Miniature Collection

Miniature Collection

Scope | Size |  Marking | Housing | Classification |  Physical description | Subjects

Scope

The Miniature Collection consists of items that are up to 10 cm in height and width. Titles that shelve at 121 Wall Street are classed in Zm and titles that shelve at LSF are classed in Year/Number regardless of curatorial collecting area or whether or not they are sent to cataloging in temporary housing unless alternative instructions regarding classing are provided to the cataloger. The general cataloging policies for monographs are followed. 

Size

The size boundaries are:

Up to 10 cm in height and width

Marking

The following guidelines are used when marking volumes.

1. Mark on Yale bookplate when there is one, generally in the upper left corner.
2. Mark on verso of last page, lower right hand corner, if there is no Yale bookplate. The lower left hand corner is the alternate location when the lower right hand corner is unusable.
3. 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.

Note: Do not mark call number on original wrappers.

Housing

For miniature items going to LSF, The RBCU will place them in 13.7 x 11.2 cm pockets and then place them in the smallest 4-flap enclosures (18.5 x 15 cm) after the items have been cataloged. Gaylord folders or envelopes, however, may be used as temporary housing as items move from Acquisitions to Cataloging. Always use single barcode labels on either on the housing or use piggyback barcode labels on accompanying blue flags.

For items requiring custom housing and will be shelved at 121 Wall Street, the items will need to have Aeon transactions made and be routed to PCMU for housing.

Classification

• Unless instructed otherwise, miniature playing cards are not classed as miniatures. Please refer to the documentation for Playing Cards.

• For items shelving at 121 Wall Street (i.e., items published before 1701, fragile items, miniature items needing custom housing), call numbers for miniature items consist of “Zm” followed by a sequential number. Perform a “Local Call Number” search under “Zm” to find the next available number.

• For items shelving at LSF, call numbers follow the year/number classification for octavo sized materials

• The location code is the code for the collection that owns the material. For example, a miniature by Ezra Pound would class in Zm and have the location code beinycal.

• Serials.

  • For items shelving at 121 Wall Street, the second line serves to keep entries in alphabetical order. To accomplish this, use an arbitrary number between Z5-9. Two or more figures are used.

  • For items shelving at LSF, call numbers follow the year/number classification for octavo sized serial materials.

Examples

Barthelme, Donald. Our work and why we do it. Minneapolis : The Ampersand Club, 2011.

London Almanack … London.

Physical description

Give dimensions in millimeters.

Subjects

• Personal, topical and corporate subjects are assigned as would be done for other material. Make certain to include the LC subject heading: Miniature books ‡v Specimens
• Make appropriate genre headings including the following for miniature books:  Miniature books (Printing) ‡2 rbpri
• Make appropriate copy specific notes and local tracings for provenance

Past classification practice

• Prior to April 2017, call numbers consisted of “Zm” followed by the main entry’s cutter number (derived from C.A. Cutter’s three-figure author table). Numbers were expanded to four or even five digits if necessary to distinguish authors and to place them correctly in alphabetical sequence.
• Subsequent editions were classed by adjusting the cutter, although the addition of lower case letters at the end of the cutter (b, c, d, etc.) were sometimes used.