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<DIV><SPAN class=742111716-31012005><FONT color=#000080>Thanks, Joe, this is
good to have on record. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=742111716-31012005><FONT
color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=742111716-31012005><FONT color=#000080>I would like to dispute
slightly, however, the assertion that the chief title is essentially the
title proper minus the alternative title. In fact, instead of deriving the
definition of chief title from title proper (regardless of its history; I'm
speaking now of how best to understand and apply these concepts), it works
better to derive the definition of title proper from chief title. Viz., title
proper is the chief title plus any title information or anything grammatically
inseparable that precedes it, plus alternative titles. I think the example
I gave on this list several weeks ago illustrates this
perfectly:</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=742111716-31012005><FONT
color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=742111716-31012005><FONT color=#000080><FONT face=Verdana>Here
foloweth a notable treatyse and full necessary to an crysten men for to nowe and
it is named the Ordynarye of crystyanyte or of crysten
men</FONT></DIV></FONT></SPAN>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=742111716-31012005><FONT color=#000080>This whole phrase is the
title proper, but only <FONT face=Verdana>Ordynarye of crysyanyte or of crysten
men</FONT> is the chief title. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoAutoSig align=left><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype'">________________________<?xml:namespace
prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoAutoSig><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype'">Deborah J.
Leslie<BR></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype'">Folger
Library<BR></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype'"><A
href="mailto:djleslie@folger.edu">djleslie@folger.edu</A><BR></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
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<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT
face=Tahoma>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
dcrm-l-admin@lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-admin@lib.byu.edu] <B>On Behalf Of
</B>Joe Springer<BR><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, 27 January, 2005
14:37<BR><B>To:</B> dcrm-l@lib.byu.edu<BR><B>Subject:</B> [DCRM-L] RE: concept
of chief title<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>At Boston's meeting of the Bibliographic
Standards Committee, I offered to look into and report on the history of the
term "chief title". Those uninterested in such an arcane topic may
delete this message!<BR><BR><B>"Chief title.</B> The distinguishing word or
sequence of words that names a publication, as given on the title page (or
substitute). This definition excludes alternative titles, parallel titles,
other title information, and subsidiary title information preceding the chief
title on the title page, such exclusion resulting usually in a short title.
<I>See also</I> <B>Title proper."<BR><BR></B>The above definition of "chief
title" found in the DCRM(B) delta draft is one that follows verbatim the
definition given in the glossary of LC's 1981 <I>Bibliographic Description of
Rare Books. </I>The cross reference "See also Title proper." was the
only addition made in the BDRB revision process that led to <I>Descriptive
Cataloging of Rare Books </I>(1991).<BR><BR>BDRB is the first place I have
located that makes this distinction between "Title proper" and "Chief title"
(essentially being the title proper minus alternative title). LC's Ben
Tucker and his staff developed BDRB "in-house" and Tucker did tend to be
concerned about lengthy title transcriptions. Lest we forget (or never
knew) it was the 1978 appearance of AACR2 that first brought the ISBD term
"title proper" to the desktops of North American catalogers. Not long
before BDRB, catalogers would have routinely worked with a concept not unlike
our "Chief title." The 1967 <I>Anglo-American Cataloging Rules
</I>("blue book" or AACR1) offered a secondary definition of title ("in the
narrow sense"): "the name of a work, exclusive of any alternative title,
subtitle, or other associated descriptive matter on the title
page."<BR><BR>ISBD(A) texts since at least 1978 (pre-BDRB) follow other ISBDs
in using the <I>wording</I> "chief title" in their definition of "Title
proper" ("Title proper: The chief title of a publication, i.e. the title
of a publication in the form in which it appears on the title-page of the
title-page substitute. The title proper includes any alternative title
but excludes parallel titles and other title information. &.")
I find the decision by Tucker and his staff to crib that wording and turn it
into a distinct concept really rather clever. It avoided the necessity
of inventing yet another adjective to qualify "title." Especially back when
the memory of AACR1 was still strong, one could even <I>almost </I>think that
all along ISBDs had envisioned title proper to be chief title + alternative
title! <BR><X-SIGSEP>
<P></X-SIGSEP>Joe A. Springer, Curator<BR>Mennonite Historical
Library<BR>Goshen College 1700 S. Main St.<BR>Goshen, IN 46526
(joeas@goshen.edu)<BR>574-535-7421 FAX
574-535-7438<BR></P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>