I agree with Kevin on this. If I am trying to distinguish between two authors with the same name ("Smith, John" certainly being one of the worst examples), I always hope that there will be something in the heading itself that will help me narrow down the possibilities. If authors were distinguished only by "A", "B", etc., it would be necessary to look at the details of every record until one stumbled across the right person.
Denise Marie Hanusek, Th.D.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
505 Kilgo Circle
Atlanta, GA 30322
phone: 404-727-1220
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
"The truth will make you free." (John 8:32b)
"I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken."
(Oliver Cromwell)
"When sleeping women wake, mountains move." Chinese proverb
Something like a date, place, occupation, etc. is able to support
the FRAD user tasks of "identify" and "contextualize". I don't think an
arbitrary code would help in that regard.
I would like to think that we're assembling the data for *people*, not just
for machines.
Kevin M. Randall
Principal Serials Cataloger
Bibliographic Services Dept.
Northwestern University Library
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208-2300
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: (847) 491-2939
Fax: (847) 491-4345
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