged this dissertation under AACR2, so indicated the misspellings in the title with [sic], as:

245 10 ǂa Construction industry productiviy [sic] : ǂb 
    examining the effects of omitted varialbe [sic] bias in 
    the census construction price index models / ǂc by Bryan 
    David Dyer.

with the corrected versions in a variant title:

246 3_ ǂa Construction industry productivity : ǂb examining
    the effects of omitted variable bias in the census construction
    price index models

RDA 2.3.1.4 on recording titles says to transcribe the title as it appears on the source of information. The rule’s exception for correcting obvious typographical errors only applies to serials and integrating resources, so for this title we’d still transcribe as it appears on the piece, without [sic]:

245 10 ǂa Construction industry productiviy : ǂb 
    examining the effects of omitted varialbe bias in 
    the census construction price index models / ǂc by Bryan 
    David Dyer.
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Introduction to numerical linear algebra and optimisation / Philippe G. Ciarlet with the assistance of Bernadette Miara and Jean-Marie Thomas for the exercises ; translated by A. Buttigieg. (OCLC #17301000)

Based on my initial search for this title (which did not return the best record), I wondered whether I could or should record a variant title which used the spelling “optimization” rather than “optimisation”.

The LC-PCC PS for 2.3.6.3 on Recording Variant Titles includes best practices for types of variant titles to record, including:

If a title proper contains data within the first five words for which there could be an alternate form that would be filed differently, make a variant title under that form if it is thought that some users of the catalog might reasonably expect that form.

As “optimisation” is the seventh word, I did not include a variant title in the record, and will count on the discovery layer to provide any extra access.

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thegetty:

Do you recognize the ghostly figure? Our cataloguer needs your help!

Here’s some info about our album of William H. Mumler’s spirit photographs. One in particular has had our cataloguer scratching her head since it’s been digitized.

The “ghost” in this image has a feathery headdress and is wearing draped fabric. Perhaps a depiction of a Native American? 

To produce these spirits, Mumler used a double exposure, and our cataloguer’s suspicion is that this figure comes from a popular painting or drawing from the time. This image was made between 1862 and 1875. Feel free to zoom in or download a high res for a closer look here.

Do you recognize it? 

Reblog, take a guess, let’s crack this cataloguing conundrum together!

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Oboronni zamky zakhidnoho Podilli︠a︡ XIV – XVII st. : (istorychno-arkheolohichni narysy) / I︠U︡khym Sit︠s︡insʹkyĭ. (OCLC #32649823)

This title is about castles and fortifications in a city in Ukraine:

650 _0 ǂa Fortification ǂz Ukraine ǂz Podillia.
650 _0 ǂa Castles ǂz Ukraine ǂz Podillia.

The LC classification NA1455.A-Z is for Architecture of special countries—Europe with NA1455.U47 specifically being for Ukraine. This class number is subarranged using Table N15, which includes the somewhat cryptic:

.x2A-x2Z   Local, A-Z

This means that to specify a narrower location than Ukraine, append 2 to Ukraine’s cutter, and add a second cutter for that location (Podilla):

050 _4 ǂa NA1455.U472 ǂb P6357 1994

As a local practice, we always use the publication year in monograph call numbers when possible.

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Caul & response / poems and art by upfromsumdirt. (OCLC #925478887)

When you catalog works by local authors, do you write to them and excitedly let them know that they’re in WorldCat or the authority file now? Or is that creepy?

(If you do let them know, are they pleased? Does this urge go away as you become more used to authority work?)

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To provide for the advancement of Rear Admiral Emory S. Land, Construction Corps, United States Navy, retired, to the rank of vice admiral (H.R. 7576). Mr. Vinson of Georgia. (OCLC #925380358)

RDA A.11.5 on Titles Following a Name or Used Alone in Place of a Name has a section on Civil and Military Titles which says not to capitalize a civil or military title.

RDA A.11.3 on Titles Preceding the Name says to capitalize any title or term of honour or address that immediately precedes a personal name.

Both forms appear in this title:

245 10 ǂa To provide for the advancement of Rear Admiral 
    Emory S. Land, Construction Corps, United States Navy, retired,
    to the rank of vice admiral (H.R. 7576).
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Istorīi︠a︡ russkoĭ literatury XIX stoli︠e︡tīi︠a︡; kritika, roman, poėzīi︠a︡ i drama. (OCLC #19772129)

This gift volume was missing its title page, but the spine did include the author’s last name (Engel’gardt) and an English translation of the title (“Russian literature”) which narrowed my search somewhat, but not quite enough. An early page of the volume included a dedication to the author’s grandfather (Nikolaĭ Makarov (a lexicographer) and his father Aleksandr Ėngelʹgardt (an author and scientist), which was even more helpful!

A biography of his grandfather’s daughter (his father’s wife) Anna Engelgardt (a writer, publicist, translator, and activist in the Russian women’s movement) mentioned three children, Mikhail (b. 1861), Vera (b. 1863), and Nikolai (b. 1867) all of whom became writers!

Armed with all of this new information, I searched OCLC again and found a record for what I suspected was the title in hand; as a bonus, we had holdings on that record, so I could confirm my suspicions by going to the stacks!

As it turned out, we already have two copies of this set on the shelf, so we will likely not accept this duplicate volume into the collection.

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The Swan Whisperer : an inaugural lecture / Marlene van Niekerk ; translated from the Afrikaans by Marius Swart and the author. (OCLC #891616004)

The title page of this work indicates that it is a translation from Afrikaans, but I did not find the Afrikaans title anywhere on the piece, or on any pages about the author.

Our reference desk helped me identify the work as a story that appeared in a collection, so I was able to include that in the record:

100 1_ ǂa Van Niekerk, Marlene, ǂe author, ǂe translator.
240 10 ǂa Swanefluisteraar. ǂl English

Thanks, reference desk!

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scoutfinches:

the Library of Congress system mostly makes sense except when this happens

LC doesn’t care about book series so it basically just puts them in alphabetical order by title. everything that author has written has the same cutter number (in Snicket’s case, .S6795) and then the first couple of letters of the book’s title come next. so EVERYTHING by that author is all together, but completely out of sequential order. and I hate it.

Yuck! Not helpful to a patron browsing the shelf.

You could class the series together (and indicate that decision in the series authority record) and then give each title your chosen classification plus an enumeration like “v.1″ or “no.2″ or whatever is appropriate.

I’ve also been known to fudge cutter numbers when I want books to sit a certain way on the shelf; that’s easiest to do when you get the whole series at once.

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Историко-литературный обзоръ древне-русскихъ полемическихъ сочинений противъ латиниань, XI-XV в. Андрея Попова. (OCLC #923014236)

Under AACR2, facsimile reprints were cataloged with most fields (publisher, date, dimensions, etc) reflecting the original item, with a 533 note providing information about the publisher that created the reprint. Under RDA, the main data reflects the piece in hand, with a link to the data to the original piece (which includes original publisher, date, ec).

For example, in this piece I recorded:

264 _1 ǂa Ann Arbor, Michigan : ǂb University Microfilms, ǂc 1968.
300 __ ǂa vii, 417 pages ; ǂc 22 cm
776 08 ǂi Reproduction of (manifestation): ǂa Popov, Andreĭ Nikolaevich, 1841-1881. ǂt Istoriko-literaturnyĭ obzorʹ drevne-russkikhʹ polemicheskikhʹ sochineniĭ protivʹ latini︠a︡nʹ, XI-XV v. ǂd Moskva : Tipografiia T. Risʹ, 1875. ǂw (DLC)   65083011 ǂw (OCoLC)6365868

RDA does not describe MARC practices, so gives no guidance on Fixed Fields, so I did what seemed most reasonable following BibFormats:

    Form: r   Ctry: miu    DtSt: r  Date1: 1875

The date of the content is also reflected in the call number, followed by a lowercase a to indicate that it is a facsimile.

    BX1763 .P58 1875a

Do you do anything different when you catalog these?