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DATE: May 21, 2012
REVISED:
NAME: Recording Creator/Contributor Group Categorizations of Works, Expressions, and Persons in the MARC 21 Bibliographic and Authority Formats
SOURCE: ALCTS Subject Analysis Committee Subcommittee on Genre/Form Implementation
SUMMARY: This paper suggests the establishment of a new 3XX field in both the Bibliographic and Authority formats to record group categories of creator/contributors that are related to genre/form.
KEYWORDS: Creator Categorizations (BD, AD); Contributor Categorizations (BD, AD); Group Categories of Persons (BD, AD); Genre/Form; Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials; LCGFT
RELATED:
STATUS/COMMENTS:
05/21/12 - Made available to the MARC community for discussion.
06/24/12 – Results of MARC Advisory Committee discussion: Question 3.1: Yes. Question 3.2: Yes to the first two questions. For resources entered under an individual author, it would probably be best to include the information about the group categories in the person's name authority record. Question 3.3: Yes to both questions. Question 3.4: Based on the straw poll taken for DP04, there was significantly more support for 3XX. The tags should be the same in the bibliographic and authority formats. Question 3.5: Yes. Question 3.6: There was support for being able to record terms for nationality. Associated country is not always synonymous with nationality and nationality cannot necessarily be inferred from associated country. Nationality and/or culture would need to be recorded both for persons and also for resources for situations where the creator(s) of the work are unknown or when the work/expression is a compilation of other works/expressions. There was a suggestion that $u (or another subfield since $u is usually for the source and not the individual term) be added to the field for the URI of the term. A subfield for a coded value for the information might be needed. May come back as a proposal.
Members of the ALCTS CaMMS SAC Subcommittee on Genre/Form Implementation have been discussing the implementation of the Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT). Some aspects of works and expressions that are now expressed in combination within LCSH form headings will be out of scope for LCGFT, and will likely need to be recorded elsewhere in bibliographic and authority records. Once LCGFT is fully implemented, LCSH headings that represent form or genre will be used only for works about the particular form or genre.
One aspect currently included in LCSH form headings is the category of persons who created the work or contributed to an expression. In literature and music, headings that include creator categorizations are commonly used in LCSH for collections, anthologies, and other aggregate works.
In LCSH form headings the categorization of the creators of works is brought out in a variety of ways:
Combining the category of creator aspect with genre or form in phrase headings:
African American children’s writings
Children’s diaries
Films by children
Mexican poetry
Music by Jewish composers
Music by lesbian composers
One-act plays, Canadian
Political prisoners’ writings
Science fiction, Belgian (French) - Language aspects are also outside the scope of LCGFT, and will have to be recorded elsewhere in bibliographic and authority records once LCGFT is fully implemented. The SAC Subcommittee on Genre/Form Implementation will also be developing recommendations for this aspect/facet.Sometimes the category of creator is implied in the heading:
College prose - Prose literature by college students
School verse - Poetry by school childrenIn headings that include a nationality, such as Mexican poetry or One-act plays, Canadian, the nationality refers to the creators of the works in the collection. That is, Mexican poetry is poetry written by Mexicans. One-act plays, Canadian refers to one-act plays written by Canadians.
Using geographic subdivision to represent the nationality or residence of the creators:
American literature $z Southern States
Country music $z Thailand
German fiction $z Germany (East)
Jazz $z LithuaniaUsing free-floating topical subdivisions for the creators:
American prose literature $x African American authors
Canadian fiction $x Chinese authors
Serbian poetry $x Muslim authors
Motion picture plays $x Women authors
Unlike in LCSH, creator/contributor group categorizations are out of scope for inclusion inLCGFT. LC’s policy with LCGFT, although there are currently some exceptions (e.g., Children’s atlases; Video recordings for the hearing impaired), is to establish terms that represent only genre or form and not other aspects that may be included within LCSH form headings. Topical, chronological, or geographic subdivision of LCGFT terms is not authorized. LCGFT terms are also not intended to repeat data already found elsewhere in a bibliographic record. Aspects such as creator/contributor group categorizations of a work or expression will have to be recorded elsewhere in bibliographic or authority records when LCGFT is fully implemented. LCSH form headings that include creator aspects will remain valid, but they will be assigned only to resources about those genres and forms and the category of the creators or contributors.
Members of the SAC Subcommittee on Genre/Form Implementation have determined that recording the category of creators for a work or contributors to an expression will continue to be necessary after LCGFT is fully implemented, particularly for collections, anthologies, and other aggregated works. Furthermore, the MARC 21 Bibliographic and Authority formats do not currently provide a suitable place to record this aspect in a way that will facilitate resource discovery. What is needed is a facet for categorization of creator/contributor that can be linked with other aspects such as genre/form and which can be controlled by authority records representing the specific categories.
LCSH and several other controlled vocabularies have been used in examples below. The SAC Subcommittee on Genre/Form Implementation is still investigating whether an established controlled vocabulary should be repurposed for the category of creator, or if a new vocabulary should be constructed.
The ALCTS Subject Analysis Committee discussed an initial paper about these issues (available at http://connect.ala.org/node/165376) at the ALA 2012 Midwinter Meeting in Dallas, Texas. Based on the feedback received there, this discussion paper proposes that a new MARC 21 3XX field for creator characteristics be established in both the Bibliographic and Authority formats.
In the Bibliographic format, there are no existing fields used to provide access to the category or class of creators and contributors of a resource. Field 656 Index Term - Occupation is meant to index the occupations that are reflected in a resource, rather than the creators of the resource. The field’s definition and scope states that the field is “not used to list the occupations of the creators of the described materials, unless those occupations are significantly reflected in the materials themselves or bear some relationship to the materials.”
Collections of works by a defined group of persons are a common publication type and users expect to be able to find works by group categories. Once LCGFT is implemented, the existing LCSH form headings that are used for this access will be used only for works about those forms. Therefore, it is imperative that there be a place in the MARC Bibliographic format to record the group category of the creators or contributors to a collection/aggregate manifestation.
On the authority side of things, creator/contributor categories will also need to be recorded in records for works and expressions, at least in the case of authorities for collections/aggregate works by various creators and for works/expressions whose authorized access point consists of a title only.
Users also look for individual works by one creator by searching for group categories (e.g., symphonies by Polish composers; novels by African American women writers; slave narratives; Holocaust survivor memoirs), and it would be helpful if we could also help them find such works. The subcommittee feels that creator/contributor characteristics for individual persons would best be recorded only once, in the individual person’s authority record, rather than in each bibliographic record representing a manifestation of one of the person’s works. Ideally, systems would be able to search characteristics recorded in authority records in conjunction with searches run against data in bibliographic records. A search for manifestations by African Americans would retrieve anthologies/collections if that term has been included and indexed in the creator/contributor characteristics field in bibliographic records for the manifestation. Ideally, the same search should also retrieve works and expressions, and manifestations by individual African Americans if the term is recorded in name authority records as an attribute of those individuals.
Recent developments for RDA have added several fields to the MARC 21 Authority format which accommodate some of the characteristics related to genre/form. Existing fields related in some way to creator/contributor categorization include:
370 - Associated Place
For persons, the field has subfields in which to record place of birth, place of death, associated country, place of residence, and other associated place. Thus, for works and expressions there is a subfield to record their place of origin. Abbreviations from RDA Appendix B.11 are used for certain countries and for many states, provinces, territories, etc. of Australia, Canada, and the United States. For example, the data for a person associated with New Zealand or for a work originating in United States would be recorded as N.Z. and U.S. respectively. There is no current place in field 370 to record a plural noun representing a nationality.It would be possible to add a new subfield for nationality/regional group to this field. It might be necessary to define one of the currently undefined indicators to state whether the field should be used for indexing purposes. Subfield $2 for the source of the term used is already established, and the field is also already repeatable.
If this field were to be preferred for use in recording the nationality category, it would need to be added to the Bibliographic format, at least for the subfield used to record the plural noun form of the nationality. Adding the existing subfield for place of origin of works and expressions might also be useful to have in the Bibliographic format.
372 - Field of Activity
In November 2011, the Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA approved a suggestion to revise examples under Field of Activity and to remove Field of Activity as a possible addition to authorized access points. In RDA, Field of Activity will now be recorded in the form of the name of a discipline (e.g., Architecture; Stamp collecting) rather than in the singular noun form of a class of persons (Architect; Stamp collector). Terms in the form of a discipline will be less usable for retrieval for creator/contributor characteristics. The field is also currently defined as an attribute of persons. It would need to be redefined so that it could be used with works and expressions. One of the currently undefined indicators might need to be defined to state whether the field should be used for indexing purposes. If this field were to be revised to allow the recording of field of activity categories of creators/contributors in plural noun form, it might also need to be added to the Bibliographic format.373 - Associated Group
Field 373 is currently used for a group, institution, association, etc., that is associated with the entity in the 1XX. In RDA, typically the name of particular corporate body with which that person was/is affiliated in some way is recorded. But the field as defined is broader than just affiliation with corporate bodies, and it could potentially be used for generic group categories associated with a person when that group does not fall within defined categories like gender and occupation which have their own established fields. An indicator could be used to differentiate between the name of a corporate body and a plural noun recorded to represent the group category to which a person belongs. Subfield $2 already exists to designate the source of the terms used in the field. If used for this non-RDA purpose, the field would also need to be redefined so that it could be used with works and expressions. For example, when LCGFT for literature is implemented, the LCSH heading Veterans’ writings, now used for an anthology of writings by veterans, will be used for works about veterans’ writings only. Categories of persons will not be included in LCGFT, so that an anthology of veterans’ writings would need to be expressed as two facets: (1) the LCGFT term for literature, and (2) a creator/contributor category heading for veterans. The term for veterans could be recorded in field 373 if the field is used for the recording of such general group categories. One of the currently undefined indicators might need to be defined to state whether the field should be used for indexing purposes. The field might also need to be added to the Bibliographic format.374 - Occupation
In RDA, occupation terms are recorded in the singular. This field could be used beyond RDA, however, and subfield $2 for the source of the term is already established. The field definition would need to be expanded beyond just that for persons, since occupation as a creator/contributor characteristic would also be recorded for aggregate works and other works whose authorized access point is title only. For example, when LCGFT terms for literature are implemented, the LCSH heading Nurses’ writings, now used for an anthology of writings by nurses, would need to be expressed as two facets: (1) the LCGFT term for literature, and (2) a creator/contributor category heading for nurses. The term for nurses could be recorded in field 374 if the field is redefined to allow for the recording of occupations in authority records for works and expressions. If the field is used for this purpose, one of the currently undefined indicators might need to be defined to state whether the field should be used for indexing purposes. The field might also need to be added to the Bibliographic format.375 - Gender
In RDA, gender terms are recorded in the singular. RDA’s gender element is a partially controlled vocabulary consisting of three terms: female, male, or not known (If none of those three terms is appropriate or sufficiently specific, RDA allows the cataloger to record a more appropriate or specific term or phrase such as intersex or transsexual woman.). This field could be used beyond RDA, however, and subfield $2 for the source of the term is already established. The field definition would need to be expanded beyond authority records for persons, since gender as a creator/contributor characteristic would also be recorded for aggregate works and works whose authorized access point is title only. An example of an LCSH form heading that explicitly includes gender is American literature--Women authors. In other LCSH form headings, the gender is implicit, e.g., Cowboys’ writings; Lesbians’ writings; Monks’ writings; Nuns’ writings; Widowers’ writings; Widows’ writings.These existing LCSH form headings will remain valid when LCGFT is implemented, but they will no longer be used for collections of works of a particular author group. For such works, LCGFT will be used, and categories of persons who created the works will not be included in LCGFT. For example, an anthology of American literature by women authors will be assigned an LCGFT term for literature. The other aspects of the works in the anthology, i.e., that they are in English and were written by American women, will need to be recorded elsewhere in the bibliographic or authority record. The gender attribute could be recorded in the 375 field. If the field were used for this purpose, one of the currently undefined indicators might need to be defined to state whether the field should be used for indexing purposes. The field might also need to be added to the Bibliographic format.
The subcommittee has recommended that terms for creators/contributors be recorded in plural noun form. In LCSH, female and male human genders are expressed as Women and Men. If one were to rely solely on the RDA use of this field, systems would need to be able to accommodate the related terms in some way (for example, with index tables). Otherwise, redundant data in both forms would need to be entered into the authority record.
Perhaps with the revisions discussed above, the existing 370 and 372-375 authority fields could accommodate group characteristics related to genre/form. Field 373 would either be used for all group categorizations for persons and works/expressions, or else it would hold all those that don’t fit into the other 3XX fields. The field(s) would need to be established in the Bibliographic format unless it is decided to have fields with different tags for the same data in the Bibliographic and Authority formats.
Because most of the existing fields are currently defined for use as attributes of persons (or persons and corporate bodies) only, and because the subcommittee feels that it may be best to have a single field that can be indexed and in which any creator/contributor group categories could be recorded, we suggest leaving the existing fields as they are and establishing a new field, as described below.
3XX - Creator/Contributor Group Categorization
Field Definition and Scope: The name of a group category to which the creator(s) of a work or works (including aggregate works) or the contributor(s) to an expression or expressions of a work belong(s). When used in a personal name authority record, names the group category that an individual falls into that is considered useful for resource discovery purposes.
Multiple creator/contributor group categories from the same source vocabulary may be recorded in the same field in separate occurrences of subfield $a (Creator/contributor group category). Terms from different source vocabularies may be recorded in separate occurrences of the field.
First Indicator - Undefined
# - Undefined
Second Indicator - Undefined
# - UndefinedSubfield Codes
$a - Creator/contributor group category (R)
$0 - Record control number (R)
$2 - Source of term (NR)
$6 - Linkage (NR)
$8 - Field link and sequence number (R)
Examples
N.B.: In the examples below, LCSH literature, music, and general form headings are used provisionally in field 655 in the absence of comparable LCGFT terms, which are still under development.
Title: Swallowing clouds : an anthology of Chinese-Canadian poetry
3XX ## $a Chinese Canadians $2 cash
655 #0 $a Poetry.
Title: Between the lines : an anthology by Pacific/Asian lesbians of Santa Cruz, California
3XX ## $a Asian Americans $a Pacific Islander Americans $a Lesbians $2 lcsh
655 #0 $a Literature.
Title: The tactile mind : literary magazine of the signing community
3XX ## $a Deaf $a Hearing impaired $2 lcsh
3XX ## $a Hearing Impaired Persons $2 mesh
655 #0 $a Literature.
655 #0 $a Periodicals.
Examples of Field Used in Authority Records for Persons
100 1# $a Bocelli, Andrea
3XX ## $a Italians $a Men $a Blind $a Tenors (Singers) $2 lcsh100 1# $a Kwan, Michelle, $d 1980-
3XX ## $a Figure skaters $a Women $a Chinese Americans $a Olympic athletes $2 lcsh
3XX ## $a Women $a Asian Americans $a Athletes $2 mesh100 1# $a Gogh, Vincent van, $d 1820-1888
3XX ## $a Painters $a Printmakers $a Artists $a Men $a Dutch $2 lcsh
3XX ## $a painters (artists) $a printmakers $a draftsmen (artists) $a men (male humans) $a Dutch $2 aat
Alternatives
Instead of a new 3XX field, SAC and its subcommittee considered several other options, including:
The subcommittee concluded that using the 3XX block would be best because the same tags could be used in both the Bibliographic and Authority format. Redefining field 656 would create a contradiction with how the field is being used currently. Two separate fields for audience characteristics (see 2012-DP04) and creator/contributor categorizations are preferable to a single one because it would reduce ambiguity about what a term recorded in one of the fields represents. It would probably also reduce coding errors, and possibly make it easier to separately index or facet the vocabularies used in the fields.
3.1. Do you agree that after LCGFT implementation that it will continue to be necessary to record in bibliographic records group categories for creators/contributors of compilations/aggregate works who share a particular characteristic?
3.2. Do you agree that creator/contributor group categorizations can be considered attributes of works and expressions? If so, should they be recorded in work and expression authority records, particularly for compilations/aggregate works? What about other work and expression authority records?
3.3. Do you agree that individual persons have attributes for categories of groups to which they belong (e.g., ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation groups)? Do you agree that such categories could be useful and should be recorded in personal name authority records?
3.4. Do you agree that the 3XX block is preferable for this data than 6XX or any other block of tags? Should the tags used in the Bibliographic and Authority formats be the same if possible?
3.5. Do you agree that two separate 3XX fields for creator/contributor group categorizations and for audience characteristics are preferable to a single field?
3.6. Would it be better to build related links between the geographic and nationality vocabularies rather than inputting the nationality term along with the associated country in the personal name authority record?
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