Cataloging electronic books

Papers on the cataloging of electronic resources have focused on electronic journals and Internet resources such as Web sites and not on electronic books. Electronic books are nonserial monographic resources accessed with a computer either directly or remotely. Rules and standards for cataloging electronic resources have changed and continue to change. This article discusses the electronic book as a unique manifestation and provides practical instruction on the application of current cataloging rules. The cataloging elements covered are control fields and variable data fields, including classification, uniform titles, title information, edition information, type and extent of the resource, publication and distribution information, physical description, series statements, notes, and subject analysis. Cataloging in today's world is focusing more often on access and organization of electronic resources. Among these electronic resources is the electronic book (e-book), a media form that first appeared on the market in the fall of 1998. (1) Marketing to libraries began in 1999, most notably with the appearance of netLibrary as a vendor. As libraries began purchasing e-books, a whole new set of issues arose for libraries such as licensing, purchasing and ownership, and, of course, cataloging. (2) E-books have received a lot of attention in the last few years with regard to the publishing industry, niche markets, and viability as a product. (3) Many papers address cataloging bibliographic resources in electronic format for serials, Web sites, and other Internet resources. (4) A review of the literature has not revealed anything that focuses on the cataloging of electronic books. This paper will examine functional aspects of cataloging an electronic book. What Is an Electronic Book? The first task is deciding if the resource to be cataloged is electronic. Generally, electronic is thought of as something stored on magnetic or optical media, such as a floppy diskette, a hard drive, or a CD-ROM, or remote access media stored on a distant server. The Merriam Webster online dictionary defines electronic as "implemented on or by means of a computer." (5) This definition works well for electronic books that are accessed either remotely or on a personal PC or pocket computer and also for those e-books that require an e-book reader device, which in and of itself is a type of computer. The challenge is deciding if the resource is a book. If it acts like a book, reads like a book, and generally "feels" like a book, except that it is electronic, then it probably is a book. In other words, if it fits the definition of a monograph as defined in the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2d ed., 2002 rev. glossary as a nonserial bibliographic resource that is complete or intended to be complete in a finite number of parts, it is a book. (6) Defining mode of access required for reading the book is also important. There are two modes of access: direct and remote. Direct access maybe an electronic file that is saved and stored on a hard drive, a CD-ROM, a floppy diskette, a personal digital assistant (PDA) (e.g., PalmPilot), a pocket computer, or an e-book reader device. Examples of direct access books are CD-ROMs, which may accompany a print book as an electronic version, and e-books available for purchase from various vendors such as Palm Digital Media (formerly Peanut Press), Barnes and Noble, or amazon.com. These e-books are generally downloaded and saved to a disk drive. The other type of access, which may be more common for many libraries, is remote access. Remote access involves a connection to the Internet and an Internet browser to access the content of an e-book from a local area network (LAN) or a remote server. These types of e-books are offered by netLibrary, National Academy Press, and Project Gutenberg, among others. E-Books as Manifestations AACR2 (1978) was written from a carrier-biased perspective, which worked well before the days of electronic media. …