Printed Ephemera Home Page

Glossary

Term Definition
Associated material Documents in a folder pertaining to the document described in that folder's corresponding Blue Book entry. For example, letters, receipts, clippings, etc.
Blue Book(s) Generally refers to volume one of the "Catalog of Broadsides in the Rare Book Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1972)", edited by Frederick Goff. It is the paper finding aid from which the bibliographic data in the database were converted.
Box The container holding a number of folders from one portfolio. The contents of a single numbered portfolio may require more than one box, since boxes generally hold no more than 30 folders. For example, Portfolio 2 is divided into the following boxes: Port. 2, Nos. 1-29; Port. 2, Nos. 29a-38f; Port. 2, Nos. 38g-39y; Port. 2, Nos. 39z-43.
Duplicate copies Documents that are identical. They should be identified by a single bibliographic description and placed in the same numbered folder. In recording the number of duplicate copies, the first copy will always be included in the number. For example, if Portfolio 35, Folder 17 had three duplicate copies of a document, it would be referred to as "3 duplicate copies." It would not be referred to as "a document and 2 duplicates."
Folder The second hierarchical division of items in the Printed Ephemera Collection. Generally refers to the numbered, exterior folder which contains an item.
Genre A descriptive category identifying the physical format and/or purpose of an item. See also Genre Terms.
Item All contents of a numbered folder, corresponding to the Blue Book description.
Piece(s) Separate documents and associated material in a single folder, corresponding to a single bibliographic Blue Book description. Sometimes called "parts" on folders and document versos.
Portfolio The topmost hierarchical division of items in the Printed Ephemera Collection. Portfolios contain numbered folders, which in turn contain the items. A single portfolio comprises at least one box, and sometimes more, depending on the number of folders.
Recto The front side of a printed sheet.
Variant(s) A document that has the same bibliographic description as another, but contains printed elements which vary from the other. For example, if a document is printed with a woodcut illustration, a second document with the same text but without the illustration would be a variant. A blank form with handwritten additions is not a variant of the blank form without handwriting, because handwriting is not a change that occurred during printing. The filled-in blank form would be a duplicate copy.
Verso The back side of a printed sheet.


Printed Ephemera Home Page