[DCRM-L] ESTC and the revision of SCF

[Margaret Nichols]

I agree that "ESTC" is fine. If it's like other acronyms, I suspect 
that a lot of scholars know the acronym but don't actually remember 
what it stands for, only that it's useful to them.

Margaret Nichols

At 11:46 AM 9/9/2008, you wrote:
>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.

________________________________

Margaret Nichols
Head, Special Materials Unit
Library Technical Services
110 Olin Library
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY. 14853-5301
mnr1 at cornell.edu  *  Tel. (607) 255-5752 / 255-3530  *  Fax (607) 255-9524