Records for large print books
The thing about large print is that if you want it, you want it, and regular print size won’t do.
Imagine this scenario:
Your patron has been waiting for the new book by their favorite author that they placed on hold weeks ago. They needed the large print, and only one or two libraries in the system owned that format. They get the call, the books is in! They get someone to drive them to the library. (They failed the eye exam last time they tried to renew their drivers license.) They get to the desk and they are handed a book, a book they can’t read! This happens when the wrong edition of a title is attached to a large print bibliographic record.
As catalogers, we want to be as clear and deliberate as we can be when adding large print copies to the collection.
In 2013, Library of Congress introduced RDA cataloging standards and did away with most use of GMD’s (General Material Designators are|h designations for item formats). Because large print records are some of the easiest records to get wrong, UPRLC decided to keep using |h[large print] in the title field for all Large Print titles in our shared catalog.
(If the last paragraph is really confusing, that’s OK. It’s just back story. You can ignore it and still get the gist of what needs to happen with large print.)
Whenever you import a Large Print record from SmartPort…
- make sure you use your Modify Title wizard to add |h[large print] to the 245 field,
- delete all 020 ISBN fields for formats other than large print, and
- double check that the page count matches.
The same goes for when you find a match in our system when you search on your ISBN. Double check that the record is indeed a large print record, and that it’s not just a regular print record with a hitchhiking Large Print ISBN that was overlooked when it was imported. If no one has added the |h[large print] to the title field, please fix this.
Here’s an example:
The record below is a pre-pub record. It’s ok to import, but will need some attention.
Pre-pub records often list all the ISBN’s for all the formats in the initial release. (Some pre-pubs are very bare bones and are entered in all-caps; don’t bring those in unless you’re desperate, then add a 590 field with the word “upgrade”.) When you bring in a record like the one above that includes the correct 338 field information and some good subject headings, make sure you delete the ISBN’s for the formats and editions that don’t match the item in hand.
Notice the final page count wasn’t determined when the record was created, and there’s just a place holder in the 300 field. If you have the book in hand, add the page count to the record and pull out your ruler to add the cm (always round up). I check the release date by scanning the barcode into a google search field to make sure I can add the book to the collection. (This title won’t be released for another six days as I draft this entry. It should be put aside till the on-shelf date.)
The following record is nice and clear:
If you ever notice that the items attached to a bib record are a mixture of regular and large print, please flag the record. Add a 590 field with the a note that says “upgrade – mixed formats.” I can pull in another record and transfer over the mismatched item records.
Sometimes what counts as large print is confusing. For our purposes, I defer to the publisher’s intent. If the words “large print” are on the cover or title page, it’s large print. If a book uses a larger font but is not labeled as large print, I don’t add |h [large print] to the title field. There’s no need to add the the |h to easy readers or to other books that just happen to use a bigger font. Some of these largish font works actually use an even bigger size for their official large print edition and second guessing a work only confuses things.
Thanks for all you do to keep the shared records in order so they work for everyone who uses our shared catalog!