In the light of ongoing discussions in Germany, this is a very interesting question for me.

According to the German RAK rules, there is a clear solution for this case (which I believe I have mentioned before on this list, but my former example was perhaps a less obvious one):

First, here's the original text of the rules (from RAK § 128, 6), for those on the list who read German (quite a lot of people, as I've found to my amazement): "Angaben, zwischen denen ein Doppelpunkt oder Gedankenstrich steht, gelten im allgemeinen als Sachtitel und Zusatz zum Sachtitel. Solche Angaben gelten jedoch als ein Sachtitel, wenn die erste Angabe allein keine ausreichende sachliche Benennung ergibt. Im Zweifelsfall gelten sie als ein Sachtitel."

And here's my translation:
"Statements which are separated by a colon or a dash are normally treated as title proper and other title information. But if the first statement on its own is insufficient for naming the resource, both statements together are treated as title proper. In case of doubt, treat the statements as one title proper."

I especially like the "in case of doubt" provision (there are a lot of those in RAK, by the way, and they will be sadly missed...).

So, in our example, the RAK solution would not be "title proper : other title information", but instead, the whole would be treated as title proper. The colon would consequently be kept as an ordinary punctuation mark, and not as punctuation prescribed by ISBD. In MARC it then looks like this:

245 _0 $a Evaluation of pilot project: emergency traffic control for responders

I can't help feeling that this would also be a good solution in RDA.

Personally, I wouldn't be happy with transposing the statements and using "emergency traffic control for responders" as title proper and "evaluation of pilot project" as other title information, as was suggested by Jenny and others. Although I see the point about the RDA definition for title proper, I still feel that this would mean taking too much liberties with what we find on the resource. The producers of the book *could* have presented the statements like this:

Emergency traffic control for responders
Evaluation of pilot project

But they didn't choose to do it. I think catalogers should respect this.

There is a strong convention that the title proper comes before other title information on a title page - so I don't think we can simply "pick" what we want to have as the title proper. Only in rare cases I think a transposition can be justified, when the placement of the statements on the t.p. is really rather a question of (perhaps unconventional) design. But in a case like the one we're talking about, I think the presentation of the statements is rather some sort of stylistic device, which should be faithfully transcribed.

But maybe I'm just being traditionalist here.

Heidrun



On 19.03.2013 13:59, Jenny Wright wrote:

Hi Cathy

I don't believe there's any conflict here, between what you want to do (use "Emergency traffic control for responders" as the title proper) and what RDA is telling you to do in 2.3.2 Title proper and 2.3.4 Other title information.

The title proper is defined as "the chief name of a resource, i.e. the title normally used when citing the resource"; and other title information is defined as "the information which appears in conjunction with, and is subordinate to, the title proper".

I do not believe that a phrase appearing above another phrase on a title page necessarily makes it more important -- you can use your judgement to determine which phrase is intended as the chief name, and which phrase is subordinate.

Hope this helps

Regards

Jenny Wright

Development Manager

Bibliographic Data Services Ltd.

*From:*Resource Description and Access / Resource Description and Access [mailto:RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA] *On Behalf Of *Crum, Cathy (KDLA)
*Sent:* 19 March 2013 12:15
*To:* RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA
*Subject:* [RDA-L] RDA and the Title Proper

Hi all,

We are beginning to transition into original cataloging with RDA, but we have encountered a situation concerning the title proper and other title information.

The title as presented on the title page is:

Evaluation of pilot project:

Emergency traffic control for responders

In the light of RDA's "transcribe it as you see it" theme, how would you transcribe this title? Would you transcribe all of the title as the title proper or is there a title proper and other title information? I feel that "Emergency traffic control for responders" is the title proper, but its placement on the title page is problematic. If the 2 title segments had been flipped in sequence, I think there would not have been much question about it. If you were to transcribe all of the title as the title proper, would you include the colon as well?

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Cathy Crum

//

/Cathy Crum///

/Cataloging Supervisor///

/State Library Services///

/Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives///

/cathy.c...@ky.gov <mailto:cathy.c...@ky.gov>///


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--
---------------------
Prof. Heidrun Wiesenmueller M.A.
Stuttgart Media University
Faculty of Information and Communication
Wolframstr. 32, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany
www.hdm-stuttgart.de/bi

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