Pseudo-Edition Statements in Colophons


So-called “edition” statements can often be found in the colophons of Russian publications and publications from the other former Soviet Republics. Those statements do not necessarily provide the information about the resource that would be normally used for formulating edition statements. In fact, such statements are nothing but terms for basic types of publications classified according to these countries’ official systems of publishing standards. For example, publishing in the Russian Federation must be in compliance with government standard GOST 7.60-2003, which covers the types, terms, and definitions of publications.

Section 2.4.1. of this standard includes a broad range of terms which define the purpose, target audience, seriality, format, contents, carrier, etc., for resources published on the territory of Russian Federation.

For example:

  • genre: литературно-художественное издание (fiction)

  • type of printing matter: факсимильное издание (facsimile edition)

  • type of material construction: книжка-игрушка (toy book)

  • seriality: периодическое издание (periodical)

  • type of graphic representation of information: нотное изданиe (printed music)

  • purpose of publication: учебное издание (educational edition)

  • target audience: издание для детей и юношества (juvenile edition)

Etc., etc., etc.

Many Soviet/Russian publishing houses require that each of their publications bear one of the terms from the list defined in the official standard GOST. The designated place in the book for such terms is the first line of text in the colophon.

Similar standards and publishing requirements also exist in the former Soviet republics.

Example in Ukrainian:

Довідкове видання

Мюллер Володимир Карлович

Великий сучасний англо-український

українсько-англійський словник

Example in Russian:

Справочное издание

Королев Борис Николаевич,

Женатов Михаил Афанасьевич,

Рысакова Екатерина Васильевна и др.

ТРАНЗИСТОРЫ

Both these books were classified as reference materials: the latter according to Russian GOST 7.60-2003 2.4.1.10 (Spravochnoe izdanie), and the former according to Ukrainian DSTU GOST 1.1:2005 Міждержавна система стандартизації. Терміни і визначення (ГОСТ 1.1-2002) (Dovidkove vydannia)

While not terribly useful, these terms could help with identification of the nature, audience, and other characteristics of a resource. Thus the suggested cataloging practice is that, when a cataloger encounters such edition statements, she or he may record this information in a note and indicate where the information is found.

Example (in MARC format):

500 "Spravochnoe izdanie"--Colophon.

NOT:

250 Spravochnoe izdanie.

Please note: Traditional LC practice is not to transcribe these pseudo-edition statements regardless of level of cataloging. According to the RDA and BIBCO Core standard guidelines, only those notes that support identification of item need be included. Because the pseudo-edition notes from the colophon are generally not useful for identification, they can be left out.


See also: List of Slavic Publishing Terms


Revised: Sept. 10, 2015