First, if an English speaker uses English as the language of cataloging rather than the American dialect as the language of cataloging, then Americans should leave that be and not change the spelling to the American dialect--that is not a correction and I don't agree with your choice to "correct" spelling that is not incorrect.
I laughed out loud when I saw this--it's a great example of something, I'm just not sure what. I suppose that if you consider the principle of representation--that the description should represent the resource the way the resource represents itself--then this could be construed as an acceptable representation; particularly if the resource explicitly says "beautiful all colour illustrations". ******************************************* Robert Bothmann Electronic Access/Catalog Librarian Associate Professor, Library Services -----Original Message----- From: Resource Description and Access / Resource Description and Access [mailto:RDA-L@listserv.lac-bac.gc.ca] On Behalf Of Deborah Tomares Sent: Tuesday, 01 March, 2011 3:05 PM To: RDA-L@listserv.lac-bac.gc.ca Subject: [RDA-L] Subjective Judgements in RDA 300s???? I just cataloged the book corresponding to OCLC #702491897. When I looked at the record, the 300 read: 319 pages : |b illustrations (some coloured, all beautiful), maps ; |c 25 cm. I've corrected the spelling of "coloured" to American usage--is there an RDA provision I'm missing about this, or was it a typo? But the part I can't understand is the inclusion of "all beautiful". Are we allowed, under RDA provisions, to include value judgements about the illustrations? Are value judgements allowed elsewhere in cataloging under RDA? Under AACR2, we are supposed to be as objective as possible when creating records, and not allow personal biases in subjects, etc. But this is ridiculous. Aren't we supposed to just be transcribing in the 300 field? Is this a rogue cataloger, or is there a provision I should be cringing about now? Thanks in advance for all information (and potential public drubbing of CGU?). Deborah Tomaras, NACO Coordinator Librarian II Western European Languages Team New York Public Library Library Services Center 31-11 Thomson Ave. Long Island City, N.Y. 11101 (917) 229-9561 dtoma...@nypl.org Disclaimer: Alas, my ideas are merely my own, and not indicative of New York Public Library policy.
