Instructor: Ann K. D. Myers
Location: Los Angeles, California | William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
Mode: In-person
Dates: August 10–14, 2026
Tuition: $1200.00

Description

Aimed at catalogers who find that their present duties include (or shortly will include) the cataloging of books in their rare materials or special collections and want to be trained in applying Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books). Emphasis will be placed primarily on books of the hand-press era, with some consideration of 19th and 20th century books in special collections. Topics include: 

• application of codes and standards, especially DCRM(B) 
• transcription, collation, and physical description 
• concepts of edition, impression, issue, state 
• genre/form terms, relationship designators, other special files 
• copy-specific information 
• cataloging policy in institutional contexts, including provisions for reparative descriptive practices 

This course is intended for working catalogers experienced in AACR2 and/or RDA and MARC 21, and general cataloging principles and practices. No prior knowledge of early books is necessary. The goal of the course is to provide instruction and practice in each of the primary elements of the rare book catalog record, so that students will be equipped to catalog their institution’s rare books and special collections materials to national standards. Please note that this course covers printed monographs only.

Special note on RDA: instruction in this course will be on DCRM(B)—both classic (based on AACR2, as published) and RDA-compliant (as amended by the PCC Bibliographic Standard Record). Please also note that, although Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (RDA Edition) has been published, for the time being this course will continue to use DCRM(B) as the standard, until the Library of Congress and the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) have fully implemented the Official RDA toolkit.

Requirements

In their personal statement, applicants should describe their experience with machine-readable AACR2 and/or RDA cataloging, provide a brief description of the types and date range of materials they expect to catalog with DCRM(B), and whether they are expected to produce RDA-compliant records at their home institution. In addition, applicants are required to submit 1–3 typical bibliographic records of materials they are currently cataloging, preferably original cataloging in MARC 21 of modern books. 

Offered

2006-2007 (taught by Deborah Leslie), 2009, 2011-2012, 2014, 2016-2019​, 2021-2022 (taught by Randal S. Brandt), 2023-2026 (taught by Ann K.D. Myers)

Credit

Completion of this course helps to meet requirements for one of the following certificate requirements:

• 1 of 3 elective credit courses for Certificate in Rare Books and Manuscripts, or
• 1 of 2 elective credit courses for Certificate in Librarianship, Activism, and Justice