Catalog the material in hand, not its original source or the broader work.

Example: An engraving of a prairie log cabin in a book about the westward expansion of the United States is indexed with: Book illustrations (655), Engravings (655), and Log cabins (650). It is not indexed by the subject(s) or genre of the larger work. An author/title added entry could be made for the book.

Institutions often provide photographic, microform, or quick copy reproductions of pictures as reference substitutes for originals held by the institution. In general, cataloging should be based on the original material even when only the surrogate is in hand. Information about the availability, arrangement, and type of copies is put in the note area of the catalog record (MARC fields 500 and 530), and the physical characteristics of the copy are not indexed in field 655. An alternative approach is to catalog the item in hand, even if it is a reproduction, and link the record for the reproduction to the record for the original item. This is usually done with multiple versions of published audiovisual or microfilm material.