I think the RDA instruction was probably worded that way to allow freedom to record whatever feels most useful and to take into account varying amounts of information available. In most cases it's enough to record the university name, but some libraries feel very particular about recording the name of the department or faculty for dissertations from their own university. I don't think the University College London was meant to represent a faculty, but the Fakultaet fuer Agrarwissenschaften would be an example of a faculty. You don't have to record that if you don't want to.
------------------------------------------ John Hostage Senior Continuing Resources Cataloger // Harvard Library--Information and Technical Services // Langdell Hall 194 // Cambridge, MA 02138 host...@law.harvard.edu +(1)(617) 495-3974 (voice) +(1)(617) 496-4409 (fax) > -----Original Message----- > From: Resource Description and Access / Resource Description and Access > [mailto:RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA] On Behalf Of Heidrun > Wiesenmüller > Sent: Monday, December 02, 2013 04:57 > To: RDA-L@LISTSERV.LAC-BAC.GC.CA > Subject: [RDA-L] "Faculty" in 7.9.3.3 > > I'm not quite certain about the meaning of "faculty" in the element > "Dissertation or Thesis Information". > > 7.9.3.3 reads: "Record the name of the granting institution or faculty." > I assume that the example "University College, London" is supposed to > illustrate a case where the degree is granted by a faculty rather than the > university (which would be the University of London). Is this correct? > > The reason for my question is that I'm wondering about German doctoral > theses. There, usually both the name of the university and the name of the > faculty within this university are given, e.g.: "Dissertation zur Erlangung > des > Doktorgrades der Fakultaet fuer Agrarwissenschaften der Georg-August- > Universitaet Goettingen" (i.e. "Thesis for obtaining the doctoral degree of > the Faculty for Agricultural Sciences of the Georg August University > Goettingen"). > > Up to now, in such a case we've only recorded the name of the university, > but not the name of the faculty. I also can't remember ever having seen an > AACR2 record including a faculty of a German university. > This impression fits in with the example "Freie Universitaet Berlin" in > 7.9.3.3 (without information about the respective faculty, which probably > was given on the source of information as well). > > My feeling is that in Germany, a faculty is basically an administrative > division. > It's not at all comparable to the independent character of the University > College London (Wikipedia says: "For most practical purposes, ranging from > admissions to funding, the constituent colleges operate as individual > universities, and some have recently obtained the power to award their own > degrees whilst remaining in the federation."). So I would prefer to give the > name of the university only, without the faculty. > > How would you handle the case of the German universities and when would > you use the "faculty"? > > Heidrun > > > -- > --------------------- > Prof. Heidrun Wiesenmueller M.A. > Stuttgart Media University > Wolframstr. 32, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany www.hdm-stuttgart.de/bi
