[DCRM-L] ESTC and the revision of SCF

[Randal Brandt]

As those of you who follow the work of the RBMS Bibliographic Standards 
Committee already know, a revision of _Standard Citation Forms for Rare 
Book Cataloging_ (SCF) is underway (please see the agenda and draft 
minutes from the Bib Standards meeting held in Anaheim in June 2008 for 
more information: 
http://www.rbms.info/committees/bibliographic_standards/conference-docs/index.html)

One of the key principles of the revision is to make citations used in 
bibliographic records (in MARC tag 510) more understandable to 
researchers (and, by extension, other catalogers). In order to do that, 
citations will be based, as much as possible, on the AACR2 entries for 
the works being cited. Current single-name or single-word citations will 
be expanded.

However, at the Anaheim meeting, a lively discussion took place over the 
citation for the ESTC. The room was basically split over what to do 
about it. Many favored leaving it alone; "ESTC" is so widely known that 
the existing citation is sufficient. Others favored following the new, 
AACR2-based principle and expanding the citation to "English short title 
catalogue."

At the meeting, it was decided to take the ESTC debate to this list and 
see what the wider rare materials cataloging community thought about it. 
I'll get the discussion rolling by stating my own opinion.

I am in the camp that believes that "ESTC" is OK as it is. The acronym 
is sufficiently well-known and does not need to be spelled out. 
Researchers and catalogers alike all know what it means. More 
importantly, a title keyword search on "ESTC" in OCLC WorldCat retrieves 
the bibliographic record for the resource.

What do the rest of you think?

Randal Brandt
Chair, ACRL/RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee

-- 
__________________________
Randal Brandt
Principal Cataloger
The Bancroft Library
(510) 643-2275
rbrandt at library.berkeley.edu
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu
"It's hard enough to remember my opinions without 
remembering my reasons for them"--The Streets.