[DCRM-L] Naming convention for statements of extent

[Deborah J. Leslie]

Interesting ideas, Jain. There may be something to calling them primary
and secondary constituents. 

-----Original Message-----
From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On
Behalf Of Fletcher, Jain
Sent: Thursday, 19 March, 2009 13:25
To: DCRM Revision Group List
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Naming convention for statements of extent

Hi, everyone,
   It sure does seems as if DCRM is ahead of the curve on this, as
spurred on by DJL (which I say because I had never heard this concept
[the binary breakdown of the extent element] put forward until DJL
explained her thinking at BSC in 1/09 and in subsequent e-mails; now it
seems to me that this concept should have been in existence all along!).
Anyway, I agree that the OCLC examples cloud the issue.  
   Beyond that, however, I still would like to see if it is possible to
come up with a good, concise description of each part (or "half") of the
extent element (because it has come up for us in DCRM(M), as you'll
recall, with the "describe folded ..." etc. issue).  And in reviewing
Nina's offerings, I am "glomming on" to the word "constituent", as found
in the ISBD definition.
   Here's my thinking. First of all, the 2nd half is really not about
"illustrative matter", but about inserted material beyond (or, outside
of [or, auxiliary to]) the "text block" (which is the 1st half).
Unfortunately, the term "text block" is book- or text-oriented, so it
would be nice to capture that concept without using such terminology.
(Remember that for music materials [just as an example], the main
content of the first half of this element is probably most often
"graphic" (meaning, notation), while the inserted material might itself
more often include textual matter (e.g., contents, title lists, music
instructions, and the like) along with ills. or more notation.
   So, in consulting my nearest dictionary (the RH _Amer Coll Dict_
[1959]), I find that "constituent" has two relevant descriptions: 1.
"serving to make up a thing; component ..." ; 3. "a constituent element,
material, etc., ; a component". So, it would seem as if either
"constituent" or "component" could be used towards defining these
halves. My thinking is that the concept of "text block" could considered
the "primary constituent (or component)" and any inserted material could
be the "secondary constituent (or component)". If these terms were used,
they would, of course, need to be carefully explained. (In this
scenario, I would think that "accompanying material" would be a
"tertiary constituent [or component]", but that could start getting
confusing in cases where there's no intervening "secondary".)  Anyway,
I'm not trying to suggest that this is an "elegant" solution, but am
offering it as another way of looking at things, towards DJL's request
to come up with formal language for these halves.


__________________________ 
Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. 
Head of Cataloging 
Folger Shakespeare Library 
201 East Capitol St., S.E. 
Washington, D.C. 20003 
202.675-0369 
djleslie at folger.edu | http://www.folger.edu <http://www.folger.edu>