Fingerprint (librarianship)

In the library system, a fingerprint is a formula for identifying old prints.

The fingerprint is a sequence of characters which are taken from specified pages and lines of a printed book and which, in conjunction with the date of publication, are intended to distinguish between prints of different editions based on the title.

The fingerprint consists of 16 characters in four groups.

They are taken from the following pages of the book:

• 1st group: the first printed recto page that follows the title page and is not itself a title page
• 2nd group: the fourth side of the recto after that used for the first group
• 3rd group: the recto side, which follows the one used for the second group and bears the correct number 13, alternatively 17
• 4th group: the verso side, the side used for the third group

On each page two characters are taken first from the last and then the penultimate line - on recto pages the two characters from the end of the lines, on the verso page the two characters at the beginning of the lines.

Example: e, en ar- em- * G & p

There are also i. d. R .:

• An indicator that shows which page of the book the third group of characters was taken: “3” for page 13, “7” for page 17 or “C” for missing or incorrect counting.
• The release date
• In multi-volume works, the counting of the volume

Example: e, en ar- em- * G & p 3 1737R 2,2

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• John P. Feather: Tests on the use of the fingerprint in library catalogs. Oxford 1977.
• Karsten Otte u. a .: Automatic cataloging of old prints 1501-1850 in the GBV (PDF; 2.6 MB).