[DCRM-L] Relator terms

Tue Dec 5 04:20:24 MST 2006

Bob

One of the most common uses of relators in 710 must be for indexing
former ownership by institutions (e.g. monastic, British Museum
duplicates, and so on).  We would have hundreds if not thousands of
these.

Best wishes

Brian

*********************************************

Dr Brian Hillyard

Rare Book Collections Manager

National Library of Scotland

George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EW

E-mail: b.hillyard at nls.uk

Direct dial: +44 (0)131 623 3889

Fax: +44 (0)131 623 3888

________________________________

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On
Behalf Of Robert Maxwell
Sent: 05 December 2006 00:10
To: DCRM Revision Group List
Subject: [DCRM-L] Relator terms

Dear DCRMers,

We seem to be winding down somewhat on the final touches to DCRM, so I
thought I'd introduce another topic entirely :-) Speaking of which, MANY
congratulations and thanks to Manon, Deborah, and all you others who
have contributed so much to this!

As many of you are, we are an RLIN library working on the transition to
OCLC. We've taped our records to OCLC for years but never cataloged in
the system. In order to continue our PCC BIBCO work we recently applied
for and were granted the appropriate cataloging enhance statuses.
However there was a small glitch. OCLC wanted a set of sample records,
and I chose a variety of BYU original records that were already in OCLC
through our tapeloading. This sample included a few of my own cataloging
records. Although we were given the enhance status we needed, a few of
the records were returned to me with "problems" circled in red. And
these "problems" were all on my records and they were all instances
where I had included relator terms with added entries :-( 

The OCLC examiners had two issues: (1) LCRI 21.0D supposedly forbids the
use of relator terms, and (2) AACR2 only allows relators to be used with
personal names, not corporate bodies.

Now the answer to (1) seems fairly straightforward to me--LCRI 21.0D is
explicitly labelled "LC Practice", meaning it need not apply outside LC
(and as a matter of fact I happen to know that the LC Practice label was
added specifically so that BIBCO catalogers could use relator terms). 

The answer to (2) is a little more tricky--frankly I had never dreamed
that we couldn't use "$e printer" or "$e publisher" after a corporate
body (e.g. Arion Press, $e printer or Book Club of California, $e
publisher), but now that it has been pointed out to me 21.0D does in
fact say "In the cases noted below, add [a] ... designation of function
to an added entry for a person". (MARC documentation certainly allows
for use of relators terms in 710 fields.) I was told by someone at LC
that it had been recently proposed to JSC to correct this and add
corporate bodies to the rule but it had been withdrawn pending RDA, but
I don't remember anything about such a proposal.

As the new kid on the block I don't really want to get a reputation for
belligerency (and in fact I really don't WANT to be belligerent!) but I
do want to clarify this and so I intend to bring it up with the person
who examined our records, but after I've consulted you folks. It does
seem to me that relator terms add quite a bit of value to entries,
especially considering FRBR's emphasis on clarifying the relationships
between entities (e.g. between persons or corporate bodies and works,
expressions, manifestations, or items). They are also essential to the
indexing in our catalog. I am talking about relator terms, not codes, by
the way.

I'd be interested in your thoughts, on two fronts: (1) I have been
assuming that most of the rare cataloging community does use relator
terms in their work, but I could be wrong--so I'd be interested in
hearing what your practice is (including do you use them with corporate
bodies, and does your library use them outside special collections
cataloging); and (2) those of you who are experienced OCLC catalogers,
including enhance libraries, do you use them in OCLC master records? I
suppose one could enhance or create the master record and then add
relators to the local record but that does seem a bit a shame to me ...

And of course anything else you have to say about this issue would be of
great interest. And any other tips on becoming a successful OCLC
cataloging entity!

Thanks,

Bob

Robert L. Maxwell
Special Collections and Ancient Languages Catalog Librarian
Genre/Form Authorities Librarian
6728 Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801)422-5568 

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