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

[Noble, Richard]

If we decide to include curators of whatever sort in records, assuming that
a cataloger could reasonably conclude that there is interest in
foregrounding the relationship between that person and the resource--a
foregrounding that may be a reflection of the resource itself--then I
suppose it's essentially the "literary warrant" of numerous resources that
underlies the choice of term.

As to faceting the term with "of collection" or "of exhibition", perhaps
that helps to resolve--in this case, anyway--the synonymy of many
occupational titles ($c) and relationship designators ($e), a source of
confusion or apparent nonsense that is an inevitable by-product of the
English language and the public display formats of access points. Likewise
"artist", "photographer", "engraver", "illustrator", and innumerable other
terms.

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, Jul 18, 2014 at 12:59 PM, Robert Maxwell <robert_maxwell at byu.edu>
wrote:

>  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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* 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>
> 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
> <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>
> 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
> <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
> <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>
> *Reply-To: *DCRM-L <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>
> *Date: *Thursday, 17July, 2014 12:50 PM
> *To: *DCRM-L <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> 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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