[DCRM-L] FW: OCLC matching/merging question for BIBCO: place of publication

[Noble, Richard]

Re Erin's post below and OCLC's remark: "
In the past, when the same content was published in two countries (UK
publication and US publication for example), it often came out at different
times and may have had bibliographic significance.  We are not so certain
that is the case today."

Though the dcrm... codes may mean what they mean, might it not be possible,
given the close correspondence of full rda and DCRM treatment, to invoke
the code as protection from unwarranted conflation--as if what it actually
signifies is "We mean *this* manifestation, not *that* one, darn it!"

It can be significant even with popular titles. Think of the silent editing
that sometimes goes on between UK and US editions--e.g. most famously, in
recent times, editions of the Harry Potter books. OCLC love lowering their
expectations of users, as an opportunity to coarsen the database that *
claims* to be a "World"Cat. If you think you know what they want, why
should they know otherwise?

RICHARD NOBLE :: RARE MATERIALS CATALOGUER :: JOHN HAY LIBRARY
BROWN UNIVERSITY  ::  PROVIDENCE, R.I. 02912  ::  401-863-1187
<Richard_Noble at Br <RICHARD_NOBLE at BROWN.EDU>own.edu>


On Fri, Nov 1, 2013 at 4:01 PM, Erin Blake <EBlake at folger.edu> wrote:

> Same here (though I'm at home with a cold, so this is only my opinion:
> haven't canvassed the rest of the Folger). It's not the "rare" that makes
> precision important for our post-1830 material, it's the "special" -- for
> example, we have Shakespeare's dog : a novel / by Leon Rooke in the vault
> even though it's a popular novel first published in 1983. It's the Folger's
> mission to preserve and provide scholarly access to material from
> Shakespeare's era and Shakespeare-related material to the present day.
>
> Because RDA does away with AACR2's mandatory abbreviations and silent
> omissions, we're comfortable using it instead of dcrmb for mass-produced
> books, but it does mean that we'll be using a code that would not signal
> "rare" to OCLC.
>
> Erin.
>
> ----------------
> Erin C. Blake, Ph.D.  |  Interim Head of Collection Information Services
> and Cataloging  |  Folger Shakespeare Library  |  201 E. Capitol St. SE,
> Washington, DC, 20009  |  eblake at folger.edu  |  office tel. +1
> 202-675-0323  |  fax +1 202-675-0328  |  www.folger.edu
>
>
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