Cataloging Sheet Maps: the Basics.(Cataloging Sheet Music: Guidelines for Use with AACR2 and the MARC Format)(Book Review)

Cataloging Sheet Maps: The Basics. By Paige G. Andrew. New York: Haworth Information Pr., 2003. xv, 240p. $39.95 cloth (ISBN 0-7890-1482-3); $29.95 paper (ISBN 0-7890-1483-1).

Cataloging Sheet Music: Guidelines for Use with AACR2 and the MARC Format. Comp. and ed. by Lois Schultz and Sarah Shaw. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Pr. and Music Library Association, 2003. x, 206p. $45 paper (ISBN 0-8108-4750-7).

When the second edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AAR2) was published in 1978, the compilers intended that the rules should stand by themselves as the instructions for creating the cataloging copy and, therefore, the examples in the text purposely were kept to a minimum. The intention was that they were to be used merely for illustrative purposes. One of the mantras chanted by the early trainers in AACR2 was, "Don't catalog by example." When a question arose, the cataloger was to go to the rule itself to resolve the situation and only secondarily take into account what was shown in the example.

Almost immediately a cry rose up for more examples to further illustrate the roles, as well as to give the cataloger something to search to find a similar situation to the one involving the item being cataloged. In some ways a cottage industry grew up to provide these examples, and I was involved in this through the manuals published by the Minnesota AACR2 Trainers. Some organizations (e.g., the Society of American Archivists) and individuals also created cataloging manuals based on particular forms of materials. These two publications, Cataloging Sheet Maps and Cataloging Sheet Music, represent two of the latest manuals dealing with cataloging special materials using AACR2.

Paige Andrew, author of Cataloging Sheet Maps, is well qualified to prepare such a volume. He is the map cataloger at the Pennsylvania State University Libraries at University Park and has given map cataloging workshops …