Scope: This procedure identifies the added tracings that CMS rare materials staff use to make rare books in RMC readily searchable by provenance.

Contact: Margaret Nichols

Unit: Cataloging & Metadata Services

Date last updated:  

Date of next review: March 2024


For imprints of any date, we trace provenance, i.e. the names of former owners of the book, using appropriate MARC relator terms in $e to designate their relation to the book. Add $5NIC at the very end of the field, since the provenance tracing is copy-specific.

700 1_ (or 710 2_) for provenance
If the person signed the book: ",$e signer" at the end
If the person put a bookplate or stamp in the book, or if the book was inscribed to that person: ",$e former owner" at the end
If the person inscribed the book to someone else: ",$e inscriber" at the end
If the book was inscribed to the person: ",$e former owner" at the end

Example:

700 1_ White, Andrew Dickson,$d 1832-1918, $e former owner. $5 NIC

The provenance note itself goes in a holdings note (note type: Note) on the holdings record in FOLIO. We use this phrasing: "Provenance: name of former owner (form of provenance evidence)." For a book inscribed to someone, use this phrasing: "Provenance: Inscribed to x by y, date." Other phrasing may be needed for a more complex situation.

Examples:

Provenance: Andrew Dickson White (bookplate).

Provenance: Inscribed to James McLaughlin by the author, June 6, 1967.

Provenance: Prize book presented to Aaron Bishop for perfect Sunday school attendance, First Presbyterian Church of Enfield (Massachusetts), May 25, 1876.


We do not trace donors. (When we traced them in the past, confusion resulted when patrons searched under authors who were also donors.) Instead, we put a holdings note on the holdings record (note type: Source of acquisition): Gift of .... . If the donor wishes to remain anonymous, click on the box to the right of the note to make this a staff note rather than a public one. In all cases for a donated item, remember also to go to the instance record and add the statistical code for a gift.

Example of note:

Gift of Michael Wilson.