Abstract

The idea of a work group on antique books to operate within the sphere of ITALE, the Italian Association of Aleph users, which gathers together the representatives of the institutions that use this software, was born during the ITALE Assembly held in Siena in 2002. The Group began its work in 2003.
The cataloguers needed an Aleph template, a work sheet with an indication of the UNIMARC fields to be filled in and with instructions on how to apply it to the description of these works. It was therefore essential to reflect on the preparation of a manual for choosing what tags were necessary, which useful, what to put in/where to put it in.
The aim was to prepare a Template for registering antique books in UNIMARC. The basis from which to start were the tools already in existence, UNIMARC/obviously bibliographic, and ISBD(A).
The intense work resulted in the preparation of an Analytical Template, that, although aimed at using Aleph software, can also be used by other institutions that use different applications.
The Template was illustrated in the Seminar held at the Academy of the Crusca in December 2007.
The Seminar did not mark the end of the Group's activity by all means.  It had given itself a precise programme: proposals for altering UNIMARC/Bibliographic; preparation of a brief UNIMARC template; study of a UNIMARC/Authorities template for registering in standardized form the names of booksellers, typographers, editors of antique books.
A brief UNIMARC template was also prepared: it considered the requirements of structures that can't or don't want to invest time and money in the in-depth description of antique books without a "book in hand" examination, whether they choose direct (for example from cards) or derived cataloguing.
The Group hopes for a meeting with all the institutions that deal with antique books to discuss and, if possible, find the common points in treating this kind of document.