The 'role' of the given creator should be encoded in a machine-readable
format. MARC even provides some role codes to use in certain fields, but
they are not used.
The answer is not simply transcribing a 'statement of responsibility'
from a title page. That constrains our software to merely spitting out
the exact text that's been entered, and makes it impossible to actually
ACT upon this information. Say, collocate all the works that are
illustrated by person X. Or show 'illustrated by' in the native language
of choice of the user, instead of what was on the original title page.
Jonathan
Bryan Baldus wrote:
> 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.
>
> I'd agree that something should be done to improve the way the statement of responsibility is coded, like making it have hyperlinked (or otherwise associated) names to the authorized form of name.
>
> Bryan Baldus
> Cataloger
> Quality Books Inc.
> The Best of America's Independent Presses
> 1-800-323-4241x402
> bryan.baldus_at_quality-books.com
>
>
Received on Mon Mar 16 2009 - 11:49:20 EDT