I followed this discussion on Autocat and now here. As long as we are making changes, why are we not doing that now? It seems to me that it would be a whole heck of a lot easier to just say "Never end a field with a full stop." Let's face it ... the whole thing of when to add a period and when not to add a period comes from the olden days of cataloging when we were typing cards. (Yes, I did that!)
It bothers me more to have two periods sitting in places than to have none at all. That just looks ridiculous to me! Hopefully, I will live to see the day when we have those forms that we can just fill out and not have to worry about punctuation. I know the ISBD punctuation -- I could do it in my sleep, it's so engrained in me. But to teach this to newbie catalogers, they look at me like I'm crazy! (I am much more concerned that they learn about matters that require more of their intellectual energy, such as authorized headings.) In the end, does the ending punctuation really matter all that much (I mean, to the public)? If you could see the record without ending periods, would the catalog come grinding to a halt? I don't think so. When you look at a record in amazon.com, there are no periods at the end ... and they seem to do just fine. http://www.amazon.com/Art-Mesoamerica-World/dp/0500204144/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366922051&sr=1-3&keywords=aztec+art Furthermore, if "normal people" (non-catalogers) could see this sort of discussion raging on, I am sure that it would seem quite strange and funny that we catalogers can discuss periods at such length. Definitely goes in the How-many-angels-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin category! Julie Moore Fresno State On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 11:31 AM, Kevin M Randall <k...@northwestern.edu>wrote: > In the (hopefully soon, but for sure I'm not holding my breath!) future, > we will likely—or at least *should*—be entering RDA elements into > workforms with no punctuation at all, unless that punctuation is part of > the element itself (e.g., the period in an abbreviation, the question mark > in *Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?*, etc.). Nothing after a title, or > after other title information, or after the statement of responsibility. > Even if there are multiple statements of responsibility, there will be no > punctuation after any of them, because they will be entered as separate > instances of the element "Statement of responsibility". Punctuation will > be supplied automatically depending on the data output. This will make it > *SO* much easier to follow the RDA guidelines (which don't have ISBD > punctuation in the instructions or examples), and will make it much easier > to allow for a limitless number of output choices (including ISBD).**** > > ** ** > > Kevin M. Randall**** > > Principal Serials Cataloger**** > > Northwestern University Library**** > > k...@northwestern.edu**** > > (847) 491-2939**** > > ** ** > > Proudly wearing the sensible shoes since 1978!**** > > ** ** > > *From:* Resource Description and Access / Resource Description and Access > [mailto:RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA] *On Behalf Of *Benjamin A Abrahamse > *Sent:* Thursday, April 25, 2013 1:01 PM > *To:* RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA > > *Subject:* Re: [RDA-L] cm period/no period and sample records**** > > ** ** > > All of this may be true but due to reasons discussed rather exhaustively > in this very thread a dotless "cm" will only show up under certain > circumstances anyhow. To adequately explain why it doesn't requires > informing users (a) that it is a "symbol" or "ligature", not an > abbreviation, even though it appears to be otherwise; and, (b) what ISBD > is, why ISBD is, and why a standard that is sometimes used to display > metadata affects the way we record data in a shared database.**** > > ** ** > > And in the end, "cm" and "cm." are both instantly recognizable--even by > benighted Yankees such as myself--as representing "centimeters." The good > news I suppose is that it would be the rare user indeed who looks this > carefully at a 300 field.**** > > ** ** > > --b**** > > ** ** > > Benjamin Abrahamse**** > > Cataloging Coordinator**** > > Acquisitions, Metadata and Enterprise Systems**** > > MIT Libraries**** > > 617-253-7137**** > -- Julie Renee Moore Head of Cataloging California State University, Fresno julie.renee.mo...@gmail.com 559-278-5813 “Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”... James Matthew Barrie
