An interesting philosophical question, which I have puzzled over more than once. When I get a letter from, say, Defenders of Wildlife, it’s always signed by
somebody (“Mary Jones”) but I don’t say, “I got a letter from Mary Jones” I say “I got a letter from Defenders of Wildlife.” I’m pretty sure Mary Jones didn’t create the content herself. And if I were to file it, I’d file it under “D” not under “J”.
In such cases, when the letter is a business one, written on behalf of the business, is the person who signed it truly the author? Or would the business be
the author (since the letter is from the business, written on their behalf/at their direction or behest) and the individual would be ‘contributor’ ? Or perhaps both should be given the role of ‘author’? Something similar happens when you have a secretary
writing on behalf of someone else – “Mr Hubbard would like to thank you for the pony you sent. [signed] Allen Smith, Secretary to Mr Hubbard.” I’d probably file that one under H not under S.
I have long thought that the MARC Relator list should add “agent” or “representative” or something, for cases where the writer of something is clearly acting
not as themselves personally but purely as the agent for another entity.
All that said, I suppose as long as you’re consistent in the term you apply, perhaps the precise choice of term isn’t all that important :)
Michele
From: Metadata Object Description Schema List <[log in to unmask]>
On Behalf Of Ashton, Jan
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2018 3:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MODS] Multiple organizations/corporate bodies in one file
Hi Tanis,
If you do want to record both the letter writer and the organization you could list them all, possibly using the marc relator roles of ‘Author’ for
the letter writer and ‘Contributor’ or ‘Associated name’ for the corporate organization.
Jan
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Jan Ashton
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The British Library West Yorkshire LS23 7BQ |
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T +44 (0) 1937 546603 |
From: Metadata Object Description Schema List <[log in to unmask]>
On Behalf Of Michele R Combs
Sent: 26 November 2018 19:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MODS] Multiple organizations/corporate bodies in one file
If the organization is well known but the individuals are not, I wouldn’t bother with personal names. Just the corporate names.
When you say “list of roles” do you mean within a corporation, or just roles in general, like
https://www.loc.gov/marc/relators/relaterm.html ?
Michele
From: Metadata Object Description Schema List <[log in to unmask]>
On Behalf Of Tanis Franco
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2018 1:57 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MODS] Multiple organizations/corporate bodies in one file
Hi everyone,
Wondering what you would do in this case. In an archival folder, I have several letters written from different people from different organizations, usually denoted by the different letterhead. It is usually the case where the organization
is well-known but the person is not. So it would be good to note down all of these names. Would you record multiple corporate creators as well as personal creators, with a role subelement? If anyone can also link me to a list of roles (full titles, not abbreviated
lists) that would be helpful.
Many thanks!
Tanis
Tanis Franco
Archivist
Library
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO SCARBOROUGH
AC 263 | 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario, M1C 1A4
416-287-7494
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