Maxwell's Handbook for AACR2

by Robert L. Maxwell

For application of the most current Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, there is but one Maxwell's Handbook for AACR2. This practical and authoritative cataloging how-to, now in its Fourth Edition, has been completely revised inclusive of the 2003 update to AACR2. Designed to interpret and explain AACR2,Maxwell illustrates and applies the latest cataloging rules to the MARC record for every type of information format. Focusing on the concept of integrating resources, where relevant information may be available in different formats, the revised edition also addresses the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) and the cataloging needs of electronic books and digital reproductions of physical items such as booksand maps. From books and pamphlets to sound recordings, music, manuscripts, maps,and more, this is the most comprehensive and straightforward guide to interpreting and applying standard cataloging rules. Illustrated with over 490 figures, showing actual MARC catalog records, this is the must-have AACR2 guide for catalogers, LIS students, and cataloging instructors.

Genres: Reference, Library Science, Nonfiction, Librarianship, Textbooks

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Robert L. Maxwell is a senior librarian at the Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah, USA, where he is chair of the Special Collections and Metadata Catalog Department. He is the author of books on cataloging, including FRBR: A Guide for the Perplexed (Chicago: American Library Association, 2008); Maxwell’s Guide to Authority Work (Chicago: ALA, 2002), which won the 2002 Highsmith Library Literature Award; and Maxwell’s Handbook for AACR2 (Chicago: ALA, 2004). He has taught cataloging at Brigham Young University and the University of Arizona, and is a voting member of ALA’s Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access, the ALA body responsible for developing official ALA positions on AACR2 and RDA. In addition to an MLS from the University of Arizona, he holds a JD from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in classical languages and literatures from the University of Toronto.

Reviews

[Blitsterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explains some of the AACR2. It is interesting to see the Mormon books mentioned in this book.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would be a five if it contained information on subject headings and analysis. Good companion piece to the online documents available at cataloger's desktop and the OCLC bibliographic format.

[Thokozani Thabethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

reference literature....

[Eric Phetteplace · Rating 4 out of 5]

textbook for LIS507A Cataloging and Classification I

I give this a high rating because, in my limited experience, it actually has been able to lay out rules for every possible circumstance, even if it does so by repeatedly invoking cataloger's discretion. When I started cataloging, I saw the AACR2 as parallel to various citation style guides: MLA, APA, Chicago, etc. But while those style guides always and repeatedly fall short of explicating all possibilities (it is really so hard to understand that people mostly have trouble with the different types of websites? every style guide ever gives like 2 examples and then moves on to talking about the 30 different ways to cite monographs) the AACR2 hasn't failed me yet.
Of course, I'm not cataloging websites, and that failure is much of the reason why RDA is being created. But I digress...

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a key text for my cataloging class. Given that it's a set of rules, I didn't read it so much as use it.
The AACR2 is useful, even if it dry as a bone and written in a plain yet technical style that is familiar from my days doing procedural documentation at a biotech company.
I think the most useful part of it is the numerous examples of how the rules are applied to different materials.
Despite it's usefulness, I'm giving it only two stars for being about the most boring thing I've ever had to read, and because it is soon to be obsolete. Plus, it was very expensive for an unbound sheaf of hole-punched pages (binder not included).

[Rory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense, impossible to read and wholly indispensable. It's a handy resource to have, as it will lay out pretty much everything you need to know about cataloging, but trying to read it as a text (as we're assigned to do in my Cataloging class) is impossible. After reading one or two of the individual rules I can no longer absorb any more information. That said, it is the foremost reference for anyone who is in the field of cataloging, and possibly librarianship.

Also, it weighs far too much.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

What, no one is going to review the AACR2? What we called in our cataloging class the "enormous white binder," but never the AACR2. At any rate, the rules in the AACR2 are, indeed, very helpful for the in-depth cataloger, but some of them are just confusing. I think the verbiage could be tidied up a bit, and maybe the whole thing can be switched to an electronic version so that the enormous white binder monstrosity would cease to exist.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know, it was a little dry.

[Thom]

Use it while it lasts.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

How do you rate a reference?

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

A reference no self-respecting librarian should be without! Get yours today!

[jessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can guess why I'm reading this. Wish me luck!

[Lillian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wondering why we had to buy this expensive (100.00) book when all of the information is available online, for FREE!

[Halsted Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a book to be reviewed; it exists to communicate the AACR2 rules, and it does that. Other than that, there is not much to say. It is large. It smells good.

[Stephanie Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I even cataloged a megaphone way back when.