YALE COLLECTION OF WESTERN AMERICANA

Scope

The Yale Collection of Western Americana (WA) was opened in September 1952 and contains books, periodicals, manuscripts, photographs and prints that document the history and culture of Native American communities as well as the European and American exploration, settlement, and development of the Trans-Mississippi West from Mexico to the Arctic Circle. For more information see the Guide to the Collections. The general cataloging policies for monographs and serials are followed.

Size

    The size boundaries for WA books and serials are:

    Octavo:
           up to 25 cm. high
           up to 23 cm. wide
    Quarto:
           between 25 and 37 cm. high
           between 23 and 32 cm. wide
    Folio (Class in Year/number folio sequence with location code beinwa):
           over 37 cm. high
           over 32 cm. wide

Marking

The following guidelines are used when marking volumes in WA:

1. Mark on Yale bookplate when there is one, generally in the upper left corner.
2. Mark on back cover, lower right hand corner, when there is no Yale bookplate unless cover is too dark.
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.

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• Past practice encompasses a variety of approaches; some books in the collection are not classified according to the  instructions given here. Generally, do not reclassify unless necessary for collocation. See Appendix and the Historical manual for details of past practice.
• Folios use the year/number scheme with the location beinwa.
• Use  "L" for "l" in call numbers.
• Quarto call numbers are indicated by the addition of a plus sign (+) before the book number (usually the last line) of the call number.

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Monographs - General guidelines

WA classification is primarily subject oriented by topic or geographic area and then chronological by date of first edition.

• The first line of the call number is from the "Old Yale" classification scheme where "Z" meant rare material and the letter "c" was chosen to represent Western Americana. The number following Zc indicates the subject of the item.

• The second line is the last three digits of the date of the first edition followed by the first two letters (in lower case except for "l") of the main entry. If there is a conflict, use the subsequent or earlier letter in the alphabet.
• Beginning in 2000, for books first published after 1999, use all four digits of the date for the second line, followed by the first two letters of the main entry.
• If the date of publication is either a probable decade or a century add zeros.  (E.g. 187-? use 870 or  18--? use 800). If the estimated date spans a decade use the initial date.  (E.g. [between 1874 and 1888?] use 874). If the date is a corrected date, use the corrected date.
• Lower case letters "b", "c", "d", etc. are added to signify a second, third, fourth, etc., edition or other subsequent editions.
• Letters "e" and "f" from the table for translations usually may be used as edition letters also, since polyglot editions and Latin translations are rare, at least for modern books; if the original edition is in English, "g" may be safely used as an edition letter for an English language work.
• Translations are indicated by adding the appropriate language letter from the following table. Editions of translations are arranged by adding edition letters after the translation letter with no attempt made to keep editions of a particular translator together. Translations into Indian languages class with the specific language (Zc15).
• The letter "a" is reserved for supplements, indexes, etc. that class with the original.
• The letters "x", "y", and "z" are used for commentaries, criticisms, etc. of a particular work.
• Class selections and extracts of a work as well as compilations of smaller works as new titles, not as later editions of the original. Show the bibliographic relationships in notes and/or tracings.

There are several exceptions to the above guidelines. For details see the sections on Belles-lettres (including belles-lettres about states), Railroads, Indians, Mormons and Mormonism, the Canadian provinces, and the Frontier east of the Mississippi.

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Broadsides

Broadsides include not only single sheet items but also 2-4 page pieces that are housed in broadside folders. Broadsides are classed in the same manner as monographs but have an additional line at the beginning of the call number to indicate broadsides. There are two broadside call numbers for Western Americana, BrSide4o, and BrSides. Refer to the Call number document for directions on inputting call numbers into Orbis. Refer to the Broadsides document for information about the various sizes of Western Americana broadside folders and how to mark the folders and items.

State documents

For constitutional conventions and constitutions, as well as for official state and territorial government documents, use the "A" numbers according to the following table. Do not use for federal or local government publications.

*Ordinarily these categories will not be used under territories, the acts of Congress organizing the territory being arranged by imprint date.

Example

California. State Dairy Bureau. Report of the State Dairy Bureau ...  Sacramento.
 

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Promotional literature

Promotional literature follows the same guidelines for classing as other items in WA.

Exception:
Promotional literature is often undated. Sometimes it is not easy to estimate a specific year of publication. For promotional literature datable only to the decade, construct a call number consisting of the WA class and the decade with the last two letters "pr" (for promotional literature"), followed by the next sequential number.

Examples:

Mt. Lowe. Los Angeles : Pacific Electric Railway, [190-?]

Sutter Board of Trade. A snap-shot sketch of Sutter County California and its unparallel resources. Yuba City, Calif. : Yuba City Press, [190-?]

These classification numbers will be set up under each geographic region and decade. If there already is a call number with "pr" following the decade, reclass the item. Do not search for, or recatalog, items already cataloged that could be classed here.

Make a genre tracing, following the guidelines in Form and Genre Headings.

655

7

‡a Promotional literature ‡z [Place promoted] ‡y [Date of publication]. ‡2 local

655

7

‡a Promotional literature ‡z California ‡z San Diego ‡y 192-. ‡2 local

Serials

The book number for serials is based loosely on the Cutter tables. The number consists of a cutter number for the first non-article word of the main entry. The number is adjusted so that the main entry is placed within correct alphabetic sequence, if possible.

Subjects and special Tracings

Subject cataloging follows national standards with the exceptions noted below.

• In general, subjects will be assigned more freely for books in the Western Americana Collection than LC might call for in order to make accessible to the fullest the great amount of specialized information concentrated in the collection.
• Indians of North America. Although LC no longer routinely makes the subject tracing Indians of North America ‡x[subheading] when the subject [name of indian tribe] ‡x[subheading] is made, we will continue to do so for BRBL.  For example if the subject heading Cherokee Indians ‡xPictorial works is made, also make the subject heading Indians of North America|xPictorial works. If appropriate use a geographic subdivision first (except in the case of ‡xWars and ‡xGovernment relations).
• Imprint tracings. Make the appropriate American and Mexican imprint tracings.
• Ethnic literature. Make the appropriate ethnic literature tracings.
• Provenance. Make the appropriate provenance tracings.
• Chronology tracings. Make the appropriate chronology tracings.
• Include other Beinecke special tracings as appropriate.

Past practice.
Imprint classes.
In the Zc classification there are obsolete numbers for imprints under each state. In 1957 these numbers were abandoned. There are still many books in these classes and will be until they are reclassed. These numbers were originally used to keep early imprints of a given state separate from other historical material. They were given up for several reasons, the chief ones being separation of historical material belonging to the same area, the separation of editions because the first edition is classed as an imprint and later editions in the historical class, and the difficulty in establishing the terminal point beyond which nothing will be considered an early imprint, especially when this terminal point varies with each state. The American imprint tracing has been a satisfactory substitute in making available information on where and when books were printed.

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© Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Contact: Stephen Young
Last revised: 20 February, 2008 5:10 PM