Adam Schiff wrote:
1.4. MANDATORY ELEMENTS OF DESCRIPTION - I'm not clear why place of publication is not going to be mandatory anymore.
JH - I don't think it was really mandatory under AACR2, since it was not included in the first level of description in 1.0D1. Those are the elements that could be considered mandatory in AACR2. There was an LCRI 1.0D printed in CSB no. 11 (winter 1981) that stated that LC records would usually be at the 2nd level. The rest of us have followed that and come to think of those elements as "mandatory." I assume there will be similar guidelines in shared cataloging situations under RDA as to which elements beyond the mandatory set are required. In many cases, the place of publication is certainly of less interest than the publisher. Major publishers can have offices in many cities not just around the country but around the world, so it can become rather meaningless to pick one as the place of publication. Most book reviews will give the publisher but not the place, and the product details in amazon.com do the same, to name a couple of examples. In some media, especially online resources, it can be very hard if not impossible to find a place of publication. But I'm sure we'll go on giving the place of publication in our cataloging records.
1.6.1.1. Capitalization of titles - in section b) Compound terms, I don't see that the very last example fits this category, since it refers to a "compound term beginning with a lower case letter" and U-boat does not begin with a lower case letter.
JH - Maybe it should be preceded by "but:" to indicate that it's a counter-example. I think it's useful here. In any case, all the examples will be reviewed by an Examples Group (p. 3 of draft).
1.6.4. SYMBOLS THAT CANNOT BE REPRODUCED - I've always found this example a little hard to understand, because I couldn't picture what the actual symbol(s) looked like that were being replaced by words. I'd like to suggest that the actual symbols found on the source of information be shown so that it was clear what was being replaced.
JH - Since RDA is supposed to be a Web-based product (p. 5 of draft), I'd like to suggest that examples includes links to images of the sources used in the examples. Most of them seem to be real examples. This would help immensely in understanding what is being done, especially now that the examples are even more disembodied than before.
1.6.6. LETTERS OR WORDS INTENDED TO BE READ MORE THAN ONCE - This is a change in practice, which I'm wondering what the justification for is? Is is to simplify transcription? Isn't this change likely to cause major changes for serial titles?
JH - Those are good questions.
1.6.7. ABBREVIATIONS - If I am reading and understanding this rule correctly, if Boston, MA appeared on the title page, we would transcribe it as Boston, Mass. Do you all agree that this is the effect of the rule? And is this desirable to move further away from transcription?
JH - I agree that seems to be the effect of the rule, and I don't think it's desirable.
1.7.2. QUOTATIONS - Is the placement of the period after the quotation mark in the first example intentional? This represents a change from current practice and just looks wrong too, as that is not how standard English quotations are recorded.
JH - But see the "alternative system" in the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., sec. 6.10. -- ___________________________________________________________ John Hostage Authorities Librarian Langdell Hall [EMAIL PROTECTED] Harvard Law School Library (617) 495-3974 (voice) Cambridge, MA 02138 (617) 496-4409 (fax) http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/ -----------------------------------------------------------
