{"id":2953,"date":"2016-12-09T11:18:34","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T18:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryshenanigans.wordpress.com\/?p=2953"},"modified":"2026-02-11T23:05:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:05:42","slug":"isbn-shenanigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/2016\/12\/09\/isbn-shenanigan\/","title":{"rendered":"ISBN shenanigan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"onbeyondzebra\"As Curator of Colorado College Special Collections, I recently ordered a copy of Woody Leslie’s book Understanding Molecular Typography<\/em><\/a>. There appeared to be a snag in the cataloging, and the following email conversation ensued:<\/p>\n

Cataloger Amy: Hello, Jon (and Jessy),\u00a0 If this link is behaving as it was for me just now, then you will see the image, with a link, to a Dr. Seuss book to the right of the title I just cataloged, \u201cUnderstanding Molecular Typography.\u201d Hmmmmmmm\u2026\u2026..\u00a0 :-\/<\/p>\n

Systems Specialist Jon: That bib record contains the ISBN for the Dr. Seuss title so it\u2019s pulling the Dr. Seuss book cover image\u2026 Correcting or removing that ISBN should fix the problem. I also noticed that a subject heading of Humor is shown on that bib-is that correct?<\/p>\n

Amy: I figured it had to do with the ISBN. The ISBN in the record is indeed the ISBN on the title page, so, I\u2019m not sure how one might handle that. About humor, yes, that is correct, despite the rawther serious-sounding title.<\/p>\n

Jon: Interesting-so it\u2019s a humor book and they put the ISBN for a Dr. Seuss book on the title page? That\u2019s kinda funny. WorldCat seems to have the same problem: http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/title\/understanding-molecular-typography\/oclc\/920580763<\/a> \u2013as do the catalogs of all of the other libraries WorldCat shows as holding this title\u2026 This is now actually hilarious.<\/p>\n

Curator Jessy: Wow. This is fantastic actually! I wonder if they did it on purpose. Maybe I\u2019ll try to contact the author or publisher and see.<\/p>\n

Amy: I\u2019d love to know what he says. It\u2019s kind of like a library shenanigan. I mean, why \u201cOn Beyond Zebra\u201d?? This is a first, for me.<\/p>\n

Jessy: Dear Woody Leslie, As you can see from the email chain, your book is causing some confusion and hilarity at the Colorado College library. We think you did it on purpose. Are we right?<\/p>\n

Artist Woody Leslie: Hi Jessy, This really made my day! Thanks for contacting me. Yes, I intentionally appropriated that ISBN number. Understanding Molecular Typography is a fictional textbook by a fictional author about a fictional science — the science of molecular typography, which is based on the premise that all letters are in fact molecules, composed of atomic shape units known as typtoms. One of the ideas of the book is the concept of genetically modified, or invented letters. I used that ISBN number as a tribute to Dr. Seuss’ book On Beyond Zebra, because it’s all about invented letters. I didn’t account for library cataloging of ISBNs when I used it, figuring it would mostly be ignored. I too have noticed the World Cat auto picture selecting based on the ISBN. Glad you were able to sort it all out. There’s more about the book and project here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Curator of Colorado College Special Collections, I recently ordered a copy of Woody Leslie’s book Understanding Molecular Typography. There appeared to be a snag in the cataloging, and the following email conversation ensued: Cataloger Amy: Hello, Jon (and Jessy),\u00a0 If this link is behaving as it was for me just now, then you will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":413,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenanigans"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3q4oW-LD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/413"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3929,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953\/revisions\/3929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/ccspecialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}