Librarian help GREATLY appreciated!

[theatre_girl79]

I need some help figuring out a bit in the second chapter of my original fiction novel. I might need a librarian to answer these questions, but if anyone else has the answer I will take it.


Say a book, "Book One", used to be in circulation but went missing about 50-75 years ago, would it's card have been pulled? Would it have ever been entered in the electronic index once the card catalogues were being phased out? Say "Book One" is an original book, a diary, etc. that had been mistakenly put into the public collection, how would it have been recorded?

Let's say "Book One" has just come across your desk and the only really distinguishing marks in it, other than a call number, is a commemorative bookplate dated 1871 and reading "a Gift from her Highness Queen Victoria to the City of Chicago." How would you go about tracking it down, what methods would you use? An online database? Worldcat?

Any other information you need?


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Comments

[rarelylynne.livejournal.com]

1. The cards would have been pulled from the public catalog when it was discovered to have gone missing. So whether or not it made it into the electronic catalog depends on when they discovered it was missing (either via patron request or a shelf-read).

Most likely place for the pulled cards would be in a filing cabinet in the office of whomever is responsible for those stacks.

2. Mistakenly placed in public collection? Its cataloging, even on cards, would have indicated that it was a manuscript. There would have been lots of [information in brackets] on the card, most likely, if the ms was difficult to read or surmise its origins, dating, etc. HOWEVER, being a weird format, it would frankly be less likely to be accidentally put in the circulating stacks.

3. Bookplate research: there are bibliographies of bookplates, but that kind of presentation bookplate is more likely to originate from the library itself than the Queen. (Unless it began as a volume from her own library, which is less likely; more likely, it was a volume specifically purchased/created to present for the royal visit) You'd need to go back to the library's acquisition records (probably in book/ledger form), as well as local newspapers at the time to trace the event of the Queen's visit.

PM me if you want more deets. :-)

[huskyfriends.livejournal.com]

The book was a part of the English Book Donation to Chicago after the Great Fire in 1871.

You have definitely given me stuff to mull over. I will probably have more questions later. Sorry, I am a fiction writer that actually wants science in my sci-fi, and wants to be as accurate as possible in everything else.