Technews Bulletin
June/July 2003
ISSUE #16
******CIP***CIP***CIP***CIP***CIP***CIP******
"What exactly is CIP?"
"Why is the call number we have different from the one in the book?"
CIP, or Cataloging in Publication, is
a program that was established by the Library of Congress in 1971 in
which LC staff catalog new books BEFORE they are published.
Publishers submit as much of the full text as is available of their
publications to LC, though this might be only the title page and a
summary of each chapter. The Library then creates a catalog record
(known as CIP data) for each publication and sends it to the
publisher who in turn prints the record on the verso (or back side)
of the title page.
Before computers, this was especially
helpful to libraries as the catalog record was printed in each book
and immediately available to each library that purchased a copy of
it. LC also sent catalog cards to thousands of U.S. libraries saving
libraries the time and expense of individually cataloging and
producing their own cards for each book they acquired.
In 1996, LC began their electronic
CIP program in which publishers submit their information
electronically to LC. LC adds a cataloged record to their online
database and then transmits the record to the publisher for them to
include in their published books.
One of the drawbacks of the CIP
system is that the Library of Congress is cataloging from
UNPUBLISHED material. This means that the content of the originally
supplied text to LC might be different from what is actually
published. When this happens, the printed bibliographic information
on the verso of the title page is less accurate.
So, while the CIP data is helpful, it
is not definitive if the content changes after the CIP information
is printed in the book. We catalog with "item in hand" (a cataloging
term!) and not "pre-pub." This is why our bibliographic records may
look quite different from the CIP data.
This newsletter editor would appreciate your suggestions for
future issues.
Please send them to Sue Bermann, Technical Services (or e-mail bermanns@pbclibrary.org)
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