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I recently closed n  50083205 Espenshade, Edward Bowman, d 1910- , which was already coded as the RDA form, to Espenshade, Edward Bowman, d 1910-2008 . It has been pointed out to me that the source I quoted and some bibliographical records have �Jr.� as part of the name. Should I therefore have upgraded the name to Espenshade, Edward Bowman, �c Jr., �d 1910-2008 ? I had the idea somehow that when closing dates, if the name is indicated to be RDA or RDA-compatible, for the sake of not making needless changes, you accept the name heading as is and you don�t completely re-cast the name into an RDA form unless there is either an error in the name or the date or it has the dreaded 667 note.

 

e.g. In adding the death date to Espenshade, Gilbert H. �q (Gilbert Howry), �d 1912- you would not re-cast the name as Espenshade, Gilbert H., �d 1912-1992, even though that is a valid RDA form, since the current form is equally valid under RDA. But if it turned up that he was born in 1913 or that his middle name was Lowry and not Howry, then you could re-cast the name to Espenshade, Gilbert L., �d 1913-1992.

 

So I guess another of asking this question is: Is the absence of �Jr� in the name considered an error?

 

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

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