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For what it’s worth, this is a detail that is routinely disregarded, and for good reason.

 

9.19.2.1 “runs up against” Statement of International Cataloguing Principles (ICP) 2 “Several principles direct the construction of cataloguing codes. The highest is the convenience of the user.”; and 2.1 “Convenience of the user. Decisions taken in the making of descriptions and controlled forms of names for access should be made with the user in mind.” Convenience of the user trumps other considerations.

 

If a variant access point is useful to help guide a user to the authorized access point, in my opinion it should be given even if, strictly speaking, RDA 9.19.2.1 doesn’t favor it. This is a matter for cataloger judgment. PCC’s removal of all the various “thou shalt not create this or that variant access point” that used to exist in pre-RDA NACO days is based on the principle of convenience of the user (among others). I would be sorry to begin reintroducing “thou shalt nots”.

 

I definitely think that, especially when an arbitrary qualifier has been used such as “Children’s story writer” in the authorized access point and the name is fairly common we owe it to our users to help them find the “right” form and not expect them to have to examine the innards of the authority record (useful as those innards may be) to figure it out.

 

There are a number of points in the NACO training materials where making variant access points based on different cataloger additions to the preferred name, and I for one would be loath to expunge them on the basis of 9.19.2.1. They are there because it is thought helpful to our users.

 

Further, in practice, we make such variants by policy. For instance, if a date in the authorized access point is found to be incorrect it is corrected, but the previous form is changed to a 400 with $w nne to show that the form was previously an authorized form. This is an example of a variant based on the preferred name.

 

Maybe RDA 9.19.2.1 needs to be revised. In the meantime, I hope the cataloging police won’t come down on this particular minor infraction, if it is indeed an infraction.

 

Bob

 

Robert L. Maxwell
Ancient Languages and Special Collections Librarian
6728 Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801)422-5568

"We should set an example for all the world, rather than confine ourselves to the course which has been heretofore pursued"--Eliza R. Snow, 1842.

 

From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Moore, Richard
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2016 12:18 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Tom Watson (Children's story writer)

 

Jay

 

For better or worse, your proposed 400 runs up against RDA 9.19.2.1 (my italics):

 

“When constructing a variant access point to represent a person, use a variant name for the person (see 9.2.3) as the basis for the access point.”

 

That is, and strictly speaking, we can’t have 400s that are based on the preferred name used in the authorized access point.

 

What we can do is make sure the date is recorded as a data element in 046.

 

 

Regards

Richard

 

________________________

Richard Moore

Authority Control Team Manager

The British Library

                                                                       

Tel.: +44 (0)1937 546104                                  

E-mail: [log in to unmask]      

 

“You’re very clever, young man, very clever. But it’s turtles all the way down.”                  

 

 

 

 

From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Shorten, Jay
Sent: 11 May 2016 22:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] Tom Watson (Children's story writer)

 

I would also add a 400 with Watson, Tom, $d 1965-  . The first place I always look to identify someone is the dates, since they come conveniently right after the plain name. Then I look for Name $q, then for Name $c, and only then do I wade through the tedious Name, Intial/Middle Name.

 

(I guess I should also take the opportunity to advertise PERSNAME-L, the list about personal names in bibliographic and authority records, while I’m at it. You can subscribe here: https://lists.ou.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=PERSNAME-L&A=1 )

 

Jay Shorten

Cataloger, Monographs and Electronic Resources

Associate Professor of Bibliography

Catalog Department

University Libraries

University of Oklahoma

Co-owner, PERSNAME-L, the list about personal names in bibliographic and authority records

 

[log in to unmask]

 

From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ted P Gemberling
Sent: 11 May 2016 15:03
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] Tom Watson (Children's story writer)

 

Michael,

Please also add a 670 with the information you found.

 

Was it difficult to reach Watson? I wonder if we should make it a practice to make an effort to reach contemporary authors before setting up occupational qualifiers. I recently encountered the heading “Williams, Chris ǂc (Research and knowledge exchange impact officer)” (n 2015187569). That’s an awfully specific job title. What good will it do if he gets another job? Since I don’t know much about the “research and knowledge exchange impact” industry, how will I be able to make the judgment that it’s the same person?

 

Ted Gemberling

UAB Lister Hill Library

 

From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen Hearn
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2016 12:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] Tom Watson (Children's story writer)

 

The most important thing in OCLC is to uncontrol the Watson headings from the wrong authority and control them with the right authority. As Michael notes, once the headings are controlled by the correct authority, any changes to that authority's 1XX will be picked up by the bib records.  In terms of practical beneficial effect, controlling headings with the right authority is more important than changing the authorized heading to something better.  

 

Stephen

 

On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 10:13 AM, Moore, Richard <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I think the result should be 667 “Do not confuse with” notes in all the NARs that could be confused ;-) This might also be a case where 672 and 673 fields could come in handy…

 

Regards

Richard

 

________________________

Richard Moore

Authority Control Team Manager

The British Library

                                                                       

Tel.: +44 (0)1937 546104                                  

E-mail: [log in to unmask]      

 

“You’re very clever, young man, very clever. But it’s turtles all the way down.”                  

 

 

 

 

From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Borries
Sent: 11 May 2016 15:44
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PCCLIST] Tom Watson (Children's story writer)

 

Dear collective wisdoms,

 

I believe a situation similar to the one I am about to describe was discussed previously on at least one of these lists (and I apologize for the cross posting), but I don’t remember what the resolution was (if there was one), and I think this may be a little different in several respects.

 

The author of the Stick Dog and Stick Cat children’s books is Watson, Tom (Children’s story writer) (NAR nb2014002382).  However, 58 records (if I did the arithmetic correctly) have incorrect headings for this author, either without a qualifier, or with the wrong dates (one record has “1949-“, all the others have “1962-“).

 

I contacted the Tom Watson who writes the children’s stories.  He gave me both a date of birth and a middle name.  He is not the Tom Watson born in 1949 or 1962 (he was born in 1965).

 

My problem with leaving the heading as it is, in addition to the preference for dates as the means of differentiation, is that the Tom Watson who writes children’s stories also did a number of other things that are unrelated to children’s stories, as the authority record makes clear, although it seems as if the children’s stories are the only things published, at least so far (books on speech writing are not his).  Also, since there are many headings that are simply incorrect anyway, there will be the need for cleanup locally and in OCLC no matter which way we go (only 21 additional records need be changed if I change the heading, and the authority record will take care of those in OCLC).

 

Thoughts?

 

Michael

 

Michael S. Borries

Cataloger, City University of New York

151 East 25th Street, 5th Floor

New York, NY  10010

Phone: (646) 312-1687

Email: [log in to unmask]

 


 
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