[DCRM-L] item-specific notes: RDA 2.21 and 3.22

[Allison Jai O'Dell]

I agree with Kate.  And I will add that what's important is not the content
of the note, but the context of / impetus for the note.

Example -- a note describes a bookplate:
Is this note being used to tell the story of custodial history? = Chapter 2

Is this note being used to describe the physical condition of the item? =
Chapter 3


Allison



On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 11:54 AM, James, Kate <kjam at loc.gov> wrote:

> Francis,
>
>
>
> My problem with this proposal is that these notes do not necessarily fit
> in the scope of note on item as defined at 2.21.1.1: “A note on item is a
> note providing information on attributes of the item.”  There are three
> attributes of item defined in chapter 2: custodial history of item;
> immediate source of acquisition of item; and identifier for the item.  2.21
> Note on Item is the item-note equivalent of 2.17 Note on Manifestation.  If
> you look at the sub-instructions in 2.17, you see how they map to
> attributes of the manifestation like statement of responsibility and
> publication statement.  The notes in your email are not necessarily
> indicative of attributes of the item according to 2.18-2.20 so how can you
> make a notes on them at 2.21?
>
>
>
> Some of them, like “Stamp: Château de La Roche Guyon, Bibliothèque” and
>  “Signed: Alex. Pope” might be part of the custodial history of the item,
> but you really can’t say without more information.  Since the stamp and
> signature would have to be done with an applied material like ink, I can
> see how that would be an item-specific carrier characteristic because the
> ink is an applied material unique to those items. So if you really wanted
> to parse it finely, in the case where a book has a stamp indicating its
> previous owner, the information contained in the stamp is part of chapter
> 2, and the fact that the stamp appears on this copy of the book only is
> part of chapter 3.  Splitting things this finely can result in notes that
> are less friendly to human users.  Take the example “Spine title: Rocque's
> map of Shropshire” in 2.17.2.3.  Technically, only the source of the spine
> title, which is the spine, belongs as a note in 2.17.2.3.  The title itself
> is a variant title, which can be recorded as an attribute according to
> 2.3.6.  However, the pure approach results in this misleading information:
>
>
>
> Variant title: Rocque's map of Shropshire
>
> Note on title:  Title from spine
>
>
>
> If we have the ability to constrain the “note on title” to the variant
> title rather than any other kind of title, e.g., the title proper, this
> approach works.  And many of us do actually have that ability by using a
> MARC 246 18, in which the note is generated by the indicator and the
> variant title is recorded in the 246 $a.  However, not everyone is
> implementing RDA with an “encoding standard” that can do this, and the JSC
> wanted variety shown in the examples.  If there is only one variant title,
> you can do this particular example on a 3x5 card, but once you have
> multiple variant titles from multiple sources (e.g., spine, added title
> page, cover), you either confuse your users or you mix your attributes.
>
>
>
> That was a bit of a digression so circling back to 2.21 vs. 3.22…
>
>
>
> In contrast to 2.21’s “Note on Item”, 3.22, Note on Item-Specific Carrier
> Characteristics, has a much broader scope: “A note on item-specific carrier
> characteristic is a note providing additional information about carrier
> characteristics that are specific to the item being described and are
> assumed not to apply to other items exemplifying the same manifestation.”
> Because “carrier characteristics” is not defined in RDA, you have more
> wiggle-room about what can be considered a carrier characteristic.  I
> agree, some of these examples don’t neatly fit into chapter 3, but they
> don’t fit into chapter 2 as currently written either.
>
>
>
> Kate James
>
> Policy and Standards Division
>
> Library of congress
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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