We care about bindings

Towards an adequate and standardized description in the catalogue

Abstract

Cataloguing in rare book libraries often shows an outstanding gap regarding bindings. Faced with a lack of adequate standards in that field, our paper argues for the need of a guideline to help librarians in the description of bindings, and further articulates a draft resource that will be available for those who might need it once it is piloted. Its main focus will be the description of plain bindings, the analysis of the structures and materials, and the consolidation of the terminology to be used in the description of bindings.