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

Fri Jul 18 10:59:47 MDT 2014

Will is right. I am aghast that I forgot about designators in authority records. You could well include the authorized access point for the curator in a 500 field in the record for a library or a collection within a library, and in that case the designator “curator” would make a lot of sense. And so I retract what I said yesterday about not needing to distinguish between the two kinds of curator. I’m still not totally sure it would be necessary but I can now see an argument for two different designators, one for the type of curator that curates a collection, and one for the type of curator that organizes an exhibit.

Bob

Robert L. Maxwell
Ancient Languages and Special Collections Cataloger
6728 Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801)422-5568

"We should set an example for all the world, rather than confine ourselves to the course which has been heretofore pursued"--Eliza R. Snow, 1842.

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Will Evans
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2014 6:55 AM
To: DCRM Users' Group
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] invitation to comment: Curator rel. designator

I could be completely wrong (again), but I think these designators would be far more helpful in authority records rather bibliographic records.

In Ms. Schneider’s example, why would one emphasis your role as curator over that of author or creator of what is presumably a text? Would an end user understand the context here? If I write a catalog for an exhibition I curated and my role as curator of the exhibition, as opposed to that of author of the catalog, is stated on the title-page, am I curating the exhibition catalog, which is the work we are describing?

And when would we ever have occasion to include collection registrar in a bibliographic record?!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will Evans
Chief Rare Materials Catalog Librarian
Library of the Boston Athenaeum
10 1/2 Beacon Street
Boston, MA   02108

Tel:  617-227-0270 ext. 224
Fax: 617-227-5266
www.bostonathenaeum.org<http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/>

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu>] On Behalf Of Dooley,Jackie
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 7:48 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] invitation to comment: Curator rel. designator

Is this common practice?

--Jackie

Sent via iMobile

On Jul 17, 2014, at 4:43 PM, "Schneider, Nina" <nschneider at humnet.ucla.edu<mailto:nschneider at humnet.ucla.edu>> wrote:
It’s possible that a curator of an exhibition be named in an exhibition catalog and someone/something else be considered the main entry. If it’s an exhibition catalog put out by a library, you’d also want to include the name of the person that curated the exhibition. Here’s an example (for the day we actually manifest this thing):

110 2_ William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.
245 10 : Bibliology and Bibliography from the Viewpoint of the Pig or, How to Describe a Squealer / $cBibliology curated by Nina Schneider; bibliography curated by Rebecca Fenning Marschall.
260 __ Los Angeles: $b [TBD], $c 2015.
....
700 1_ Schneider, Nina, $e curator.
700 1_ Marschall, Rebecca Fenning, $e curator.

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Dooley,Jackie
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 4:14 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] invitation to comment: Curator rel. designator

I've never seen a case of any type of staff who work on archival materials being named in access points.

--Jackie

Sent via iMobile

On Jul 17, 2014, at 3:18 PM, "Robert Maxwell" <robert_maxwell at byu.edu<mailto:robert_maxwell at byu.edu>> wrote:
When I wrote this I meant to say I this is the only context I can think of where the designator would be appropriate in a record—I can’t imagine when the curator of a collection would wind up on a record for a resource (that would be a bit like me putting myself on the record because I’m the cataloger …), so in my opinion it might not be necessary to distinguish between the two kinds of curators. Or do curators of collections typically get named on archival records for the collections?

Bob

Robert L. Maxwell
Ancient Languages and Special Collections Cataloger
6728 Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801)422-5568

"We should set an example for all the world, rather than confine ourselves to the course which has been heretofore pursued"--Eliza R. Snow, 1842.

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Maxwell
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 4:02 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] invitation to comment: Curator rel. designator

I would think might be intended as a designator for the curator of an exhibition, who may well appear in a 700 field on a record for a catalog. Yes, this person isn’t the “curator” of the catalog, but, assuming he/she didn’t write the catalog, I don’t see another way to describe the person’s relationship to the resource. People are commonly called curators of exhibitions without formally being the curator of a collection (or any other kind of curator).

Bob

Robert L. Maxwell
Ancient Languages and Special Collections Cataloger
6728 Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801)422-5568

"We should set an example for all the world, rather than confine ourselves to the course which has been heretofore pursued"--Eliza R. Snow, 1842.

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Dooley,Jackie
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 3:11 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] invitation to comment: Curator rel. designator

Setting aside the definitional details, I'm having a hard time coming up with use cases for including such terms in catalog records, other than the pre-existing "collector," which I've mostly seem applied to records for collections of manuscripts or photographs or whatever that were amassed by an individual person.

Can someone please enlighten me about the nature of bibliographic items being cataloged in which one might trace some flavor of "curator"? I'm no doubt simply out to lunch on this.

Thanks— Jackie

--
Jackie Dooley
Program Officer, OCLC Research
Past President (2012-2013)
Society of American Archivists

From: Elizabeth O'Keefe <eokeefe at themorgan.org<mailto:eokeefe at themorgan.org>>
Reply-To: DCRM-L <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>>
Date: Thursday, 17July, 2014 12:50 PM
To: DCRM-L <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>>
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] invitation to comment: Curator rel. designator

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<mailto: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<http://www.hrc.utexas.edu>

-----Original Message-----
From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> [mailto: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<mailto:eblake at folger.edu>  |  office tel. +1 202-675-0323  |  fax +1 202-675-0328  |  www.folger.edu<http://www.folger.edu>

________________________________
From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> [dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu>] on behalf of Matthew C. Haugen [matthew.haugen at columbia.edu<mailto: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><mailto: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<mailto:eokeefe at themorgan.org>

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