Making Collection Histories Visible - Options of Indexing and Provision of Provenance-Related Metadata of Historical Holdings within a Research Library

Pavla Langer

Romano Alberti, Origine, Et Progresso Dell’Academia Del Dissegno, De Pittori, Scultori, & Architetti di Roma ..., Recitati sotto il regimento dell’Eccellente Sig. Cauagliero Federico Zuccari, & raccolti da Romano Alberti Secretario dell’Academia, Pavia 1604 (Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institute for Art History, CC BY-NC 4.0).

Romano Alberti, Origine, Et Progresso Dell’Academia Del Dissegno, De Pittori, Scultori, & Architetti di Roma ..., Recitati sotto il regimento dell’Eccellente Sig. Cauagliero Federico Zuccari, & raccolti da Romano Alberti Secretario dell’Academia, Pavia 1604 (Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institute for Art History, CC BY-NC 4.0).

As a long-established but still relevant field of librarianship, the cataloguing of provenances deals with the description and identification of references to previous owners (persons or institutions) of various media found in library collections. The resources are not viewed as arbitrary representatives of an edition or manifestation, but as items with unique characteristics. Information on provenance can be obtained on the one hand from physical features of the objects (bookplates, handwritten entries, stamps, binding features, old signatures, etc.) and on the other hand from secondary sources (e.g., inventories, accession books, estate lists, auction catalogues). In the historical sciences and the digital humanities in particular, there is a confirmed trend towards approaching library holdings with research questions that go beyond the content of the media, e.g., in the field of social network research, the history of science and institutions, reader research or art and cultural studies. The cataloguing of provenance-related metadata enables collection tectonics to be brought to light and dispersed bundles, collections or (private) libraries to be reconstructed, at least virtually.
As a small part of the strategy to valorize the rare book collection of the Bibliotheca Hertziana - Max Planck Institute for Art History, the project will investigate the possibilities of indexing and providing provenance-related copy data for these holdings. We scrutinize how item-specific metadata of historical books can be made available for research within the kubikat network and what a catalogue-independent, sustainable form of rare book indexing could look like.
A fundamental aspect of this topic is the presentation of the current practice of ALEPH-based cataloguing and the provision of item-specific data in kubikat. As part of a comparative analysis, the alternative approach of recording rare books using an internal, catalogue-independent database and making it available via a digitization platform is discussed. The compilation of standards in the field of provenance cataloguing provides an overview of current cataloguing practice at libraries in German-speaking countries (e.g., use of a standardized vocabulary, use of standardized subject headings). The aim is to analyze these cataloguing standards with regard to their applicability to the situation of the Bibliotheca Hertziana’s rare book collection in the context of the kubikat catalogue environment and to develop proposals for an efficient, sustainable and visible item-specific cataloguing. These considerations also include the provenance information gathered in a database at the beginning of the library’s rare book conservation project in 2017.