Cataloging, how I love thee

Yesterday I had a super fun cataloging quest. I am so glad I'm back in this field!

Warning: Extreme library nerdiness follows!

The Library Assistant IV from Special Collections came over to ask for some help cataloging an unusual book. He had gone to the Dept. Head and she referred him to me (how's that for confidence! Yay, me!).

So, the book was called Llano, Gem of the Hill Country, Revisited. It had a title page referencing the author with a line "edited posthumously by his children." The t.p. verso said "First edition, 1970. Second edition, 1988." No problem so far, but after 193 pages there was another title page with the same title but referencing only the children as the authors. It had 56 pages of new information.

We were unsure if the children were calling their 56 pages the second edition or if the whole thing was the second edition. Maybe they wrote the added part considering it a second edition and bound it with the original edition. The original author died in 1967, so the 1970 first edition was the thing edited posthumously. If the children were calling their supplement a second edition, that's not really correct and would cause us to create a misleading record. Then I discovered the preface to the 56-page part in which they referred to it as a supplement and referenced reprinting the 1970 edition.

Another clue was that the cover had the title of the book and only the children as authors. I picked up on the word "Revisited" in the title and decided to check OCLC to see if there was a record for the 1970 edition. Sure enough, the 1970 edition was just titled Llano, Gem of the Hill Country -- no "Revisited." Therefore, the book we had in hand with an added supplement was the second edition.

We decided to use the cover as our primary source of information and I instructed the LAIV to include a note about its being a revised edition. I suggested he go back to the Dept. Head and let her know what we came up with and asked him to tell me the results. She agreed with my approach and here's the record: Llano, Gem of the Hill Country, Revisited