One immediately noticeable difference in RDA records is capitalization that differs from the AACR2 standard. Depending on the cataloger, the same movie might have its title recorded as any of:
- Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Who’s Afraid of VIRGINIA WOOLF?
Is this okay? If not, what can we do about it?
What not to search for
Recently, one of our catalogers was searching for OCLC copy for the DVD of the film The girl with the dragon tattoo. He (very reasonably) typed:
girl with the dragon tattoo
into the title field of Connexion. He got no hits. Why?
Cards killed the cataloging code?
This card catalog near my desk includes hand-written cards from as recently as 2010.
“AACR2 is not appropriate for today’s cataloging environment, because it was developed in the age of catalog cards.” I keep hearing this assertion, and always wonder… what is the actual problem?
DVD cataloging: Finding the actual region encoding
I don’t know what’s going on with his arm.
Cataloging DVDs for your library can be a challenge, not only from the detailed metadata that needs recording, but also because of the decisions that need to be made about how to collect that metadata. Some institutions only do container cataloging, confirming none of the metadata from the disc itself. Others may decide to watch the entirety of each video so they can be assured of the accuracy of their subject analysis (though I don’t know of any who have the time to do this as a general practice). Many institutions do at least confirm some of the metadata from the disc itself, but which do you choose? Continue reading
Mercurial: Super-Undo for MarcEdit
MarcEdit is a powerful software suite for working with MARC records. It can convert MARC records between various MARC formats and character encodings, and help you harvest new records through its Z39.50 client. Continue reading
RDA behavior in AACR2 records (updated)
The popular OCLC record #703206540 has a fictional character as a main entry (“Richard Castle” of the television show “Castle”). I think this is interesting because:
- It is a DLC record from May 2011, though this change was apparently made sometime Friday. I wonder if it will stay that way?
- There is an authority record for “Castle, Richard” (ARN 8643317) and it is an AACR2 record which allows name use, but asserts that the author is fictional.
- OCLC-CAT had a thread about this record on Friday, in which many said that the RDA rule of allowing fictional characters as main entries (Geronimo Stilton, Jessica Fletcher, etc) was more sensible and convenient than the AACR2 rule.
- The LC call number has not caught up with the main entry — it is still PS3600.A1 (Works without any indication of author).
Update
Richard Castle’s authority record has been deleted, and the bib record for Heat Rises has him properly transcribed in the statement of responsibility (but not main entry) with a note explaining that the book was fictitiously attributed to him. We are back to full AACR2 behavior! Richard Castle does not appear in the subject cataloging for the book, though the title of the television show is given as an added title entry. I am happy to see some kind of access point, since its LC classification remains “no indication of author” and is cuttered by title, and I think this is a reasonable way to do it; in particular, I am always weirded out when I see records for Death of a salesman that include the subject term Loman, Willy (Fictitious character)–Drama, as though it is a larger genre.