editionsstand

Editionsstand is a bibliographic term used primarily in German-language library catalogs to describe the current state of a publication’s edition history. It refers to the set of editions, revisions, translations, and reissues that are known to exist for a given work at a particular point in time. The term denotes the edition history rather than a single edition, and it may be updated as new editions become known or available.

In practice, the editionsstand helps librarians and researchers understand how a work has appeared in different forms and thus how to treat them in cataloging and search. It can influence decisions about merging records for multiple editions or creating separate records for distinct editions when warranted by significant changes in text, title, format, or authorship. The note is typically adjusted when new editions are published or when bibliographic control consolidates older editions into a current standing.

Within catalog records, the editionsstand is often displayed as a note or field that provides an overview of the work’s edition history, sometimes with dates or short descriptions of major revisions. It is distinct from the description of a single edition, serving instead as a top-level summary of the work’s edition corpus. In English-language catalogs, similar concepts are usually referred to as edition history or edition scope.