> On Monday, March 16, 2009 8:32 AM, Ross Singer wrote:
> >What is this an argument for?
>
> That translating headings into "Author" rather than retaining a
> statement of responsibility is not always a simple solution. It's an argument
> against the practice seen in several systems of displaying a programmatically
> uninverted heading with a label "Author" or appended to the end of
> the title with "by", making up a statement of responsibility rather
> than using the one transcribed from the item (leading to the appearance that
> the book is "by" someone rather than "edited by" or
> "compiled by" or "retold by", or "defendant,").
> Another instance where this might look odd would be where the item is in a
> non-English language but the computer rearranges/creates its own statement of
> responsibility using English "by" rather than the transcribed foreign
> words indicating the function of those who are associated with the work.
Yes. What I was trying to point out is that no matter how we display our information, there will still be people who have problems with it. We simply can't make everybody happy, and one of the reasons why I always thought the ISBD statement of responsibility is such a brilliant solution. It is about as accurate and as truthful as you can get.
I was also saying that we expect average people to not understand their VCRs, automobiles, and so on, so why do we expect the average person understand everything in a catalog record? I think there are far more serious problems in understanding, and these are associated with difficulties with controlled vocabulary, earlier-later type records, contents notes, and associated issues such as bibliographic identity. But I have met no one who has found the punctuation so strange that it interfered with their understanding of the basic ISBD display. It's like my relating to some strange function on my TV set or microwave that I don't understand. I can still make it work but I don't understand why. Or care.
We can get rid of the punctuation, but it will still be faced with the task of replacing it with something "better" that everyone will understand and that is just as accurate.
Jim Weinheimer
Received on Mon Mar 16 2009 - 10:33:30 EDT