Comments are interpolated.

On Wed, 5 Nov 2008, john g marr wrote:

> The heading in question has just been established as "Russell, Marc
> James, 1975- " with reference (670) to a publication in-hand citing
> "Russell, Marc J." and to the author's theses usage of "Russell, Marc
> James" and thesis heading "Russell, Marc James, 1975- ".
>
> The discussion should actually begin with the form of name on the work
> being cataloged, which is "Russell, Marc J.", and by noting that this work is
> a "publication", and that a thesis is not a publication.

AACR2 gives no preference to publications. It refers to the "chief source
of information of works issued by that person in his or her own language."
22.1B. Your conclusion may be reasonable, but it is not spoken to by the
rules and has no weight in determining the name. The LCRI for 22.3A
explicitly says to take the form used on the thesis into account when
choosing the form to be used in the heading.

Further, Dutch dissertations are published and do use the fullest form of
the authors names, so your distinction falls down. Some countries, like
the former Soviet Union, used to require that initials be used in
scholarly publications, regardless of whether they were theses or not and
regardless of what an author's desires were.


>
> There are no "Marc J. Russell" headings for other persons in OCLC, so there
> is no need to refer to the rules for distinguishing identical names. There
> are rules under this category in AACR2 which refer to adding data to headings
> even if there is no need to, and a good rule clarification might be to
> relocate these to a separate section of the rules (e.g. "Additions to names
> not requiring distinction").
>

The purpose of the authority record is not only to distinguish two authors
with the same name but to gather materials by the same author which have
different forms of the name on the title page. So Marc James Russell and
Marc J. Russell need to be identified somewhere in the authority record.

The provisions to add data to headings when there is no need to
distinguish two names are an option in AACR2. The LCRI says to apply the
option. I do not think the notion of two separate sections for
distinguishing names makes sense.

> Were LC to be the cataloger of the item of concern in this thread, it would
> establish the heading as "Russell, Marc. J.", having no needed or prescribed
> (internal policy) recourse to other data.
>

Except that a cataloger needs to do some sort of search to find out if
there are other forms of the name or names that need to be distinguished.

>> When there is no commonly found form *choose the fullest form as the
>> AACR2 form.* (When determining the fullest form for a person who uses
>> both forename initials and forenames, make no distinction between
>> initials and forenames, e.g., "B.E.F. Pagen" is fuller than "Bernard
>> Edward Pagen.")
>

I do not believe that this means that B.E.F. Pagen is as full as Bernard
Edward Francis Pagen. The point of the LCRI is that three initials is
fuller than two names. I've proceeded on this basis since 1983 without
finding evidence to the contrary.

> Discussion of this part of the LCRI should begin with consideration of
> AACR2 0.14 = "The examples ... are illustrative and not prescriptive", which
> means that the example given is not meant to limit the meaning and/or intent
> of the statement illustrated to situations like the example.
>

I would agree, but the example in this case is intended to be
prescriptive. I would also note that our extrapolations of what the
illustration means are not the same.

>> As Mr. Russell has not been blessed with additional forenames and
>> initials as have others of us, it does appear that your heading is
>>
>> 100 1 $a Russell, Marc James, $d 1975-
>
> Making "no distinction between forename initials and forenames" in
> determining "fullness", and giving precedence of consideration to (1) the
> work in hand and (2) publications (over theses) and (3) "Marc J." being
> "fuller" than "Marc", the "basis" for the heading is "Russell, Marc J."

I believe both (1) and (2) are incorrect, and (3) is irrelevant to the
discussion since "Marc" does not show up by itself in heading or usage for
this individual. If one treats the the three names as instances of
bibliographic usage, the two forms with Marc J. do not add up to 80%, and
so one falls back on Marc James.


> The option under 22.17 allows a date to be added. AACR2 and LCRI 22.18A
> allow addition of "the full form of an initial", "if the fuller form of a
> person's name ... does not include *all* of that fuller form." This
> corroborates the idea that a "full form of a name" is considered "full"
> despite lacking expansion of initials.
>
> Thus, the information on the author's thesis record (transcription and date
> in heading) allows the heading to be expanded to: "Russell, Marc J. $q (Marc
> James), $d 1975- .
>

Possible, but I do not think this follows current NACO rules. On the other
hand, I would not feel compelled to change it in an existing NAR. Vita
brevis est, and either form would serve the purpose of distinguishing the
works by this author.

Laurence S. Creider
Special Collections Librarian
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM 88003
Work: 575-646-7227
Fax: 575-646-7477
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