Dear all, This is a fairly novice question but one where I would welcome some clarification, especially as far as the RDA text goes. Apologies if this has been raised before (I'm sure it must have been). I am looking at a couple of contentious aspects of the statement of responsibility relating to the title proper where I think there are three areas that require some decision on policy:
1. Which (or how many) statements of responsibility are to be regarded as core. 2. Statements of responsibility naming more than three persons (2.4.1.5). 3. Abridging statements of responsibility (2.4.1.4). It is the third one which confuses me most. The rule states "Transcribe a statement of responsibility in the form in which it appears on the source of information." The examples that follow contain no titles (Mr, Dr, Earl) except those that would have been retained under AACR2 and no affiliations (...professor of History at the University of Biggleswade) at all. However, the Optional Omission beneath which says "Abridge a statement of responsibility only if it can be abridged without loss of essential information" has examples with all of this information in, e.g. "by Harry Smith // Source of information reads: by Dr. Harry Smith". The option seems curiously vague about what can/should be omitted if the option is followed, and why. Is this basically a case of the examples of the main rule not catching up and so being illustrative of AACR2 rules rather than RDA? I notice, looking at the really helpful LC training materials and BL workflow, that the point is made more explicitly there so I think I am happy with what is intended, but I am uncomfortable having to interpret the meaning of a rule based on third party training and policy documentation, if that makes sense. Many thanks, Tom --- Thomas Meehan Head of Current Cataloguing Library Services University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT t.mee...@ucl.ac.uk
