Members:
Present: Kathy Glennan (Chair), Joe Bartl, (LC Representative), Steve Henry,
Mark Scharff (MLA liaison to CC:DA), Terry Simpkins, Patricia Thomson
At
its business meeting in Newport,
the Subcommittee on Descriptive Cataloging devoted the bulk of its time to
discussing 5JSC/LC/12, LC’s Proposed revision
of RDA chap. 6, Additional instructions for musical works and expressions. The Joint Steering Committee released this 38-page
document less than two weeks before the MLA Annual Meeting. Kathy led the
discussions, working to identify major issues and areas of agreement and
disagreement that will help inform the MLA response to this document, which is
due on Feb. 29. Issues discussed included:
- Retain
“Selections” or extend “Selected novels [etc.]” concept to music instructions.
No agreement about possible substitution of “Excerpts” instead.
- Create
categories of instructions to reflect works by one composer and collaborative
works, instead of the LC proposal’s suggestion to use instrumental works and
collaborative works.
- Agree
with LC’s approach to consider medium of performance as stable vs. flexible.No consensus
on elimination of long title rule (6.18.0.3b).
- Concern
about language issues, including the proposal to create preferred titles in the
language of the cataloging agency, and using the composer’s terminology to name
works.
- Generally
agree with the elimination of the rule of three for medium of performance, with
the expectation that technology would help with the backwards compatibility
issues.
- Strongly
disagree with LC’s 6.18.0.3c.1, Titles that are not distinctive. The
Subcommittee found the closed list especially troubling, especially since LC
articulated no obvious principle for what does and does not appear on this
list.
- Consensus
to put forward MLA’s rule revision proposals to disentangle
adaptations/arrangements in RDA 6.17.1 and 6.17.3.
The
Subcommittee also discussed issues relating to 5JSC/LC/11, Designation of
Roles in RDA, a 12-page document also released by the Joint Steering
Committee just a few weeks before the Newport
meeting. Our discussion centered on issues surrounding limiting specific role
relationships to FRBR group 1 entities, as well as specific recommendations for
clarifying definitions.
The
Subcommittee membership changed at the end of the Newport meeting. Rob Freeborn and Terry
Simpkins rotated off the Subcommittee after four years of service, as did Kathy
Glennan, who completed her term as chair. We thank these three for their
service. Mark Scharff will serve as the Subcommittee’s new chair.
Our
website (http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/BCC/Descriptive/Descriptive.html)
contains information about the Subcommittee, its activities, and the
semi-annual CC:DA reports. We welcome comments and questions about descriptive
cataloging at any time.
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Last updated March 13, 2008