541 Immediate Source of Acquisition Notes
- Linda Isaac
541: Immediate source of acquisition notes (private - prior to November 1, 2020)
Holdings records are created and attached to bibliographic records at the point of accessioning by staff in the Acquisitions unit. See Holdings Control section in the Acquisitions and Accessioning Manual for guidelines. This field was always set to "private" (first indicator 0) and not displayed in Hollis prior to November 1, 2020. The existing acquisitions information is not generally edited at the point of cataloging so catalogers should not perform any retrospective editing of the information contained in 541.
Transfers:
Record current transfers as follows (this process will generally be taken care of at the Acquisitions unit):
1) in the 541 field, record the acquisitions information for how the item was first acquired, if known;
2) add 852 subfield $$x (non-public) note: "Transferred from [source, e.g., Widener] [date, e.g. 2020-06-02]."
N.B. (1) Some transfers may come to us with an asterisk at the end of the call number, which simply indicates that the item is a transfer. This asterisk should be retained in the 852 $$x, but removed in the 541 $$e. See instructions outlined in the Acquisitions & End-processing Section's Transfers - Classified Transfers (some instructions will not apply to catalogers as the document was written for books not going to be cataloged).
Example:
541 0 _ $$c Gift; $$a Thomas Hollis V; $$d 1764-1770; $$e 2022-111. $$5 hou
852 … $$x Transferred from Fine Arts Library 2022-07-10; Arc 750.24.
N.B. (2) If transferred items are routed to RBS from the Acquisitions unit for re-cataloging or enhancement, the RBS catalogers will no longer re-classify the item; starting FY22, all items will retain the accession number assigned by the Acquisitions unit as its call number.
Unaccessioned material
Catalogers will sometimes find themselves working on an item that came into the library a long time ago (more than a couple of years) and has never been accessioned. (A good example of this is boxes of old Widener transfers that Widener never itself accessioned.)
Materials received in the past which have never been accessioned should be accessioned for the current year, with the note “Old acquisition” added to the subfield $$c of the 541 in parenthesis for the material. Accessioning staff can provide an appropriate number. The three options are:
$$c Purchase (old acquisition) …
$$c Gift (old acquisition) …
$$c Provenance unknown (old acquisition) …
NOTE: (1) This is in contrast to earlier practices, when at one time the initials "n.d." would be used in the 541 subfield $$e and at another time the accession number would have an "r" added to the end of the number (e.g. *2007-143r); (2) These instructions do not apply to old Widener transfers that were accessioned at Widener.
Unaccessioned bound-withs that should have been assigned accession numbers in the past should be assigned an accession number based on the accession number of the first item: if first item is 87-495, the bound-with is 87-495a (not 87-495b), the second bound-with is 87-495b, and so forth.
"Reclassified from" note
Starting FY22, Houghton will no longer classify its printed materials. Instead, it will retain the accession number as its call number in 852.
Historical reference:
In order to provide an online equivalent to the old Changed Numbers card file, record former call numbers in two places:
1) Enter in 541 subfield $$e following the accession number or accession number substitute; place in parentheses; do not include asterisks or size designations:
$$e 73-947 (PC7.G4536.731d)
$$e Slav 3035.5 (Slav 3035.5.7)
If there are additional former call numbers to record, place each additional call number in another set of parentheses, separated by a space, with earlier former call numbers preceding later one.
$$e 95-385 (HRR 284.303) (EC8.C8405.Q978b)
2) Enter as a subfield $$x note in field 852 (for latest former call number only):
852… $$x Reclassified from *PC7.G4536.731d
852… $$x Reclassified from Slav 3035.5.7