British Tracts

Scope |  Size | Marking |  Classification |  Subjects

Scope

The British Tracts collection consists of pamphlets published in Great Britain as well as pamphlets about Great Britain published elsewhere. Do not class here pamphlets that are purely literary. Tracts are generally works of 100 pages or less, bound or unbound; however, the limitation of 100 pages is not rigid. Pamphlets elsewhere will not be reclassed unless handled for other reasons. The general cataloging policies for monographs are followed.

Size

The size boundaries are:

Octavo:

up to 26 cm. high

up to 21 cm. wide

Quarto:

between 26 and 38 cm. high

between 21 and 25 cm. wide

Larger tracts are classed either in the Year/Number collection or in broadsides.

Marking

The following guidelines are used when marking volumes for British Tracts.

1. Mark on Yale bookplate when there is one, generally in the upper left corner.
2. Mark on front cover, lower left hand corner, if in preservation wrappers.
3. Mark on verso of 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.
4. If the last page is unmarkable (e.g. too dark or shiny or filled with text or illustrations), mark the verso of the first usable page from the end.
5. Mark the call number horizontally in the upper right corner of the folder.

NOTE: Do not mark call number on original wrappers.

Classification

• Call numbers consist of “Brit Tracts” at the head followed by the full date of publication. The last line is the main entry’s cutter number (derived from C.A. Cutter’s three-figure author table). Expand the number to four or even five digits if necessary to distinguish authors and to place them correctly in alphabetical sequence (e.g., Brit Tracts 1681 T748).
• Class by imprint date irrespective of topic or date of other editions.
• Photocopies of any date class by the date of the original.
• If the date of the item is either a probable decade or century, class using the date as it appears in the “260  ‡c”. (e.g. ‡c [177-?] as 177- or 260  ‡c [18–?] as 18–).
• If the estimated date spans a decade use the initial date (e.g., 260  ‡c [between 1774 and 1788?] class under 1774).
• If the date has been corrected use the corrected date (e.g., for 260  ‡c 1785 [i.e. 1789] class under 1789).
• If imprint is a double year use the second year in the call number (e.g., 260  ‡c1642/1643 class under 1643).
• If there is a conflict either adjust the cutter by expanding the cutter number, or move up or down one number.
• Although marked as British Tracts, the call number is entered into Orbis as Brit Tracts (e.g., beingen ‡h Brit Tracts 1780 ‡i T79). See also call numbers document.
• Official documents issued by England and Wales or Great Britain are given arbitrary “A” numbers from the table below after the date instead of a cutter based on the main entry.  Scottish official documents are classed under Scotland.

Examples

Abbot, George. Cheap-side Crosse censured and condemned … , 1641.
 

England and Wales. Army. Collections of letters from several parts, concerning the affaires of the armies in England and Ireland, 1649.
 

An essay on the nature of oaths, and judicial evidence, [17–?]

Oversize example (housed in legal-size folder):

An exact relation of the grand ceremony of the marriage of Charles the II. … 1679.

Subjects

• Personal, topical and corporate subjects are always assigned.
• Make appropriate genre headings.
• Make appropriate copy specific notes and local tracings for provenance.
• Make a Brit tracts chronology tracing.

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