Advisory statements

Advisory statements are used in catalog records and other public documents (such as Folgerpedia articles) when we cannot guarantee the content is complete, accurate, or current.

Catalog records

When catalog records in Hamnet carry an advisory statement, it's usually for one of two situations:

  • it's re-keyed from an old catalog card by a vendor (as often happens with retrospective conversion);
  • it's an accession record representing material that has been bought, but not yet been subjected to the scrutiny of a professional cataloger. This may be true even though the records look full and detailed, thanks to the economy of shared cataloging.


Folger staff call these notes HBCNs (Handy butt-cover notes).

HBCNs for vault material

Measurements from Folger catalog card. Not verified.

This record contains unverified data from a re-keying contract and may contain incorrect or incomplete text. Please consult Curator for assistance.

This record represents material that has not yet been cataloged. It may contain incorrect or incomplete information. Please consult Curator for assistance.

HBCNs for open stack material

This record represents material that has not been fully cataloged. It may contain incorrect or incomplete information.

Folgerpedia articles

Needs discussion

Advisory statements in Folgerpedia include:

Ambox notice.png This article is currently a draft.
Ambox notice.png This article contains text copied from legacy files and may or may not reflect current information.