No quarto

In the early days of Dewey decimalising our CDs, we briefly wondered how to treat compilations within our music collections (of the various artist, soundtrack, and artist 'best of' types) - there was some consensus in keeping them separate from the studio albums (and live albums, and singles, and EPs...), but still giving them call numbers. We decided to treat compilations as periodicals, so designated with a P before the call number; for example, the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack has the call number of P 796.14 P1 [Recreation -- Outdoor games -- Hide and seek].

However, around the time we got to classifying the Traveling Wilburys Collection, we realised we needed an additional designation - for box sets and reissues and the like, where the content is not necessarily a compilation - in the Traveling Wilburys' case, the collection is the two studio albums (with one or two bonus tracks) and a DVD - so would not be a periodical, but is not a simple album... Given the size of the Traveling Wilburys' packaging, the decision to give the collection a quarto call number - Q 920.301443 2007 - was a relatively easy one, and we continued on with the Dewey decimalising, mostly forgetting about the quartos.

Eventually, though, the growth in the number of 'Deluxe Edition' double-disc reissues in the collection meant that the quarto-periodical issue had to be revisited. And then came the DVDs... With several television shows being represented with multiple-disc-sets for each season (e.g. seven seasons of The West Wing and Buffy, each season a collection of six discs rather one big box encompassing the entire run), and others by select episodes or highlights (such as The Late Show) but still sometimes with multiple discs, the distinction between quarto and periodical becomes fuzzier...

So, here is the beginning of a list that will hopefully be our guide for the quarto-periodical distinction. Details may need to be worked out further, so for the moment this is a first draft:

CDs

• Standard album: Standard call number
  
• Standard album - with bonus material (e.g. special edition of new release with bonus disc of b-sides/live material) - Quarto
  
• Album remaster/reissue - Standard call number if no bonus tracks, Quarto if bonus tracks or bonus disc of rarities, videos, etc.
  
• Reissue - two albums/releases on one disc (e.g. Surfer Rosa & Come On Pilgrim) - Quarto
  
• Compilation (any number of discs/artists) - Periodical
  

DVDs [to be completed]

• Standard film/concert film (incl. bonus features on same disc)
  
• Television series - single disc, entire season
  
• Television series - single disc, highlights
  
• Television series - multiple discs, entire season
  
• Box set of films (e.g. Jurassic Park collection)
  
• Two or more films/releases on one disc