Knowledge Base

Purpose

This FAQ documents best practices for cataloging to ensure consistency across CUNY. While formatted as an FAQ for usability, it represents official guidance approved by the OLS Cataloging Policies Task Force.

Introduction

Cataloging art books and artist’s books can be complex due to their unconventional formats, materials, and creative intent. These works often challenge standard bibliographic conventions—they may lack title pages, include non-book components, or be produced in limited or handcrafted editions.

An artist’s book is not simply a book about art, but a work of art that uses the structure or concept of a book as its medium. Some are handcrafted using bookbinding, printing, or sculptural techniques; others are mass-produced but designed as creative works in their own right. As Yale’s arts librarians have noted, there’s a meaningful difference between a book about an artist’s work and a book created as an artwork. This FAQ focuses on cataloging the latter.

The following table outlines MARC fields commonly used to describe art and artist’s books in Alma. It includes examples, notes on required and optional fields, and guidance on subject and genre terms. These practices are informed by descriptive standards such as RDA and DCRM, and draw on vocabularies including Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms (LCGFT) and the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT).

Bibliographic Fields

Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required, while other fields are up to the cataloger’s decision.

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