Fwd: [PCCLIST] Reminder: Attend the RBMS BSC Cool Things We Cataloged Webinar
Sherman Clarke
From: Andrea Elizabeth Schuba <asc...@umd.edu>
Date: Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 10:08 AM
Subject: [PCCLIST] Reminder: Attend the RBMS BSC Cool Things We Cataloged Webinar
To: <PCC...@listserv.loc.gov>
This is a reminder that the Bibliographic Standards Committee of the ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section invites you to the webinar, Cool Things We Cataloged.
Date: Monday, April 6, 2026
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Eastern / 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Central / 11:00 am - 12:00 pm Mountain / 10:00 am - 11:00 am Pacific
Register here: https://tamuc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Fa__D-sMSf2dCfwJyNTxHg#/registration
This presentation will be recorded and registrants will receive the recording.
Cost: Free for everyone
Five presenters will explain the workflow, challenges, and information gained while cataloging interesting items found in their collections.
United States Psychological Operation (Propaganda leaflets dropped Over Afghanistan and Iraq)
Presenter: Arzoo Sidiqi, Librarian / Afghan-Perso Arabic Metadata Fellow
This presentation highlights a collection of U.S. Psychological Operations propaganda leaflets distributed over Iraq during the Gulf War and over Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks. Processed by a Librarian (Arzoo Sidiqi), the multilingual collection (in Pashto, Persian, Arabic, Urdu, and English) documents psychological operations intended to influence both civilian and military audiences. The session will examine these leaflets as primary sources for researchers, scholars and students and discuss the challenges of processing unique materials for Librarians.
Qamariyya with cypress tree design
Presenter: Vernica M. Downey, MIT Libraries
For the spring 2025 MIT Libraries' exhibit, "Refracted Histories through Stained Glass: 19th c. Islamic Windows as a Prism into MIT's Past, Present, and Future," Metadata Librarian for Distinctive Collections, Vernica Downey, cataloged four Egyptian qamariyyāt. While the exhibit centered on the history and production of these stucco and colored glass windows and recent material science research, this presentation covers an additional perspective. It peeks through one of the windows and into the creation of a MARC record, focusing on what was learned about cultural object cataloging and cross-departmental collaboration in the process.
Preáchán (crow book)
Presenter: SK Maston, Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Memorial University of Newfoundland
SK Maston will discuss cataloguing Preáchán (crow book) by Sarah Lewtas, a self-published artist’s book, bound between two crow wings, with hand-cut pages and handwritten text. The work posed descriptive challenges due to the absence of conventional bibliographic information and atypical physical construction. As a special collections cataloguer and practicing visual artist, SK bridges creator’s intent and cataloguer’s judgement to create a bibliographic record that accurately reflects the work. In this presentation, SK will discuss strategies for determining publication details, the resources they consulted, and other considerations for cataloguing contemporary artists’ books that fall outside traditional bibliographic formats.
Assyrian Medical Tablet
Presenter: Dr. Eliza Tasbihi, Lecturer at Concordia University, Researcher and Specialized Cataloging Editor of Islamic Manuscripts at McGill University
This Assyrian Medical Tablet is a unique object, which is held at the Osler Library of The History of Medicine, McGill University. https://mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1246293714. It is a baked clay tablet and is part of a large treatise on medicine from an older Babylonian work. The content relates to an eye disease and contains a list of prescriptions. The Tablet belongs to the school of Aššur (circa. 700 BC) and its engraving goes back to the reign of Sargon II. The language of the tablet is Akkadian, and the script is in cuneiform. The tablet represents the rich culture of Mesopotamian civilization, often referred to as the "cradle of civilization” where cuneiform writing and clay, which was developed (around 3200–3500 BCE) by Sumerians in the region, was used to record literature, law, and administration on clay tablets.
Detached leaf from the "Eliot Indian Bible"
Presenter: Kurt Hanselman, San Diego State University
John Eliot's Massachusett translation of the Bible (commonly referred to as the "Eliot Indian Bible") is historically significant for being the first Bible to be printed in North America. When our library acquired a detached leaf from a copy of the Eliot Bible, working to catalog the item brought up some interesting challenges, without official guidance or best practices for cataloging detached leaves. This presentation will address the challenges and considerations relevant to this specific item, but will also be relevant for catalogers dealing with detached leaves generally.