[DCRM-L] Publishers Personal Name/Corporate Body

[JOHN LANCASTER]

This is a perennial and frustrating issue - think Quaritch and Kraus, for instance.  I'll be glad to learn what you conclude, and if there's any resolution to be had.

John


On 2016 May 23, at 11:11, Noble, Richard <richard_noble at brown.edu> wrote:

> In my new (and thankfully temporary) role as NACO Coordinator, I'm confronted with a cataloger's new record for "George Virtue (Firm)". Virtue was a publisher, for whom there is a personal heading that has served for use in records for his publications:
> 
> MARC	nr 91022431
> MARC	MWA eng rda MWA DLC
> NAME AUTHR	Virtue, George, 1793?-1868
> NAME S FRM	Virtue, G. (George), 1793?-1868
> NOTE	Fletcher, A. Scripture natural history, 1838: t.p. (George Virtue; London publisher)
> NOTE	Concise DNB (Virtue, George, 1793?-1868; published books with fine copper and steel engravings)
> 
> Relatively late in his career Virtue did use a corporate imprint "Virtue & Co." or "George Virtue & Co.", for which one might wish to establish a corporate heading. But in view of the fact that we usually treat printers and publishers who use a personal name as persons rather than corporate bodies, is the following record at all useful or, as I think it may be, actually counter-productive, since it proposes an alternate corporate AAP for an established and much used personal name:
> 
> 1102 George Virtue (Firm)
> 370  ǂe London (England) ǂ2 naf
> 372  Publishers and publishing ǂ2 lcsh
> 4102 George Virtue and Co.
> 4102 George Virtue and Company
> 4102 George Virtue & Co.
> 4102 George Virtue & Company
> 4102 G. Virtue (Firm)
> 4102 Virtue (Firm)
> 670  Walks about the city and environs of Jerusalem, 1844: ǂb title page (London, George Virtue)
> 670  Coyne, J. Stirling. The scenery and antiquities of Ireland, 1843?: ǂb engravings throughout text (London, Geo. Virtue, 26 Ivy Lane)
> 670  OCLC, May 20, 2016 ǂb (access point: George Virtue (Firm) ; usage: George Virtue, George Virtue and Co., George Virtue & Co., Geo. Virtue, G. Virtue)
> 
> Obviously the treatment of the personal name as preferred name even for publications with a corporate-style imprint won't wash; nor the inclusion of "Virtue (Firm)" as a reference, since that involves us with the successor firm operated by James Sprent Virtue. And in any case the Virtue father and son were probably whimsical in the forms of their imprints.
> 
> Note that there are also AAPs for J.S. Virtue and Co., James S. Virtue (Firm), Virtue and Company [which is James S. Virtue]--three authority records that don't "talk" to each other, and Virtue & Company, Ltd. (an unrelated[?] c20 firm). I'd rather we didn't contribute further to this proliferation of AAPs, and I'm certainly disinclined to try rationalizing the rather messy situation that already exists, having many other things to do. 
> 
> Of course, another question is: does one want treat a person as a corporate body solely because the relationship with the resource is one that a corporate body might have?
> 
> 
> 
> RICHARD NOBLE :: RARE MATERIALS CATALOGUER :: JOHN HAY LIBRARY
> BROWN UNIVERSITY  ::  PROVIDENCE, R.I. 02912  ::  401-863-1187
> <Richard_Noble at Brown.edu>

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