[DCRM-L] Publishers Personal Name/Corporate Body

[Laurence S. Creider]

Richard,
I am not doing any cataloging these days, so take my comments with a
shovel of salt. Your note leads me to ask a few questions.  You say, "in
view of the fact that we usually treat printers and publishers who use a
personal name as persons rather than corporate bodies ...."  I agree, but
is there something in the rules that is clear about this?  Every time we
change cataloging rules, there is provision for previous practice,
everything needs to be re-thought.  This is a problem when book
historians, bibliographers, and rare book dealers do not follow the same
rules catalogers do and certainly not with chronological synchrony.  This
leads to what I call "code interference."

Second, why is there no 500 from the personal name to the corporate body? 
Even if the rules were to forbid, common sense would call for it. 
Otherwise, one ends up with split files.

Third, the three authority records for J.S. Virtue and Co., James S. Virtue
(Firm), and Virtue and Company sound like they should be one record, or at
most two.  Split files with a vengeance.

I wish you luck.

Larry
-- 
Laurence S. Creider
Head, Archives and Special Collections Dept.
University Library
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM  88003
Work: 575-646-4756
Fax: 575-646-7477
lcreider at lib.nmsu.edu

Pobre Nuevo Mexico! Tan Lejos del cielo y tan cerca de Texas.--Manuel Armijo

On Mon, May 23, 2016 9:11 am, Noble, Richard 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  Ç‚e London (England) Ç‚2 naf
> 372  Publishers and publishing Ç‚2 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: Ç‚b title
page
> (London, George Virtue)
> 670  Coyne, J. Stirling. The scenery and antiquities of Ireland, 1843?: Ç‚b
> engravings throughout text (London, Geo. Virtue, 26 Ivy Lane)
> 670  OCLC, May 20, 2016 Ç‚b (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 Br <RICHARD_NOBLE at BROWN.EDU>own.edu>
>