[DCRM-L] RE: concept of chief title

[Laurence Creider]

Joe,
    Thank you very much for a lucid and historical explanation.  This
helps me make a good deal more sense out of a concept that has bothered me
since I was working on AMREMM.
      Larry

Laurence S. Creider
Head, General Cataloging Unit
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM  88003
Work: 505-646-4707
Fax: 505-646-7477
lcreider at lib.nmsu.edu

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005, Joe Springer wrote:

> 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!
> 
> "Chief title. 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. See also Title proper."
> 
> 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 Bibliographic Description of Rare Books.  The cross
> reference "See also Title proper." was the only addition made in the BDRB revision process that led to
> Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books (1991).
> 
> 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 Anglo-American Cataloging Rules
> ("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."
> 
> ISBD(A) texts since at least 1978 (pre-BDRB) follow other ISBDs in using the wording "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 almost think that all along
> ISBDs had envisioned title proper to be chief title + alternative title!
> 
> Joe A. Springer, Curator
> Mennonite Historical Library
> Goshen College 1700 S. Main St.
> Goshen, IN 46526  (joeas at goshen.edu)
> 574-535-7421     FAX 574-535-7438
> 
>