[DCRM-L] BSR/Rare Books

[Deborah J. Leslie]

Carolyn and colleagues,

 

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the BSR drafts. I've read over the BSR for Rare Books and think it is a fine document, with only a couple of places that still need refinement. (With contrite apologies to my RBMS colleagues for not catching these while the BSR draft was still in the drafting stage.) 

 

Field 260 ‡e‡f‡g, reads: 

 

Lacking substantive information for ‡a and/or ‡b, supply useful information in manufacturer subfields.

 

This instruction to supply helpful information in subfields ‡e‡f‡g violates the rules for area 4. See especially 4A6, which elaborates (in great detail!) the relationships between publication/distribution and manufacture in the hand-press era and how to treat them. The only time 260 ‡e‡f‡g may be used is when an item 1) bears both a publisher, distributor, etc., statement and a manufacturer statement, 2) the publisher is emphasized over the manufacturer, and 3) the two statements are grammatically separable.  (4A6.3.2.2) If an item does not bear substantive information, the cataloger uses subfields ‡a‡b‡c to supply whatever information can be had. I recommend dropping these three subfields entirely from the BSR for Rare Books.   

 

505 Formatted contents note. DCRM(B) 1D2.3 makes it clear that transcribing formal contents is optional. Is it appropriate for an optional note in the rules be elevated to a Mandatory if Applicable note in the BSR?

 

5xx The text in the MAP makes it apparent that all notes required in DCRM(B) are also Mandatory if Applicable to the BSR. One 500 note, on the source of the title proper, is given in the list. There is another type of required note that I believe to be as important as the source of the title proper and a lot more common: any transposition of transcribed text is to be noted. (1B1.2 etc.) I recommend adding this note to the MAP.

__________________________ 
Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. 
RBMS Chair 2009-2010 | 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/>  

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/attachments/20100422/9868f649/attachment.htm