Although I can’t point to relevant documentation, I was always taught (back in the 80’s and at Harvard) that a heading should be in the nominative case if it were known by the cataloger. The 670 does not need to show an example of the nominative case, I guess because it’s assumed to be unnecessary. But the use of ellipses ( … ) when citing the heading is supposed to show that the heading is taken from elsewhere in the sentence within the source and may not be in the nominative case—I don’t know if this is done routinely. Additionally, I have this hazy recollection that may not be true that if it is known by the cataloger to be in a case other than nominative, it can be established as provisional and explained in a cataloger’s note.
No German cataloger would establish the heading in the genitive and I think that’s important to note.
Lucy A. Barron
Head, Scandinavia, Baltic, & Central Germanic Section
Germanic & Slavic Division
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540-4244
[log in to unmask]
(202) 707-6326
(202) 252-3379 fax
[log in to unmask]">
From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging <[log in to unmask]>
On Behalf Of Robert J. Rendall
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2021 3:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] Corporate name access points
I think the idea that access points should be grammatically correct phrases that make sense in isolation is seen as a basic principle that can be taken for granted, though I'm not sure what exactly in the current text of RDA supports that assumption. ALA submitted a proposal to address this sort of issue explicitly in 2014, and the JSC (now RSC) did not accept it - I think their response said it was "not needed."
Relevant documentation used to be here, but the links no longer work:
An earlier draft of the original ALA proposal is still viewable here; it would probably have needed more work and I can see why we might want to avoid getting into this kind of thing in the text of RDA, if possible:
Robert Rendall
Principal Serials Cataloger
Original and Special Materials Cataloging, Columbia University Libraries
102 Butler Library, 535 West 114th Street, New York, NY 10027
tel.: 212 851 2449 fax: 212 854 5167
C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University Libraries
307 Kent Hall, 1140 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027
tel.: 212 854 2579 fax: 212 662 6286
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
On Fri, Oct 29, 2021 at 3:17 PM Hostage, John <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Is it possible that someone could misinterpret RDA such that they would change a properly established name in the nominative case to one in a version of the genitive case, based on what was found on the source, as was done in 2019, when Internationales Eriugena-Colloquium was changed to Internationalen Eriugena-Colloquium (they left off the genitive “s” at the end)?
I don’t think our rules have ever specified that names are established in the nominative case, probably because it’s such a bedrock principle that it didn’t need to be said. There are a few other headings in the NAF that are not in the nominative, but this is the first time I’ve seen one changed away from the nominative.
------------------------------------------
John Hostage
Senior Continuing Resources Cataloger
Harvard Library--Information and Technical Services
Langdell Hall 194
Harvard Law School Library
Cambridge, MA 02138
+(1)(617) 495-3974 (voice)
+(1)(617) 496-4409 (fax)
ISNI 0000 0000 4028 0917