[DCRM-L] Advice on cataloging panel stamped bindings

[Pax Crowley]

I'm responding to the whole group because I'm very interested to hear more
on this topic and have a bit of a question myself. And I'm going to try to
be quick, as I need to get home and cook dinner.

I mean, I'm probably saying the absolute obvious here, but beyond a good
local binding note (I don't know whether you are using 563 or 590 or a
custom local extension in Alma) and adding a good set of 655 genre terms,
I'm not sure what to do here. And that is frustrating to me, because it
feels like we really ought to have a standard method for addressing
pictorial bindings where the illustration or pictorial tr4eatment is what
is of particular interest. Here's a record of mine from the depths of time.
Please look kindly on it as it is over a decade old at this point and RDA,
DCRM, and the RBMS controlled vocabularies have changed since then, and
I've grown as a cataloger:
https://tripod.brynmawr.edu/permalink/01TRI_INST/1ijd0uu/alma991007868749704921
.

Here's another example from the University of St. Andrews that takes a
similar approach, though that's also over a decade old:
https://librarysearch.st-andrews.ac.uk/permalink/44USTA_INST/6vqs55/alma991011256409708966

I'd be eager to see some more up-to-date records for this myself. And I
have a couple of questions that may help to tease out some practical advice
as well:

1) Is there a standard reference work and/or a crowdsourced database of
panel stamps that we can refer to and put in a 590 (because it looks like
there's no capability for 510 to be flagged as describing item or
institution specific details? I think that if the answer to this is yes,
this would be an ideal way. But I also feel like, if there were a
comprehensive resource of this type it would be in the RBMS Catalogers
Tools Resources or in the Standard Citation Forms.

2) I've been kind of noodling for some time on how to best include
controlled terms for binding aboutness rather than isness. I'm wondering if
this could be solved with the 690/69X (whatever you can use for local
topicals). I feel like this could be a good use for subfield 3? Like if we
have a panel stamped portrait of Martin Luther with unnamed angels in the
border rolls, could we do something like:

696 #0 $3 Binding, central portrait: $a Luther, Martin, $e depicted.
690 #0 $3 Binding, borders: $a Angels.

I mean, this is predicated on the notion that a given collection has enough
of a given type of binding or researcher to justify the cataloging time.
But I think that there are definitely use cases for this. And I've not
really found a good solution myself for *encoding* aboutness in bindings,
even when that's important. Please go easy on me here, if the above is
terrible. I'd be happy to hear your ideas on this.

OK. What was supposed to be a quick message has turned into a 50 minute
message. Have a really nice weekend all, and I'm excited to hear about
other models and resources to answer Eric's question!

Pax

On Fri, Nov 14, 2025 at 4:19 PM Johnson-DeBaufre, Eric via DCRM-L <
dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu> wrote:

> Hello everyone!
>
>
>
> I am looking for some advice on how (or whether) those of you who catalog
> panel-stamped bindings handle issues of the images often found on the
> central panels of these bindings.
>
>
>
> We have, for example, a number of panel-stamped bound books in our
> collection (which almost always seem to be found on alum-tawed bindings)
> that have readily identifiable images, among them Luther and Melanchthon,
> the Biblical figures Judith and Jael, and one (so far) with two panels that
> are clearly copied from Lucas Cranach’s painting “Allegory of Law and
> Grace.”
>
> I am wondering about the best way to make this information available for
> researchers who might be interested not simply in the fact that we have a
> number of panel-stamped bindings in our holdings but who want to find
> specific stamps or kinds of content (e.g. religious, etc.)
>
> Do any of you have recommendations or examples of bibliographic records I
> might use as a model?
>
> Many thanks for your assistance!
>
>
>
> Eric
>
>
>
> Eric Johnson-DeBaufre, PhD, MLIS
>
> Rare Books and Special Collections Librarian, Watkinson Library
>
> Trinity College
>
> 300 Summit Street
>
> Hartford, CT 06106
>
> 860-297-4219
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-- 
Pax Crowley (they/them)
Special Collections Cataloger
Olin Library, Wesleyan University
pcrowley4 at gmail.com
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