Best Practice for Books Acquired through the Library of Congress European Mission

Introduction

Harvard Library holds ~45,000 books that were redistributed by Library of Congress European Mission after being seized by Nazis during WWII and held temporarily at the Offenbach Archival Depot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offenbach_Archival_Depot).

Practice

The Metadata Standards Working Group recommends identifying and tracing these books as a best practice.  Holdings and items records should be updated according to the recommendations in Harvard Library Retention Agreements and Retention Coding in Items and Holdings.  In addition, a 561 note should be placed in the holdings record, and the local bibliographic record should include a tracing for the European Mission as a former owner.  Please use cataloger's judgement to determine if ownership stamps should be transcribed and additional former owners should be traced in the local bibliographic record. Please note that multiple retention agreements should be reflected in multiple 583 fields.

Minimal Best Practice

Place the following immediate source of acquisition notes in the holdings record and trace the LC European Mission in the local bibliographic record indicating the owning library and, if necessary, copy-specific information:

• Holdings record
  • 008/12, value should be 8 (permanent retention)
  • 561 1_ $$3 [material specified] $$a Acquired through the European Mission and Cooperative Acquisitions Project (Library of Congress).
  • 583 1_ $$3 [material specified] $$a committed to retain $$c YYYYMMDD $d in perpetuity $f LC European Mission Books
• Item record
  • Retention Information
    • Committed to Retain: Yes
    • Retention Reason: LC Mission
• Local bibliographic record
  • 710 2  $$3 [material specified] $$a European Mission and Cooperative Acquisitions Project (Library of Congress), $$e former owner. $$5 [library code]

Expanded Best Practice

Ownership stamps may be described or transcribed in the holdings record, and additional former owners traced in the local bibliographic record.

Examples:

• Holdings record
  • 561 1_ $$3 Widener copy 1 $$a Acquired through the European Mission and Cooperative Acquisitions Project (Library of Congress).
  • 562 __ $$3 Widener copy 1 $$a Ownership stamp on title page and title page verso: Hauptarchiv der NSDAP. 
• Local bibliographic record
  • 710 2_ $$3 Widener copy 1 $$a European Mission and Cooperative Acquisitions Project (Library of Congress), $$e former owner. $$5 wid
  • 710 2_ $$3 Widener copy 1 $$a Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. $$b Hauptarchiv, $$e former owner. $$5 wid