On Thu, 4 Oct 2012, Benjamin A Abrahamse wrote:

> suppose there could be rules or guidelines for determining whether a
> change is "major" or "minor"

  One of those "rules" has always been that if an "ongoing" conference name
"fluctuates" rather than "changes", 4XXs are used to indicate the
fluctuations. One might not know that a "fluctuation" took place until a
later usage appears to "stabilize" the name. I've frequently combined
several records into one under AACR-2 for that reason. That would still be
necessary in RDA on the "collective" conference name record to indicate
relationships, but individual records could remain.

> it's probably better to leave it to catalogers' judgment.

  Looks like most of RDA will function that way. What I would like to see
clarified (allowed?) is that creation of authority records for individual
instances of "ongoing" conference headings is "optional" when "collective"
records already exist for those conferences.

Cheers!

jgm

  John G. Marr
  Cataloger
  CDS, UL
  Univ. of New Mexico
  Albuquerque, NM 87131
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