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

[Elizabeth O'Keefe]

I, too, am having difficulty with these terms. For one thing, I see them as
occupational titles rather than as roles.  Curators, collection registrars,
and collectors do many different things (and as others have noted, one need
not be a curator to prepare an exhibition, or act as a registrar or a
collector). Shouldn't a relationship indicator between a person, family or
corporate body and a resource specify what the person etc. does with
reference to that resource?

 It would also help to have examples of the entities that these
relationship designators would be appropriate for. As defined, they seem to
apply to events (e.g. an exhibition) or to corporate bodies (some
collections are corporate bodies), rather than to WEMI entities.  An
example of a WEMI entity would be something like a published or unpublished
inventory of a collection, where you want to create an access point for the
person who created the inventory. But I would use "author" or some other
term descriptive of the person's contribution to the resource, rather than
the terms covered in this fast track proposal.

Liz O'Keefe


On Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 2:36 PM, Ryan Hildebrand <
ryan.hildebrand at austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

> 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
>



-- 
Elizabeth O'Keefe
Director of Collection Information Systems
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue
New York, NY  10016-3405

TEL: 212 590-0380
FAX: 2127685680
NET: eokeefe at themorgan.org

Visit CORSAIR, the Library's comprehensive collections catalog:
http://corsair.themorgan.org
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