Sammelbands

Sammelbands are volumes consisting of two or more separate works bound together after having been issued. (Do not confuse with nonce collections, which are separately published titles reissued as a collection by a bookseller/publisher from stock on hand.) Samelbands are also known as "bound-withs," "bound-togethers," or "binder's volumes." "Bound-with" was the preferred term at the Folger for many years, and continues in general use and in some call numbers, but the RBMS Controlled Vocabularies uses "sammelbands," so we're sticking with that for official use and preferring it over the AAT's use of the German plural "Sammelbände".

Multiple works bound together subsequent to their issue have a separate catalog record for each title. In addition, some will have a record for the unique volume as a whole.

New Folger practice: Starting in July 2022, the preliminary catalog description for any newly-acquired sammelband consists of a single record for the unique volume as a whole, with detailed "item notes" describing each of the titles inside if available. Catalogers will eventually create individual bibliographic records and update the host record for the volume.

Vault sammelband cataloging

  • Individual titles within Vault sammelbands each have a unique bibliographic, holding, and item record, but share a call number (with each component item suffixed numerically - item 1, item 2, etc.). Therefore, follow standard Vault cataloging procedures. (This is in contrast to open-stacks sammelbands, where the whole volume shares a holding and item record)
  • Information about the entire volume's binding, etc., should be included in the holding record for each item.
852 0 ... ‡z In quarter-calf binding with marbled paper boards, partly peeled away showing cartonnage boards; leather spine label "Tragedies." Bound first in a volume of seven 18th-century English plays.
  • Formulation of the call number should follow the procedures for vault Call numbers; a number should be added to reflect the item's position in the volume.
852 8 ... ‡h 268- 354q item 5
Some older call numbers may contain the prefix "Bd.w.", reflecting the previous "bound-with" terminology. Do not append "Bd.w." to new items.
  • Record the accession number, if applicable, e.g.
541 1_ ‡e 167954.8 ‡5 DFo
541 1_ ‡e 167954 ‡5 DFo
Do not use a decimal to reflect the title's position within the sammelband (this practice was discontinued in 2017)
In cases where decimal accession numbers were only assigned to titles not already in the collection, give just the six-digit number in the ‡j for the unnumbered titles.
  • For volumes with up to three items bound together, list individual titles in the local note for each item (e.g., bound first in a volume with The tempest). For volumes with more than three works, do not list individual works; if the works in a sammelband can be characterized, prefer using position and characterization in the 852 ‡z local note, e.g.
Bound first of 7 Shakespeare plays published in Dublin.
Bound eighth in a volume with eleven other works.
  • Cataloger may number the items in a sammelband in pencil on the upper right of the title page. When doing so, add a copy note:
Numbered '3' in pencil on title page upper right by Folger staff.

STC and Wing classification

When cataloging sammelbands classified by STC or Wing number, write the corresponding STC or Wing number on the back of each work, in addition to writing the call number for the whole volume at the back of the binding. Care must be taken to distinguish the bibliography number pertaining to a single work from the call number for the whole book.

Open stack sammelband cataloging

Multiple open-stacks works bound together subsequent to publication (for example, volumes in the Dugdale Society Occasional Papers series, which are bound together in sets of five or six) will have multiple bibliographic records in Hamnet, one for each separate title. Although each work has a separate bibliographic record, these open-stacks sammelband volumes should nevertheless have only one holdings record, only one item record, and only one barcode. This single item record and single holdings record will be linked to multiple bibliographic records. That way, the barcode will be entered into Hamnet only once and Reading Room staff will need to make only one transaction when checking the book out, at which point all bibliographic records associated with the physical volume will display the appropriate status.

  • Confirm (or create) the record for the first item in the volume. It should have standard holding and item records associated with it.
  • Add a note in the 852 ‡z field to indicate that several things are bound together:
852 0_ ... ‡z Bound with: Last name, F.I. Title. City : Publisher, Date.

Or, if there are three or more works together:

852 0_ ... ‡z Bound first in a volume with three other sermons.
852 0_ ... ‡z Bound fifth in a collected volume of twenty oratorios.
852 0_ ... ‡z Bound ninth with 12 other tracts in the White Staff series with binder’s title "Miscellaneous pamphlets, 1714."
852 0_ ... ‡z Bound in a volume containing Dugdale Society occasional papers v.37-42.
  • Confirm or create bibliographic records for any subsequent titles bound into the volume. Enter a reciprocal 852 ‡z note describing the items bound together. However, do not create any holdings or items records, and suppress and/or delete any holdings or items records that already exist.
  • Open the item record for the first title, and click "Record" > "Link to bibliographic …".
  • Enter the bibliographic record IDs of each subsequent title when prompted. For this reason it is a good idea to keep the bibliographic record numbers of the subsequent titles you are cataloging until the link has been made. Some catalogers find it helpful to cascade the windows when doing this so that all record numbers are visible.
  • Double check that all records have been linked properly:
    • Use "Retrieve by barcode" function to call up the item record; click on the down arrow to the right of the Title field in the item record. A pop-down menu should list all the titles bound in. (The "Title" field will also automatically update to "Titles.")
    • You can also confirm the newly-linked titles using the holding record: the window title will now read "[Bound With]" after the holding number, and an 014 field will have been generated for each linked bibliographic record.
    • Search the call number in Hamnet. The number of hits should match the number of titles bound in.

Why we can't use Voyager's "Bound With" function for vault books

There can only be one holdings record for a bound-with. This is great for copy-specific information that applies to the object as a whole (e.g., binding description, accession number, major conservation treatment) but doesn't work for copy-specific information that applies to portions of the object. Or at least, would only work for small numbers of titles bound together:

Imagine that an 18th-century collector bound twelve 17th-century almanacs together. Imagine that each of the twelve almanacs was bibliographically imperfect in a different way (e.g., one lacks the title page, one lacks leaf B8, one was trimmed so close to the text that the first line of each page was cut off, etc.) and imagine that six of the twelve had been owned by the collector's father, who wrote his name in a different form on the title page of each. Then imagine that three of those six had an even earlier owner's name on the title page, but a different owner for each one. The one holdings record would have to accommodate twelve complicated copy-specific descriptions.
Now imagine what that one holdings record would look like if it had to describe four volumes of English Civil War broadsides that used to hold 184 titles, but only 169 were acquired by the Folger, and only about half of those were still physically in the volumes when the Folger acquired them.

That's why.