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If it is hard for catalogers to intuit how to apply these rules, how do we expect the “correct” results to be understood by the public? I especially wonder about user-readable links and labels using the words “work” and “expression.” The terms have many meanings in English, and their FRBR meanings probably haven’t made it to reference works outside of the library profession.
Amy
From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Stephen Early
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2017 11:22 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] Queston about "Works" authority record with qualifier
Presumably your second sentence. But maybe I’m missing something. If I am, I may not be the only one – and therein lies the problem of correct profession-wide implementation. Enough catalogers need to have a good intuitive understanding of all this to implement it correctly. Incorrectly constructed authority records create bad examples in the database used by others who still haven’t figured it out and can’t tell a correct authority record from an incorrect one. And the result is more incorrect examples.
Stephen T. Early
Cataloger
Center for Research Libraries
6050 S. Kenwood
Chicago, IL 60637
773-955-4545 x326
CRL website:
www.crl.edu
From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Kevin M Randall
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2017 10:07 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] Queston about "Works" authority record with qualifier
But if the policy were to always include the language in the expression AAP, wouldn't that mean that *every* RDA bib record will require a 130 or 240 field? Or would we do it only for things that have expression authority records? While I'm not terribly bothered by a certain (limited) amount of inconsistency in the bibliographic database due to evolving standards, this seems to be a bit much.
Kevin
(who is getting even more impatient waiting for the day when identifiers take the place of AAPs)
Kevin M. Randall
Principal Serials Cataloger
Northwestern University Libraries
Northwestern University
847.491.2939
Proudly wearing the sensible shoes since 1978!
From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Stephen Early
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2017 9:06 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] Queston about "Works" authority record with qualifier
Bob wrote:
“… Whew. All that being said, “Lonergan, Bernard J. F. $t Works $s (Lonergan Research Institute)” is a perfectly fine AAP at the expression level, but the presence or absence of subfield coding being the only clue that it’s at the expression level and not at the work level seems pretty thin to me and must be quite opaque to our users (if not most catalogers). (This comment applies to any work/expression AAP, not just ones involving the conventional collective title “Works”.)
This is one reason I favor routinely including the language for textual expressions, even for original-language expressions: “Lonergan, Bernard J. F. $t Works. $l English $s (Lonergan Research Institute)”. The inclusion of the language makes it completely clear that the AAP is for an expression, especially in the absence of any marker in the MARC authority format that explicitly distinguishes work-level authority records from expression-level authority records.
”
I strongly agree with Bob! I suspect that there are more than a few catalogers, including NACO contributors, who are not yet able to intuitively distinguish between expression level and work level access points. _Always_ adding language to an expression level access point might seem tedious and redundant, but I think it may be necessary until the _majority_ of catalogers finally “get it.” Maybe in 10 years a task group can do a study and determine that $l (or the post-MARC equivalent) can be omitted from original language expression access points. But for now I believe: if it’s expression level, always include $l .
Stephen T. Early
Cataloger
Center for Research Libraries
6050 S. Kenwood
Chicago, IL 60637
773-955-4545 x326
CRL website: www.crl.edu