Cataloging British and Irish government documents

This article is about cataloging legal documents emanating from, or principally recording the activities of, the governments of England, England and Wales, Great Britain, Scotland, and Ireland in the early modern period. In addition to providing guidelines for different types of government documents, this article documents Folger catalogers' deliberate deviation from RDA in formulating authorized access points. These instructions reflect current policy; there are many records in Hamnet for government documents that follow different standards.

Chronology

England: 927-1536

England and Wales: 1536-1707

Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales): 1707-

Scotland: -1707

Ireland: -1801

Proclamations

Official announcements given by the sovereign or under his or her approval.

• Use the authorized corporate access point. For example:

 1101 England and Wales. ǂb Sovereign (1558-1603 : Elizabeth I)

1101 England and Wales. ǂb Privy Council.

1101 Scotland. ǂb Sovereign (1424-1437 : James I)

• Uniform title "Proclamations" followed by the full, inverted date of the proclamation. For example:

24010Proclamations. 1553-07-19

Bibliographical citation

• Add a 510 reference citation to

510 Crawford, J.L.L. Bibliography of royal proclamations of the Tudor and Stuart sovereigns and of others published under authority, 1485-1714

Note that the ESTC refers to this bibliography as "Steele."

• Add the Crawford notation. Example:

500 Crawford notation: Arms 10 Scotland mother Raigne.

• If the item is not in Crawford, give the notation, preface it "Crawford-style notation:" and add the full citation to the bibliography. Example:

500 Not in Crawford, J.L.L. Bibliography of royal proclamations of the Tudor and Stuart sovereigns and of others published under authority, 1485-1714. Crawford -style notation: Arms 24 are any per- </code

Genre terms

• 655 7Proclamations. ǂ2 rbgenr

If the proclamation was issued by or with the advice of the Privy Council, add also

• 655 7Orders in council. ǂ2 rbgenr

Examples

• http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=264760
• http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=264085

Acts of Parliament

• Use the name valid for the government at the time the document was issued.

• For collections of acts of the English and British Parliament and other enacted laws that are complete within a chronological period, use (for example)

240 10 Public general acts. 1685-1707

• For collections of acts and other enacted laws corresponding to a particular session of Parliament, use the collective uniform title followed by the ESTC citation, which is formulated by a combination of the calendar year of enactment, the reigning monarch's regnal year.

240 10 Public general acts. 1731. 4 Geo.II

• For selected collections of acts, &c., add the form term |k Selections at the end. (Deviation from ESTC style)

240 10 Public general acts. 1742. |k Selections

• For individual acts, &c., use the uniform title as above, but add the chapter number.

240 10 Public general acts. 1731. 4 Geo.II.c.6

• For Scottish laws and other kinds of documents (e.g., bills, parliamentary papers, speeches, treaties), consult the head of cataloging.

Crawford

Year books

Year books are the law reports of medieval England. Written in Law French (language code roa), they were reprinted through the end of the 17th century.

Example records

• http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=226414
• http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=226424
• http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=270671

Genre/form

• Add appropriate genre term: Laws, Legal documents, Legal instruments, Legislative proceedings.

External links

• Acts of Parliament (Wikipedia)
• Public General Acts (Leeds University)
• Year books (Boston University)