[DCRB-L] Names of publishers

[John Attig]

I have a question that has come up about the rules for rare books at the 
end of Chapter 2 of AACR2.

In the 2002 revision of AACR2, rule 1.4D4 -- which authorized abbreviation 
of the name of a publisher, etc. -- was deleted.

It has been brought to my attention that several of the examples in AACR 
rules 2.16D and E use what might be abbreviations for people's names:

London : R. Barker

London : Printed for the author and sold by J. Roberts

Birmingham : Printed by John Baskerville for R. and J. Dodsley ...

London : Printed for the author and sold by J. Parsons [etc.]

In some cases, I'm reasonably certain that the abbreviation is transcribed 
accurately from the title page.  However, I'm not sure that this is always 
the case, or whether 2.16D and E are showing conventional cataloger 
practice to abbreviate forenames.

First question, do any of these examples in AACR2 need to be revised in the 
light of the deletion of 1.4D4?  Is it sufficient to agree that the 
forename initials have been transcribed?  Or should there be more examples 
with full forenames to make it more clear that full transcription is required?

Second -- since this is the DCRB revision list -- are the DCRM rules (all 
formats, I suppose) consistent with the basic AACR rules on transcribing 
publisher information?; are the DCRM rules clear on what can be omitted or 
abbreviated and whether/how such omissions or abbreviations should 
indicated in the description?

	John Attig