Advisory statements

Advisory statements are used in catalog records and other public documents to indicate that the content is known to have shaky foundations, and may or may not be accurate and complete. However, the absence of an advisory statement is not a guarantee of accuracy and completeness.

Catalog records

When a catalog record in Hamnet carries 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 this note an HBCN (Handy butt-cover note).

HBCNs for vault material

Bibliographic record 

500  Measurements from Folger catalog card. Not verified. ‡5 DFo

500  This record contains unverified data from a re-keying contract and may contain incorrect or incomplete text. Please consult Curator for assistance. ‡5 DFo

500  This record contains unverified data from catalog cards and may contain incorrect or incomplete text. Please consult Curator for assistance. ‡5 DFo

500  This record represents material that has not yet been cataloged. It may contain incorrect or incomplete information. Please consult Curator for assistance.  ‡5 DFo

Holding record 

852 8  ‡z This copy has not yet been cataloged. The description may contain incorrect or incomplete information. Please consult Curator for assistance.

HBCNs for open stack and electronic material

500  This record represents material that has not been fully cataloged. It may contain incorrect or incomplete information. ǂ5 DFo

500  This record was provided by a vendor. It may contain incorrect or incomplete information. ǂ5 DFo

Folgerpedia articles

Advisory statements in Folgerpedia include:

Ambox notice.png This article is currently a draft.
Ambox notice.png This article is known to be incomplete.
Ambox notice.png This article contains text copied from legacy files and may or may not reflect current information.
Ambox notice.png This article contains outdated information and needs review.