Descriptive Cataloging and Rare Books

Abstract

In this current era of belt-tightening in the American academic community, rare book cataloging tends to catch the eye of library administrators desperate to cut costs. Shrinking budgets and bloated backlogs demand that staff chum out as many serviceable bibliographic records as possible, and there is widespread interest in simplifying cataloging practice in the direction of more limited description and fewer formalized access points. Cataloging simplification is in the air.1 In such a climate, it is difficult enough to justify paying skilled staff to create lengthy and elaborate catalog records for rare books; devoting hours of professional time to revising . . .