At the Bibliographic Standards Committee meeting in San Antonio, I tried to
summarize what is going on with the rules for chief source of information
in AACR2. Here is a more definitive version, with lots of quoted
material. Remember that much of this is in draft and has not yet been
accepted by JSC.
The report "Revising AACR2 to Accommodate Seriality" recommended that the
rules for sources of information in the various chapters be used to
determine the prescribed source for the title and statement of
responsibility and edition areas for continuing resources.
The Joint Steering Committee rejected this approach because "it makes the
rules too complex. In addition, it is concerned that it perpetuates the
class of materials concept which Tom Delsey's work has shown to be
flawed. JSC believes that the chief source of information for all
bibliographic resources should be the whole resource, using the source that
provides the most complete information for the area being described."
The following is a draft of the revision of rule 12.0B prepared by Jean Hirons:
12.0B. Sources of Information
12.0B1. Basis of the description [NEW]
Serials. Base the description of a serial on the first issue or, failing
this, on the earliest available issue. Because remote access serials may
not be organized in issues and the issues, when present, may or may not
contain the relevant bibliographic information, base the description of a
remote access serial on the entire site at a particular point in time.
Integrating resources. Base the description of an integrating resource on
the latest iteration of that resource, with the exception of the date of
publication.
12.0B2. Chief source of information [significantly revised]
The chief source of information for printed serials and loose-leafs is the
title page[1] or the title page substitute. The title page substitute for
an item lacking a title page is (in this order of preference) the
analytical title page, cover, caption, masthead, editorial pages, colophon,
other pages. Specify the source used as the title page substitute in a
note (see 12.7B3). If information traditionally given on the title page is
given on facing pages, with or without repetition, treat the two pages as
the title page.
Use the colophon as the chief source of information for an oriental
nonroman script printed serial if the colophon contains full bibliographic
information and the following conditions apply:
a) the page standing in the position of a title page bears only the
title proper
or b) the title page bears only a calligraphic version of the
title proper
or c) the title page bears only a western-language version of the
title and other bibliographic information
For loose-leaf services, when there is more than one title page, choose one
as the chief source according to the following guidelines:
a) If the title pages present the loose-leaf in different aspects (e.g.,
as an individualitem and as part of a multipart item), prefer the one that
corresponds to the aspect in which the resource is to be treated.
b) If the loose-leaf has title pages in more than one language or script,
choose the title page that is in the language of the main part of the
loose-leaf.
For the chief source of information for direct access electronic continuing
resources, see rule 9.0B1.
The chief source of information for remote access electronic continuing
resources is the source that contains the most formal presentation of the
title. This may be the resource's home page, pages associated with the
first issue, or other pages in the resource.
12.0B3. Prescribed sources of information [minor revisions only; not
quoted here]
==== end of quoted material ====
NOTES:
1. This draft introduces a distinction between "Basis of the description"
(first vs. latest issue) and "Chief source of information" (title page vs
???). This makes it clearer than the present rule that these are separate
decisions that the cataloger needs to make.
2. Since continuing resources can be in any physical format, the basic
rule for chief source is to consult rule X.0B in the relevant chapter.
3. Treating the entire resource as the chief source isn't always
sufficiently informative, so the rule still talks mostly about specific
sources.
4. A new rule for chief source of information has also been approved by
JSC for Chapter 9. This rule reads:
9.0B1. Chief source of information. The chief source of information for
electronic resources is the resource itself.
Within the resource itself, take the information from formally presented
internal evidence (e.g., title screen(s), main menus, program statements,
initial display(s) of information, home page(s), the header(s) to the
file(s) including "Subject:" lines, encoded metadata (e.g., TEI (Text
Encoding Initiative) headers, HTML/XML meta tags, etc.) and other
identifying information internal to the file(s)). When the information in
these sources varies in degree of fullness, prefer the source that provides
the most complete information.
If the electronic resource is unreadable without additional processing
(e.g., compressed file, printer-formatted file), take the information from
the resource after the resource and its file(s) have been processed for use.
If the information required is not available or is insufficient, take it
from the following sources (in this order of preference):
the physical carrier or its labels (for direct access resources)
printed or online documentation or other accompanying material (e.g.,
publisher's letter, "about" file, publisher's Web page about an electronic
resource) (for direct or remote access resources)
information printed on a container issued by the publisher, distributor,
etc. (for direct access resources)
[rest 9.0B1 as written]
==== end of quoted material ====
Please let me know if you have any questions; I'll answer as best I can.
John
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