[DCRM-L] Publishers Personal Name/Corporate Body

[Deborah J. Leslie]

Dear colleagues,

Fellow Folger cataloger Sarah Hovde and I have been preparing a query about the very topic of how to establish headings for the post-1830 booktrade when the name is presented as an individual. Imagine our surprise (with a dash of chagrin) when we saw that discussion of the topic is in full swing.

Way back in 2001, the RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee created a BSC-RI, to document our community's consensus on whether to establish booktrade personnel as personal or corporate headings. (I've attached the original BSC document.) LC then incorporated most of it into the LCRI's, split between chapters 21 and 24. The upshot is that if a name was presented as a personal name, it would be established and traced as a personal name, even if (as in the case of printers) we know they actually had a shop. And if a name implied a corporation of individuals, it was established as a corporate name heading. For example, a record with the following on the source would have these access points:

Source: London : Printed by John Baskett and by the Assigns of Henry Hills
700 1  Baskett, John, ǂd 1666 or 1667-1742, ǂe printer.
710 2  Assigns of Henry Hills, ǂe printer.

This is a good strategy for the hand-press era, but what about later, especially the 19th-century, when a printer, publisher, &c., is presented as a personal name, perhaps with an indication of function? Should the typography and layout be taken into account? Does it matter whether the term appearing with a person's name is a noun (e.g., Drucker) or a verb (e.g., gedruckt)

We at the Folger have gone back and forth on this; perusing the NAF doesn't help—practice is all over the place. To help engender community discussion, we've put up some pictures of mostly 19th-century imprints: http://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Name_authority_headings_for_the_book_trade, organized by language.

If anyone thinks it a good idea, we can set up a Google docs page to allow the community to comment more easily on individual examples.



Thanks,
Deborah and Sarah

Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. | Senior Cataloger | Folger Shakespeare Library | djleslie at folger.edu<mailto:djleslie at folger.edu> | 202.675-0369 | 201 East Capitol St., SE, Washington, DC 20003 | www. folger.edu | orcid.org/0000-0001-5848-5467
Sarah Hovde | Cataloger | Folger Shakespeare Library | shovde at folger.edu<mailto:shovde at folger.edu>



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