Cataloging Manuscripts:

1. Cataloging Manuscripts: An Overview of DCRM(MSS)

2. Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Manuscripts) • DCRM(MSS) available online: http://rbms.info/dcrm/dcrmmss/ • RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee with the Library of Congress • Published 2016 • Editorial Team: • Margaret F. Nichols, Chair, Cornell • Alison E. Bridger, WHS • Diane Ducharme, Yale • Kate Moriarty, Saint Louis University • Jennifer K. Nelson, Robbins Collection, UC Berkeley School of Law • Elizabeth O’Keefe, The Morgan Library & Museum • Heather Wolfe, Folger Shakespeare Library

3. Adapted and Reviewed Standards • DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard) • DCRM suite: • Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books) • Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Serials) • Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Graphics) • Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Music) • AACR2 • AMREMM (Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Manuscripts) • RDA • Local practice

4. DCRM(MSS) covers: • Manuscripts created from the Early Modern period onward • Hard copy, digital, or photographic versions of a manuscript (e.g. microfilm, photocopy, photostat), excluding born-digital works • Description standards can be used in a catalog record, an archival finding aid, or in other metadata formats

5. DCRM(MSS) does not cover: • Manuscript maps, manuscript music, manuscript serials, or drawings (see http://rbms.info/dcrm/) • Instructions on constructing access points

6. Points of Interest in DCRM(MSS) • Introduction • Objectives and principles provide background • Area 1, Title • 1B (Devised title) • 1D (Material type) • Area 4, Place and date of production • Area 5, Physical description • Includes illustrations and dimensions • Area 7, Notes: • Includes biographical/historical context, access/use restrictions • 7A1.4: Required notes

7. How is a single manuscript different from a printed book? • Unique, one of a kind • “Manuscript” can include a lot of different kinds of documents, each with its own structure and noteworthy features • Usually without a title • Transcription unimportant in most cases • Cataloger needs to explain what it is and its context • Often a “by-product of human activity” rather than a self-conscious production

8. How is a single manuscript different from an archival collection? • Smaller scale • More detailed description for a single item • Distinguishing characteristics may assume more importance • May also exist as an element in a larger collection

9. DCRM(MSS) is a bridging standard • Between ISAD(G) and ISBD • Between DACS and DCRM(B) • Between archivists’ world and rare book catalogers’ world

10. It also looks like an RDA standard …but it’s really more closely related to DACS • Words in the description are spelled out • For example: “volume,” “pages” • No square brackets, in general

11. RDA BIBCO Standard Record “Revisions to RDA BIBCO Standard Record (BSR) are currently on hold until the completion of RDA Toolkit Restructure and Redesign Project (3R) project.  Until provisions for rare manuscripts can be incorporated into the BSR, continue to catalog according to DCRM(MSS) and AACR2 for descriptive cataloging, using RDA guidelines for access points.”

12. 0B. Required elements & basis of description • Required elements • Title • Date • Extent • Base the description on the manuscript in hand

13. Appendix D3.2 • Optional enhanced minimal-level elements • Creator (if known) • Scope and Content • Language of Material • Access Restrictions • Use Restrictions

14. 0C. Source of information The manuscript itself If necessary, supplement with: • Reliable information from the manuscript’s housing or accompanying materials (e.g., dealer description, accession record, notes or correspondence by previous owner) • Reference source(s) • Appropriate external source(s), such as a contemporary newspaper article

15. Area 1. Title and Statement of Responsibility 1B. Devised Title

16. 1A2. Source of information for title 1A2. The source of information for the title is the manuscript itself, the manuscript’s housing or accompanying materials, reference sources, or appropriate external sources.

17. Most Manuscripts do not have a Title Page

18. Devising a title • Manuscript lacks title information • Title information is present but is misleading or insufficient to identify the item • Manuscript contains multiple titled items

19. 1B1. Devised Title: General Rule Devise a brief title, in the language and writing system of the cataloging agency, that concisely characterizes the item being described while containing sufficient information to describe the item. • Henry C. Koch notebooks • Sermon (no other information available) • Diary of a Vermont housewife (no other information available)

20. No prescribed form or order of information • Required components normally precede optional components, unless the rules for specific genres instruct otherwise • Formulate devised titles in a consistent manner according to institutional rules

21. What’s in a name? Recipe book Cookery book Receipt book of Catherine Bacon X Good for a soare throat

22. 1B1.2. Devised Title: Required Components • Form or genre (for example: diary, sermon, account book, play) • Creator, if known

23. 1B2.1 Correspondence (including petitions) Required components: • Form of document (letter, petition, etc.) • Creator(s) (or petitioner(s)), if known • Recipient(s), if known • Date(s) of intellectual creation, if known Theodore Roosevelt letter to Anita McCormick Blaine, 1899 April 12

24. Correspondence Optional Components (1B2.2) • Creator’s address or place of writing • Recipient’s address • Subject or other distinguishing features Theodore Roosevelt letter, Executive Chamber, Albany, New York, to Anita McCormick Blaine, Chicago, Illinois,1899 April 12

25. 1B3.1. Legal and administrative documents • Required components: • Form of document • Major parties and/or jurisdictions • Date(s) of intellectual creation • Optional components: • Occasion • Place of intellectual creation Bill of sale from Benjamin Bealk and Rebecca Holt to Michael Lacroix : manuscript signed, 1814 June 6

26. 1B4.1. Sermons, speeches, lectures, etc. • Required components: • Form (sermon, speech, etc.) • Creator(s), if known • Optional components: • Subject • Place of delivery • Date of delivery Robert M. La Follette Sr. speech, acceptance of nomination, 1900 August 8

27. 1B5. Verse • For verse with no title, use first line of text • Add note on source of title Before you thought of spring Note: Title from first line of poem

28. Area 1. Title and Statement of Responsibility 1D. Material Type

29. 1D. Material Type • 1D1. General rule: manuscript’s physical, creative, and intellectual status • 1D2. Method of production (required) • 1D3. Method of reproduction (required if applicable) • 1D4. Autograph status • 1D5. Status of manuscript within creative process • 1D6. State of completeness or intactness

30. Where does the material type go? • After all other title information • Before the statement of responsibility (if any)

31. 1D2. Method of production (required) Record the method of production of the item. Reserve the term “manuscript” for handwritten items. • Manuscript • Typescript • Printed text

32. 1D3. Method of reproduction (required if applicable) Record the method of manuscript, mechanical, photographic, or digital reproduction, if applicable. If the item is a handwritten or typewritten copy, include the word “copy” … • Copy • Photocopy, photostat, cyclostyle, etc. • Micofilm, digital

33. Examples Worthington family history : manuscript Herrick Forbes Civil War diary : typescript copy American Fur Company roster : manuscript copy John G. Conway correspondence : autograph manuscripts signed Commentaria in quinque libros descretalium : manuscript fragment Bill of sale from Benjamin Bealk and Rebecca Holt to Michael Lacroix : manuscript signed

34. Area 1. Title and Statement of Responsibility 1C. Formal Title

35. What is a formal title? • DACS: “… one that appears prominently on or in the materials being described” • DCRM(B):         “If no title can be found in any source [i.e. within the resource] … devise a brief descriptive title …” • DCRM(MSS):  “The title of the work as assigned at the point of creation or production, or historically associated with the work, typically appearing on a manuscript’s title page, colophon, or caption but occasionally appearing elsewhere in the manuscript or in reference sources.”

36. Formal title from other sources • Use judgment as to whether to devise a title or choose a formal title from other sources in the manuscript or reference sources • If choosing a formal title from other sources, prefer the one that is: • Accurate • Useful • Commonly used to identify the work • Most prominent, descriptive, or earliest

37. Always note the source of a formal title • 7B4.1. Source of formal title. Make a note on the source of a formal title. Also note if no title appears in the manuscript itself. • 7B4.2. Transcription. Make a note when the title is transcribed.

38. Formal title (some assembly required) ISBD punctuation (1A1): Westward to Wisconsin :typescript essay

39. Area 1. Title and Statement of Responsibility 1E. Statements of responsibility

40. What is a statement of responsibility? • DACS: • AACR: “A statement, transcribed from the item being described, relating to persons responsible for the intellectual or artistic content of the item …” • DCRM(MSS): “A statement of authorship, editorship, etc. which appears on the title page, colophon, or caption of the manuscript”  [- and ONLY these places!]

41. What is NOT a statement of responsibility? • Statements not appearing on the title-page, colophon, or caption • Signatures on letters, documents, etc. • Statements referring to non-creative contributions to the manuscript (for example: copying or transcription) •   Optional note: Copied by John Smith

42. Where does the SOR go? ISBD punctuation (1A1): “Know Your Community, Oshkosh, Wisconsin: A Guide to Local Government and Services :” manuscript / published by Oshkosh LWV (example: as recorded in a finding aid; in a MARC catalog record exclude the quotes.)

43. When to reject a formal title 1C1.2.1.1. If the formal title is illegible, inaccurate, or misleading, devise a title (see 1B). Make a note indicating that the title is illegible if considered important. Record in a note the inaccurate or misleading title appearing on the item if considered important.

44. Reasons to reject a formal title • It fails to convey the content • Users are unlikely to search for the work under the existing title • A different title would provide better access Title found on spine of the last of a series of scrapbooks on Kipling reads: Kipling, the end Replace with devised title: Kipling scrapbook Optionally, add note: Spine title: Kipling, the end

45. Area 2. Edition No General Use Made for Manuscripts

46. Area 3. Material (or Type of Production) Specific Details No General Use Made for Manuscripts

47. Area 4. Place and Date of Production 4B. Place of Production

48. Give the place of production as accurately and fully as available evidence permits • Use a modern form, if there is one, of the place name (in the language of the cataloging agency) and include the larger jurisdiction if necessary for identification or disambiguation •    Milwaukee •    Springfield, Illinois •    Wisconsin Dells (place appears on item as Kilbourn) • Record neighborhoods, street names and numbers, and/or building names, if considered important • 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin

49. Multiple Places of Production If the manuscript was produced in more than one place, record: • Widest shared geographical area • United States (diary begins in New York State and ends in Wisconsin) OR • All places of production • Washington, D.C. ; Madison, Wisconsin ; Berkeley, CaliforniaOR • Some places of production, with a phrase indicating the omission • Waunakee ; Stevens Point ; Superior ; various other places OR • Waunakee ; Stevens Point ; Superior ; and 5 other places

50. Area 4. Place and Date of Production Name of Publisher, etc. No General Use Made for Manuscripts