> Yeah, part of the issue is that there really isn't any place to go to
> see written out how things really work. The Library of Congress Rule
> Interpretations (LCRI) are an important supplement---but even with AACR2
> and LCRIs both, there's a lot of stuff that's done by convention and de
> facto standard practice that isn't written _anywhere_. [ Oh, and for a
> third written supplment, OCLC's standards for record sharing. But even
> with all three of those, there's lots of stuff that isn't written
> anywhere, it's just _done_. It's no surprise that it's not always done
> consistently.]
The problem is that cataloging requires a number of standards to be
used together. There are more than can be listed here, but the most
important is probably the Bib Formats and Standards Manual
http://www.oclc.org/bibformats/default.htm . Bib Formats and Standards
actually specifies which MARC codes to use, but what's nice about it
is that it groups them thematically and the examples silently
incorporate the ideas of AACR2.
To construct a basic record, catalogers should theoretically choose
and construct access points according to AACR2 and the LCRIs, use LCSH
and the Subject Cataloging Manual (SCM) to construct subject headings,
and then tag according to Bib Formats and Standards. There are
actually a lot of other manuals that get involved very quickly, but
the point is that the interplay of resources is pretty complex and
it's hard to figure out what's going on by reading them. As others
have mentioned, there are a lot of unwritten practices even if the
written ones can fill many shelves.
In practice, many catalogers (particularly less experienced ones) to
model off existing records. This saves time, but it also leads to lots
of records missing fields they should contain or containing things
that don't make sense.
For purposes of looking at standards for the purpose of constructing
catalogs, I think Bib Formats and Standards is most useful for
understanding the catalog record as a whole, and the SCM is the most
interesting for purposes of understanding the structure of subject
headings. However, it's really hard to wrap your mind around how
cataloging works as a whole, so it's often most productive to grab
someone who really understands the data you're about to work with,
share ideas for what you want to do, and see how they respond.
kyle
Received on Wed Apr 09 2008 - 11:22:29 EDT