DCRM(S) pt. 3

[Robert L. Maxwell]

http://www.library.yale.edu/conser/documents/dcrs.html

3A1 3rd sentence. What if there is only one issue? For instance, suppose a 
serial began, clearly expecting to be a serial, but never published 
anything beyond the first issue. Would it make sense to add to the sentence 
beginning "Follow a numeric ..." the phrase "unless there is only one issue"?

General note on the hyphen following the date of first issue. There are 
numerous examples throughout this section that do not have the hyphen. 
These need to be corrected.

3A2. Why is the word "identify" in quotes? They seem to be gratuitous.

3A3. I gather the words "in the form in which they appear" includes the 
concept "do not abbreviate", but in my opinion you should be explicit about 
this because it differs from AACR2. I suggest you simply add the sentence 
"Do not abbreviate." after the general sentence.

Second paragraph of 3A3, second half of the first sentence ("but the exact 
transcription ...") should be restated in the imperative, as is the style 
of the rest of the rules: "Optionally, transcribe the designation exactly." 
Do you want to require a note if the information is transposed? In the 
examples below this paragraph, I suggest you use the same serial so that 
the cataloger can better compare what it would look like with and without 
conventional punctuation. In fact, it would be useful if all three examples 
in 3A3 were from the same serial, to contrast the different possible 
treatments.

3B1 & 3C1. I note you do explicitly say not to abbreviate here. This might 
better be moved to the preliminary rule (see my comment at 3A3). Should the 
examples have MARC designation (just a reminder--I notice that throughout 
the rules about half have MARC designation, half don't)

3B3. You already gave the bracketing conventions in the preliminary rule, 3A4.

3B4. New description is mentioned both in 1B5 and 0C3. See my comments on 1B5.

3C1. In choosing the chronological designation the cataloger is told to 
"consider" the type of date given, but then is instructed to "choose the 
designation that provides the most complete information." I may be 
misunderstanding, but I don't see how the type of date has anything to do 
with the completeness of the information. Why should the cataloger consider 
the type of date if in the end he/she is going to base the decision on 
completeness of information? In any case this rule is confusing, at least 
to this cataloger ...

3E1. Should there be a space after the equals sign in the example?

3F1. Why is there a period at the end of the second example and not at the 
end of the first?

3G1. Example please!
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Robert L. Maxwell
Special Collections and Ancient Languages Cataloger
6430 Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 378-5568
robert_maxwell at byu.edu
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