John Hostage wrote:
The ISBD consolidated edition defines it as "other title information
introducing the title proper, and occurring above the title proper on
the prescribed source of information for the title and statement of
responsibility area." Sounds sort of like "Evaluation of pilot
project" in the other thread.
I just checked the ISBD consolidated, hoping for an example of an
"avant-titre", but couldn't find anything. It seems the term only
appears in the glossary (which I find rather odd).
In the preliminary German translation of RDA, "avant-titre" was
translated as "Schmutztitel", which in turn corresponds to "half-title"
in English. This meaning of "avant-titre" can be also found in French
dictionaries, e.g. here on the web:
http://www.dictionarist.com/avant-titre
But that, of course, doesn't fit in with the ISBD glossary.
Fortunately, I found something helpful in the French cataloging rules
(Catalogage des monographies - texte imprimé, FD Z 44-050, 1.4.4.4):
-----------
Un avant-titre apparaissant sur la page de titre ou son substitut est
donné après le titre propre s'il n'y a pas d'impossibilité grammaticale
ou de sens ; sinon, il est donné en note.
EXEMPLES
L'art des nomades [Texte imprimé] : des Scythes aux Hongrois
Je roule sans accident! [Texte imprimé]
_En note_: Avant-titre : "un professionel de l'auto vous dit..."
_Commentaire_: L'avant-titre apparaît en petits caractères au-dessus du
titre propre.
----------
If I understand this correctly (my French being much worse than my
English), the "des Scythes aux Hongrois" in the first example actually
appears above the "L'art des nomades" on the t.p., but is transcribed as
other title information. As French cataloging is extremely close to
ISBD, this transposition must indeed be allowed by ISBD.
Well, it's always nice to learn something new in cataloging :-)
So, it seems that it's really possible according to ISBD (and also
according to RDA) to transcribe "things, which look like other title
information but come before what looks like the title proper" as other
title information, i.e. reverse the order.
Although I still don't really feel comfortable with it, I now concede
that "evaluation of pilot project" can be seen as an "avant-titre", so
that Cathy's example can perfectly well be given as:
245 _0 $a Emergency traffic control for responders : $b evaluation of
pilot project
A note on title would be in order here, as already suggested by Mac.
But as the whole thing is certainly not obvious, there really should be
an example illustrating it in RDA. Also, there could sometimes be
problems in distinguishing an avant-titre from "introductory words" (RDA
2.3.1.6). The "un professionel de l'auto vous dit..." in the second
French example could perhaps equally well be interpreted as introductory
words.
Heidrun
--
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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
