Dear Judy,
Since retiring in 2003 I have not been closely following discussions of
RDA. It seems to me that in some cases "first statement of responsibility" will
be difficult or impossible to ascertain. I do not think it is far-fetched it
imagine: 1. A bilingual text with one right-to-left language (e.g. Hebrew,
Arabic, Persian or Yiddish (sometimes called HAPI though several languages such
as Urdu and Pushtu also use Arabic script)) and one left-to-right language
(e.g. English, French, Russian, Greek, etc. 2. There is a title page at each
end of the book. 3. Each contains a statement of responsibility, the author's
name, in each language on the same line. How can one determine which is the
first statement of responsibility? One might try to determine if one language
is a translation of the other but some authors can write in several languages
or it may not say. In such cases it might be best to say something along the
lines of "record the first statement of responsibility when it can be easily
determined but give several when priority can not be easily determined". To me,
recording the extra text would seem preferable to making catalogers search for
a way to decide which is first.
Regards, Jim Agenbroad ( jjagenb...@aol.com )
On May 10, 2013, at 11:21 AM, JSC Secretary wrote:
> Tom,
>
> One of the changes in the May 14 release of the RDA Toolkit will be a
> revision of the core statement at 2.4 to add information there that is now at
> 2.4.2:
>
> "Statement of responsibility relating to title proper is a core element (if
> more than one, only the first recorded is required). Other statements of
> responsibility are optional."
>
> The core statement at 2.4.2 for the element Statement of responsibility
> relating to title proper says:
>
> "If more than one statement of responsibility relating to title proper
> appears on the source of information, only the first recorded is required."
>
> The last paragraph of 2.4.2.3 says:
>
> "If not all statements of responsibility appearing on the source or sources
> of information are being recorded, give preference to those identifying
> creators of the intellectual or artistic content. In case of doubt, record
> the first statement."
>
>
> Regards, Judy Kuhagen
> JSC Secretary
>
>
> On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Meehan, Thomas <t.mee...@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
> 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
>
>
>
>
