Cataloging help?

[rivkat]

OK, so do/how do you all separate fiction from comics?  My system is breaking down.  (We use Library of Congress for nonfiction, but that's terrible for fiction.)  I have a rough system of "nonsequential comics like Gorey or xkcd shelved with fiction, sequential shelved as comics."  But it's only rough and I'm not really sure I want Maus shelved alphabetically by title with the comics instead of alphabetically by author name with the fiction.

Any suggestions?  (To make matters worse, I shelve tie-in novels and scripts alphabetically by series title in with the fiction, except for screenplays by Robert Bolt.)  A pure mix is unlikely because of shelf height issues; I think it makes sense to have the noncollected comics, issue by floppy issue, segregated from regular fiction, though I could probably be argued into a change.

Comments

[hannah]

I'd put Maus in with the non-fiction, given its subject matter. Most of my comics are in the non-fiction, come to think of it - pretty much all my superhero/fantasy/collected comics is in one section on a taller bookshelf, underneath the art books, and you're reminding me I could stand to move Stuck Rubber Baby to the novels.

[jadelennox]

I have graphic novels on their own shelf, even ones which are very novelly in style such as PLAIN JANES or AMERICAN BORN CHINESE, and I don't have any genre divisions with graphic novels. Non-sequential comic collections are shelved before graphic novels. Individual issues are shelved sequentially as if they were graphic novels, but I don't have many.

Ordering is by title unless there are many related books with different titles, in which case they go... where I'm most likely to seek them out.

[amalthia]

Our library adds JUV in front of the Juvenile fiction call number, we also add other short codes for adult fiction, graphic novels. We still use the LC call number but locally add those specific codes so in the section of the library they are shelved they aren't mixed in together.

[rivkat]

But LC has that weird and unsatisfying "use author's century and country of birth" thing going on, doesn't it? So doesn't that make it diverge from pure alphabetical by author?

[rivkat]

I think I have to stick with Maus as fiction, albeit historical fiction, given the mice and cats and pigs. I do have Blankets in with the fiction, but I keep thinking that must be wrong.

[rivkat]

Hmm. Maybe I should pull out nonsequential comic collections separately. I've resisted that, but I could probably find the space.

[amalthia]

Yep, you have to pick the author's century and country of birth. I think because we're an academic library we don't really have a lot of fiction compared to all the non-fiction. Having said that I do catalog quite a bit of fiction.

As for author's staying in alphabetical order, LC has set it up so they will stay in order. Here's how, in my fiction example:

American authors from 1961- will use something like PS1872.A-Z

The last digit of the call number is "2" and stands in for the author's first letter of last name so that "2" = "A" and then ".A-Z" equals cutter of author's last name starting with the second letter of the author's last name. Then you'd have subfield "b" and your second cutter for the title and then date.

PS1873 would be the call number range of all author's whose last names start with the letter "B" and so forth. The authors are all grouped by home country and it seems to work.

I hope this makes sense??? It took me a bit to figure it out too but now I find it's rather helpful because we have books from authors in other languages and it helps to keep all the German fictional books together because 9 times out of 10 the book is going to be in German. The main point of confusion for myself was the authors from England/Australia/New Zealand...I thought the books should have been separated by language not the author's country of birth.

So for a real world example here is Stephen King's LC call number: PS3561.I483

American literature--Individual authors--1961-2000--K--King, Stephen, 1947-

The call number for the L authors in the 1961-2000 range is PS3562.A-Z

[ratcreature]

I have thousands of comics, more than books. I put them entirely separate from my books. The US ones that are not in paperbacks I have in 20+ boxes divided by publisher/imprint and then sorted alphabetically by title. Some paperback collections I put in the boxes together with their series, if I have most of it in single issues. The other comics I have shelved in part so that the most expensive/collectible ones, like signed or limited editions are in my shelves that are behind glass, so that they are more protected, also somewhere my rats can't reach and chew (I lost a signed limited edition to an enterprising rat once that got past my barriers into a shelf -- paper collectibles and rodents don't mix well), otherwise mostly by grouping genres and series together. Like newspaper comic reprints on one shelf, Westerns on another, SF on a third, autobiographical ones (like Eisner's stuff) yet elsewhere. Sometimes I separate by language, but not always. Books I mostly sort by author, but that doesn't work for me with comics because they are usually collaborations.

[ratcreature]

That is fascinating. How does this kind of system handle the constantly changing countries? Like do they put books of GDR-born Germans separately? Where do they put someone like Kafka? Since he wrote in German, he's generally thought of as German literature, but was born in Austro-Hungarian Empire in what is now the Czech Republic. So do they put everyone who was born in Austria-Hungary together regardless which language they wrote in (I mean they had a dozen or so) and which national literature tends to claim them? Does it separate the countries in Great Britain, like English, Scottish and Welsh writers? What about the Irish? Like do they have one or two, and does it differ pre-independence, like what about Joyce? What about entities that aren't really countries, like the Isle of Man?

[amalthia]

How does this kind of system handle the constantly changing countries?

I think the system sticks with the author's country of birth, but I could be wrong.

So do they put everyone who was born in Austria-Hungary together regardless which language they wrote in (I mean they had a dozen or so) and which national literature tends to claim them?

Depending on what the author wrote the item may be classed by subject more so than the author name. Many of the BNA already have class numbers so I just use those.

I'm not sure what the rules are for entities that are not countries. I do know with LC it starts off big for geographic locations so North America -- United States-- and etc...however they do sometimes have LC numbers you can use at the top level of North America. I've only been cataloging two years and I'm still learning.

Today I hit a section of motion pictures and had the hardest time figuring out which LC numbers to use. There is a lot of inconsistency on how movies are treated. And there aren't any pcc records (that I've found so far) to use as a baseline to verify the correct way to class the fictional movies.

[ratcreature]

I looked up their classification on their website, and going by the outline of the first levels there, and now my impression is that it is more by language someone writes in than by countries as political entities. Kafka for example is in "PT2621 .A26" which is in German Literature 1860/70-1960, so no Autria-Hungary relevance for sorting. German writing Swiss authors are put with German literature as well. So it seems that separation on the top levels for political reasons they only really do for "American" literature to separate it out from "English" (presumably because it is the US library of congress and find it really important that they aren't in a colony anymore and totally different from their former overlords), but Welsh, Scottish and Irish are only put elsewhere if they write Gaelic. Hence James Joyce is under "English literature" and modern Irish authors like John McGahern are there too. V.S. Naipaul otoh is put under the broad "English literature: Provincial, local, etc." subclass, which I guess isn't wrong as such, but you could have put all English-writing American authors into that one as well, if you use that as catch-all for former colonies. Meanwhile Kiran Desai for example who was born in India and writes in English is put into the US literature, presumably because she lives in the US?

[amalthia]

Meanwhile Kiran Desai for example who was born in India and writes in English is put into the US literature, presumably because she lives in the US?

Maybe, it has to do with the subject of the book to some extent like if the characters are in the U.S. it would go under U.S. literature?

There is a lot about LC that is still a mystery to me. I don't catalog enough literature to be able to answer all these questions well. Normally if I hit something different I end up researching and seeing how other books were classed.

I will say this much about cataloging there is a lot of material to learn and it seems like it'll take years to master it. At this point I think non-fiction is easier to catalog because it's by subject.