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Resource Description Procedures & Guidelines: Gift Books and Other

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Faculty Books

There will be a flag in the book.

In a local 590 note add the following:
AU faculty author.

"Honor With" Books

1. Book is dropped off by someone in Acquisitions, who will notify you it’s an Honor with Books material (includes an “Honor with Books” routing slip, red envelope containing book plate, which is placed inside book by Processing (also has book info attached to outside).

2. Treated as a Rush Book.

3. Conduct usual cataloging: could be a new copy, added copy, replacement, so on (instructions should always be included with book).

4. Add local 590 note:

    “American University Honor with Books: This book is given in honor of [name of honoree].”

5. Bring book to Processing; be sure to keep red envelope containing book plate (also has book info attached to outside) and book routing slip with book.

Gift Books

Previous Procedures

Previous instructions, to be updated:

Gift books can be found on the shelves nearest to the staff lounge. They should include a (usually blue) “Pre-processing gifts” form and an OCLC printout, although typically the OCLC record will not have been downloaded into our system yet. Some gift books will not have OCLC records and will require original cataloging. The blue slip will tell you the following:

–If our holdings for the item have been updated in OCLC (indicated by a circle in the upper right-hand corner of the form)

–Whether this book is new to our collection, or an added copy, added volume, or another edition

  •If the book is new to the library, download the matching bib. record, being careful to double-check that the record that was    
   updated by Collection Development  is the best match for the book in hand, and copy-catalog according to our usual procedures.  

  •If the item is an added copy, find the appropriate bib. record in Voyager, make a copy of the existing holdings (making sure the 
   location code in the new holdings is auc, unless otherwise specified) and add the new item.  

  •If the item is an added volume, find the bib. record in Voyager and add the item to the existing holdings, making sure to update 
   the 866 in the holdings record to reflect the volumes we now own, and including the volume information  in the enum. field in the 
   item record.  Make sure that the volume/date information in the item record is formatted consistently with other items for the 
   set, and double-check to make sure that the item list is in chronological order.

  •If the item is another edition, import the appropriate record and catalog as usual, making sure that the call number for the new 
   edition matches the call number for other editions we own.

  •Place on the “general collection” (or reference or CMC) shelves for processing pick-up.

–Which, if any, of the other WRLC libraries own the item

–Any special instructions, such as whether to catalog the book for reference or the CMC, whether the book is meant as a replacement for a lost or less-pristine copy, or whether the book was donated by a notable donor, in which case we may include note fields to allow patrons to search the donor’s collection (See Appendix: Examples of Notes for Donated Collections)

  •Catalog replacements as any other replacement.  Place them on the “replacements” shelf for processing pick-up.  If the copy that 
   is being replaced is on the shelf with the new copy, make sure that it has been deleted, stamp it with the 
   red “withdrawn” stamp and place on the discards shelf near acquisitions.

Examples of Notes for Donated Collections/ Signed Books

Sometime we will receive a large gift collection from a notable donor. If instructed, we will include various fields in the record for each donated item so that it is possible to search a donor’s collection. Here are some examples of notes we have used in the recent past:

Abdul Aziz Said collection

500 __ IPCR Abdul Aziz Said Collection.

Bob Edwards Gift

490 1_ ‡a Gift of Bob Edwards.

541 __ ‡a Gift of Bob Edwards.

700 1_ ‡a Edwards, Bob, ǂd 1947-

830 _0 ‡a Gift of Bob Edwards.

Lee Somers

590 1 _This book purchased for The American University through a bequest by Lee Somers, M.C.S. 1922, Ph.D. 1926, and Pauline Floyd Somers, LL.B. 1918.

541 _ _ Sally L. Smith Collection.

Sasmor Collection (CDs)

440 _0 ‡a Sasmor collection.

541 __ ‡a Robert M. Sasmor collection.

700 1 ‡a Sasmor, Robert M.

If a book is signed by the author, or was inscribed to a notable donor, we want to note that as well. Some examples:

590 1 _ Library copy signed by the author.

590 1 _ Library copy inscribed to Bob Edwards by the author.