2 messages, 75 lines:
-------------------------

Date:         Mon, 25 Sep 1995 09:59:26 -0600
From:         Ann Leslie Jones <ajones@ARTIC.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Sales catalogs from Sotheby's and Christie's
Comments: cc: bl.cah@rlg.stanford.edu

Anne-Marie Quets, Library Assistant at the Indianapolis Museum of Art
(amquets@velcome.iupui.edu) asks:

>Has anybody found a good way to stay on top of the sales catalogs from
>Sotheby's and Christie's?

At the Art Institute of Chicago, we enter all of our auction catalogs into
the SCIPIO database on RLIN. As one of the three institutions who
originated the database, we take responsiblity for entering all of the
Christies sales, and many of the other participants also have cataloging
responsibilities which allow us to share a good bit of the work.

As to making sure we receive them, we photocopy the calendars from both the
Christie's and Sotheby's magazines, and check all of those sales against
them as they come in. We do this more to keep track of what we have
received than what we haven't received, as many of the newest catalogs
circulate among the curatorial departments prior to the date of sale. We
also subscribe to quite a few other houses, but we do not have the time or
facilities to check on what we receive from them.

Participation in SCIPIO is open to any RLIN member after the appropriate
training. I happen to have a contract with RLG to do the training and plans
are underway for at least one session in the not too distant future. If you
would like more information, contact Carol Ann Hughes at RLG
(bl.cah@rlg.stanford.edu), and she will notify you as soon as there is
anything worth knowing.

*************

Ann Leslie Jones                        312-443-3526 (voice)
Serials Librarian                       312-443-0105 (fax)
The Art Institute of Chicago            ajones@artic.edu

--------------------------
Date:         Mon, 25 Sep 1995 10:44:58 CDT
From:         Susan R Zuriff <S-ZURI@VM1.SPCS.UMN.EDU>
Subject:      Sales catalogs from Sotheby's and Christie's
In-Reply-To:  note of Mon, 25 Sep 1995 09:29:53 EST from Anne-Marie Quets
              <amquets@VELCOME.IUPUI.EDU>

Back in 1991, we tackled our Sotheby's problem by setting up serial records.
The material had been held in our humanities/social sciences periodical room
for many years; our staff resources precluded cataloging and classing them as
separates. We determined titles from the most recent catalog of publications
or the title that predominated through a series. It wasn't always easy to
determine the title, but we used a lot of 246's to cover variations.

Any items that relate to a specific individual or collection have been treated
as a monograph and classed and shelved in our main library's stacks. The
result may be discomfiting for a purist, but it works, and it makes it
possible for us to process and shelve them efficiently.

Also, Sotheby's New York is now including the series on many of their sales
catalogs.

I'll be happy to answer any questions on our procedures,

Sue Zuriff
Head, Serials Cataloging
Central Technical Services
University of Minnesota Libraries

Sue Zuriff                    Phone: 612/625-6575
170 Wilson Library            FAX: 612/625-3428
309 - 19th Ave. So.           Internet: s-zuri@vm1.spcs.umn.edu
Minneapolis, MN 55455         Bitnet: s-zuri@uminn1