[DCRM-L] Critique of DCRM(B)

[Deborah J. Leslie]

Dear colleagues,

The fresh-off-the-press 2018 edition of Studies in Bibliography includes, as usual, a substantive essay by Thomas Tanselle, "Notes on Recent Work in Descriptive Bibliography", (1-93). I've just started it, but want to mention that he discusses library cataloging in one section, (p. 11-14) and takes on DCRM(B). He writes

... and a third edition appeared in 2007 under the title Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books)-one of a series of manuals for different classes of "rare materials." Although the 2007 manual poses fewer problems (from the point of view of the descriptive bibliographer) than those I identified in my analysis of AACR, the same kind of confusion is still present.

His complaints center on area 5 (physical description), and have to do with the internal inconsistency of library description, which is at odds with the expectations of descriptive bibliography.

He points are (mostly) fair. It seems to me that we as catalogers have been challenged anew to examine and articulate the principles upon which we base our practices. No proposals or ideas of how to proceed; just want to alert you that this is out there.

Best,
Deborah

Deborah J. Leslie, MA, MLS | Senior Cataloger, Folger Shakespeare Library | djleslie at folger.edu | 201 East Capitol Street, S.E. | Washington, DC 20003 | 202.675-0369 | orcid.org 0000-0001-5848-5467

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