Reich & Ahim Goldenberg Books

Chaim Reich, the owner of Renaissance Hebraica, publishes reproductions of rare Hebrew books.  Reich Books are often “limited edition[s] of not more than 500 numbered copies”.  Aḥim Goldenberg publishes professionally bound photocopy reproductions of rare Hebrew books.  When searching OCLC, one will often find copy for the original version instead of the facsimile.  It is generally easier to create a new record using the original version as a template than to create a new record from scratch. 

Sources of Information

Reich Books generally have more than one possible source of information.  The books often contain a citation for the original version of the work taken from Otsar ha-Sefer ha-‘Ivri and/or other bibliographies. Both Reich and Ahim Goldenberg books contain the original title page as part of the reproduction.  Neither of these is used as the chief source of information.  The former cannot be used because it is merely a citation.  The latter cannot be used because its use would render the book indistinguishable from the original work.  Since these sources cannot be used as the chief source of information, we instead gather information from either the cover or the spine of the book.  As a result, all records for Reich or Aḥim Goldenberg Books must have a note that is formatted in one of the following two ways:

500 __ Cover title.          or...       500 __ Spine title.

The title on the cover or the spine often varies from the title on the title page of the original version of the work.  In order to provide access to the work through its original title page title, add a Varying Form of Title, formatted as follows:

246 1_   ǂi Title from original title page: ǂa Title : ǂb Remainder of Title

Publication and Original Version Information

The publication information for Reich Books is always as follows:

264 _1   [Brooklyn, New York] : ǂb [Renaissance Hebraica], ǂc [Date?]

The publication information for Aḥim Goldenberg books can usually be found on the verso of the original title page:

264 _1   Brooklyn, N.Y. : ǂb Aḥim Goldenberg, ǂc Date.

Reprint Books get a structured related manifestation note to give the attributes of the original version, formatted as follows:

775 08 ǂi Reproduction of (manifestation): ǂa  Author ǂt Title ǂd Place of Publication : Publisher, Date. ǂh pages : illustrations ; cm ǂw (OCoLC)control number.

Fixed Fields

Certain sections of the fixed field must be given special attention when cataloging Reich and Ahim Goldberg Books.  The following table gives those sections and the values they are to be given.

Reich Book Example

Final subdivision ǂv Early works to 1800 is O.K. because the text originally was published before 1800 and appears in this edition unchanged. SCM H1576

Related document: Reproduction Cataloging (Tangible Print Resources)