Nancy,
I agree, especially regarding Authors. I train people that it should only be used for people who write belles-lettres, because otherwise nearly every authority record for people who have written any kind of work would
have Authors added. I use Editors sparingly as well, for people who edit journals or as you say work for a publishing house. I've not run into Compilers, but it sounds like a pretty useless term to put in the occupation field.
In bibs it would make no sense to add 386 Authors to every record for a textual work. No one would come in to the library and ask if you have any books by authors. Or any scores by composers.
That's just the tip of the iceberg of course. I was successful in getting policy in the DCM Z1 that said not to include gender, nationality, ethnicity, etc in combination with profession terms, but I still see people adding it (e.g. Authors, German; Jewish novelists; African American dancers). You don't go to school to learn how to be an African American physician. I clean those up when I encounter them.
Adam Schiff
University of Washington Libraries
-- Nancy Sack Cataloging Department University of Hawaii at Manoa 2550 McCarthy Mall, Honolulu, HI 96822 phone: 808-956-2648 fax: 808-956-5968 e-mail: [log in to unmask]