[DCRM-L] invitation to comment: Curator rel. designator

Thu Jul 17 12:36:36 MDT 2014

Some of my comments will go beyond the scope of the invitation to comment, but I think the curator hierarchy could use some attention. 

I have many of the same concerns as Erin. Regarding "preparation," at my institution we have exhibits prep staff, most of whom are not curators. They are chiefly concerned with preparing objects and gallery space for an exhibition, but not selecting, describing, or contextualizing. 

One solution--and I don't know if it is the best--would be to establish relationship designators for specific curatorial roles, e.g., "curator of exhibition" and "curator of collection." However, the latter would overlap significantly with "collector" (scope note: A curator who brings together items from various sources that are then arranged, described, and cataloged as a collection).

Are the additional curatorial roles (or at least some of them) mentioned by Erin appropriately indicated by "collector"? While the scope note might justify use of the term, it is strange within the context of our work to think of extra-institutional collectors as curators, and stranger still to think of curators of collections as "collectors." (Generally, I still assume "curator" to imply institutional affiliation, either as an employer to the curatorial entity or as a facilitator of his/her/its work.)

See also AAT on all of this: 

Curators: Persons who superintend or manage the collections, exhibitions, research activities, and personnel of a museum, art gallery, zoo, or other place of exhibit; also, the superintends or managers of a single collection or subject of study in such an institution.

Collectors: Generally, a person who collects specimens, works of art, curiosities.

Sincerely,
Ryan

--
Ryan Hildebrand
Book Cataloging Department Head
Harry Ransom Center
University of Texas at Austin
P.O. Box 7219
Austin, TX 78713-7219
512-232-1681
www.hrc.utexas.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Erin Blake
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 11:31 AM
To: DCRM Users' Group
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] invitation to comment: Curator rel. designator

Separating "curator" for use at a higher level than "item" makes sense, but I'm concerned that only the "exhbition" part of the definition has been brought up.

The proposed definition of "curator (work)" is a the definition of an exhibition curator. In a world where anything can be an entity, that's too limiting. For instance, a "curator" is also the term for the person who conceives, develops, and cares for a collection in the abstract. Even if that collection doesn't physically exist yet (e.g., a curator who is hired to come up with a collection development policy for a new collecting field) that person's relationship to that entity (the new collecting field) is "curator".

Similarly, "preparing" doesn't seem quite right for the relationship of a curator to an item. "Preparing an exhibit, collection, or other item" for what?

More generally, it seems a curator is the person, family, or corporate body caring for (shepherding, developing, nurturing, looking after...) an exhibit, collection, or other item. For example, if we wanted to assocate a curator with these 16th-century letters<http://shakespeare.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=265568> in our collection, the access point would be "Wolfe, Heather 1971-, curator" because she's the person responsible for making the case to purchase the letters so they'd be available to researchers, the person responsible for ensuring that they're properly housed, the person responsible for evaluating recommendations from conservators on what treatment, if any, they will get, etc. She has never included them in an exhibition, and has no immediate plans to.

Hope this makes sense. It's hard to be sure with email, where you can't point, and use tone-of-voice!

Thanks,

Erin.

----------------
Erin C. Blake, Ph.D.  |  Head of Collection Information Services  |  Folger Shakespeare Library  |  201 E. Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC, 20003  |  eblake at folger.edu  |  office tel. +1 202-675-0323  |  fax +1 202-675-0328  |  www.folger.edu

________________________________
From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] on behalf of Matthew C. Haugen [matthew.haugen at columbia.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 2:08 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group
Subject: [DCRM-L] invitation to comment: Curator rel. designator

Hello all,

While work progresses on the revision of DCRM in alignment with RDA, there are also several opportunities for the DCRM community to influence the development of RDA.

To that end, as the incoming RBMS/BSC liaison to CC:DA, I will periodically share and invite your feedback on RDA revision proposals that are potentially relevant to the DCRM community.

To begin with, a fast track proposal has been made to revise the relationship designator for Curator. The text of the proposal is included below. The deadline for comment is July 30.

I will collect any feedback on this and other proposals and incorporate it into our responses to the CC:DA or JSC as appropriate. Thank you in advance for your participation!

Matthew Haugen
RBMS/BSC Liaison to CC:DA

Fast Track

ARLIS (UK) has queried the definition of the relationship designator curator in RDA Appendix I.5.2

Current Definition

curator A person, family, or corporate body conceiving, aggregating, and/or organizing an exhibition, collection, or other item.

collection registrar A curator who lists or inventories the items in an aggregate work such as a collection of items or works.

collector A curator who brings together items from various sources that are then arranged, described, and cataloged as a collection.

Conceiving and organizing an exhibition appear to be more appropriate relationships with a work than an item.  The following changes are proposed:

I.2.1 Relationship Designators for Creators

curator (work) A person, family, or corporate body conceiving, and/or organizing an exhibition

I.5.2 Relationships Designators for Other Persons, Families Corporate Bodies Associated with an Item

MARKED UP COPY

curator (item) A person, family, or corporate body conceiving, aggregating, and/or organizing  preparing an exhibition, collection, or other item.

collection registrar A curator who lists or inventories the items in an aggregate work such as a collection of items or works.

collector A curator who brings together items from various sources that are then arranged, described, and cataloged as a collection.

CLEAN COPY

curator (item) A person, family, or corporate body preparing an exhibit, collection, or other item.

collection registrar A curator who lists or inventories the items in an aggregate work such as a collection of items or works.

collector A curator who brings together items from various sources that are then arranged, described, and cataloged as a collection.

Alan Danskin

15/7/2014

--

--
Matthew C. Haugen
Rare Book Cataloger
102 Butler Library
Columbia University Libraries
E-mail: matthew.haugen at columbia.edu<mailto:matthew.haugen at columbia.edu>

Phone: 212-851-2451