Self-Published Works

This is like asking, "I know it looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck; but is it really a duck?"

I am trying to figure out the citation for The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy.  It certainly seems to follow the pattern for a self-published work.  But I general think of these as books that are published by a person; with only one publication and a relatively some production.

In the case of The Source, it's published by Ancestry ( I don't see Publishing Company behind the name) which is a company (not a person), and has had multiple editions.   So, I ask - is this really a self-published work?

On the back of the Title page, I see this, "p. cm."   Would this be a notation that tells me something about the publisher?

With place of publication missing (on the Title Page, at least), I don't know but that I would have no choice but to follow the self-published work model in Evidence Explained.  

Mike

 

Submitted byEEon Tue, 09/18/2012 - 20:50

Mike,

In this case, the duck really is a swan. Before a citation can be crafted, we need to know what edition of The Source you are using. It's gone through three editions, all of them published by Ancestry. The 1984 publication was, in fact, the genesis of Ancestry.

In cases like this, when we are missing citation details for a book or question the accuracy of certain details about a book, we can usually find them identified in an online catalog. The two major catalogs for American works are those of the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov) and the OCLC Online Computer Library Center's WorldCat (www.worldcat.org). Of course, in using the catalogs, we take care to ensure that we consult the entry for the correct edition because content will vary from one to the next.

As you'll find at both LOC and WorldCat, the publication details for the three editions of this book (all of which carry exactly the same title and editors, but varying content and authors) are as follows:

  • 1st edition (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1984)
  • 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997)
  • 3rd edition (Provo, Utah: Ancestry, 2006)

Submitted byBRMilleron Wed, 09/19/2012 - 07:36

Mike, the "p. cm." you cite from the back of the Title page has nothing to do with the publisher.  That's part of the "Cataloging in Publication" or CIP information to help a book be cataloged by a library.  The P is for pages and CM is for centimeters (both of the final published product).  When the book is in draft/galley form, these values have no numbers associated with them; in the online catalogs which describe the finished product, you'll find specific number of pages for a volume.  And different editions (like the 3 editions of The Source that are mentioned) will normally have different numbers of pages in the final products.