Marking items with call number and property stamp

Music Cataloging at Yale ♪ Local Yale music cataloging documentation

Marking books and scores | Parts | Reference and rare
Items with accompanying audio/video recordings | Special 590 notes and marking the item | Gifts

Marking books and scores

Use pencil, writing on the location (t.p., cover, caption, etc.) used as the chief source of information in the bibliographic record.

Make three dots below the first letter of the name or title functioning in the bibliographic record as the main entry.

• If the spelling of the name as it appears in the bibliographic record varies greatly from the form of the name on the item, pencil in the form used in the bibliographic record.
• When the information is in Cyrillic, write over the Cyrillic(s) characters the matching Roman character(s).

When the call number includes a decimal portion of the class number (e.g., M557.4), drop the decimal portion to the second line of the call number:

The call number and property stamp will be added to the verso of the t.p. or cover when it is used as the location for marking. When the caption is the source, mark and stamp that location, rather than going to the next page of music following the caption.

With multiple copies of multiple volumes, are the individual volumes marked:

Parts

The call number is placed in the upper left-hand corner of the first page of the part.  This could be a cover, title page, or caption, but it must be visible when it is placed in a pocket in the binder.  Give the name of the instrument in English as the last line of the call number.  The property stamp should usually be somewhere along the bottom.  However, the first priority is to avoid obscuring any of the music with the property stamp.

When all you have is a set of parts, one of them will generally be bound.  While all the other parts will have the part name indicated as the last line of the call number, do not indicate this on the part to be bound.  If you do, the person creating the label will add the name of the part to the label.

With individual parts from multiple volumes, are they marked:

Reference and rare

590 notes and marking the item

590 Fields

For non-rare items, generally do not include a 590 field related to gift or fund. See Gifts for marking the item.

For rare items, the 590 format we've been using the most lately is:
Purchased from J & J Lubrano with income from the Rose Jackson Fund, 1997.

If no funds were involved, there are other possibilities for rare items, depending on the situation:
Gift of Richard F. French, 1996.
From the Estate of Virgil Thomson.

Note in item

The item is to marked in pencil on the t.p. verso, bottom center.

For non-rare items, although there are variations abounding in the stacks, it's probably simplest to specify "________________ plate" if we have a specially-printed one in the bindery bookplate collection, e.g.:
O'Meara plate
Carl S. Miller plate

See also Gifts for non-rare, gift items.

The goal is just to let the bindery worker know to use a special plate in place of the normal one, so it's not so important if the name is transcribed differently from cataloger to cataloger.

In lieu of a special plate, pencil on item whatever bindery worker should type on bookplate, e.g.:
Gift of Jane Smith.
From the Estate of Virgil Thomson
Gift of the Friends of Music at Yale University, 1997.
Gift of the Margaret Waith Fund, 1995.

This information would be taken from an annotation sent to the cataloger with the volume.

If you see a five-digit number written on the slip with the Orbis ID numberand barcode, this is a fund number, for example "26280." On the item, write in pencil below the property stamp "Plate 26280."

For rare items, follow instructions for non-rare note-pencilling above, but write especially small and use discretion so as to minimize impact on item. Shorten notes if the volume is fragile, e.g. "Friends of Music, 1997" instead of "Gift of the Friends of Music at Yale University, 1997."  A cataloger will be more involved in the bindery preparation for rare items than for non-rare items. The 590 note in the bibliographic record will be consulted more frequently when there's a question as to bookplate, and also items should be flagged if there is more complete information as to bookplate. The majority of the endowed funds have special plates.

Gifts

When an item is a gift or from the estate of a donor, a note to that effect is written on the slip the barcode is on and in the holdings record:

After writing the call number on the item and stamping it with the oval Yale property stamp, write in pencil underneath the stamp:
From the estate of "________________"
Gift of "________________"