Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection of American Children’s Books
Scope | Size | Marking | Classification | Subjects
Scope
Betsy Beinecke Shirley began collecting American children’s books in the early 1970s and began presenting Yale with gifts from her collection in the early 1990s. She continues each year to donate additional gifts. Her focus is on the books that were available to American children: children’s books with American imprints. Her definition of children’s literature is a broad one in that it includes literature for young adults as well as for little children. Serials are to be found in her collection as are reference books relating to children’s literature.
Size
The size boundaries are:
- Octavo:
- up to 25 cm. high (and gaylords slightly over 25 cm. high)
- up to 23 cm. wide
- Quarto:
- between 25 and 37 cm. high
- between 23 and 27 cm. wide
- Folio:
- over 37 cm. high
- over 28 cm. wide
Marking
The following guidelines are used when marking volumes in Shirley:
- Mark on the lower left-hand corner of the Shirley bookplate. The bookplate contains the printed words, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, so mark only Shirley and the number.
- Mark on back cover, lower right hand corner, when there is no bookplate, unless cover is too dark
- Mark on last page, lower right hand corner, when 1 or 2 don’t apply. The lower left hand corner is the alternate location when the lower right hand corner is unusable.
- When there is no Shirley bookplate, the entire normal marking sequence, including the words, Beinecke Library, must be used.
Classification
Class as a name collection and use a sequential numbering scheme for monographs and serials.
| Octavo | beingen ‡Shirley ‡i 843 |
| Quarto | beingen ‡h Shirley ‡i +31 |
| Folio | beingen ‡k Folio ‡h Shirley ‡i 3 |
| Broadsides | beingen ‡h BrSides Shirley ‡i 4 beingen ‡h BrSides Folio Shirley ‡i 2 |
| Octavo | beingen ‡h Shirley ‡i S62 |
| Quarto | beingen ‡h Shirley ‡i +S4 |
| Folio | beingen ‡k Folio ‡h Shirley ‡i S3 |
Special notes, subjects and tracings
- Cite standard bibliographies where appropriate (i.e., BAL, Evans, Shaw & Shoemaker, etc.) and children’s literature bibliographies as well (i.e., Welch, Rosenbach, etc.).
- Provide detailed subject headings, even for fiction. Do not use Library of Congress subject headings for children, which have second indicator of “1”. Use the juvenile subheadings (i.e., ‡v Juvenile literature, ‡v Juvenile fiction, ‡v Juvenile poetry, etc.)
- Provide appropriate genre headings, particularly Juvenile literature.
- Trace all persons and corporations responsible for the work (i.e., editors, translators, publishers, printers, illustrators, engravers, copyright holders, etc.). Use RBMS relator terms with the headings (e.g. Corey and Daniels, ‡e publisher).
Special procedures
- Keep track of the time spent cataloging the Shirley collection for inclusion in the Shirley annual report.
- Mark the descriptive sheet accompanying each Shirley item with the call number and ORBIS i.d.number the item receives.
- Shirley miniatures will be housed together in a box with the call number Shirley 7093. Each title will be in an acid-free envelope, consecutively numbered within this call number (i.e., Shirley 7093 1; Shirley 7093 2). Each title will be individually cataloged, with an item record and barcode.