2 messages, 107 lines:
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Date: 19 Nov 1993 09:06:08 -0500 (EST)
From: "Enrique E. Gildemeister" <EEGLC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Subject: Labor union names

This message is being cross-posted to AUTOCAT, SERIALST, and ARCHIVES
and primarily concerns union newspapers (though not newspapers according
to CONSER newspaper definition), and union archives. Please excuse the
duplication.

LCRI 24.9 CHAPTERS, BRANCHES, ETC. relates to an AACR2 rule about qualifiers,
yet the text of the RI prescribes subordinate entry for branches, and does
not deal with qualifiers at all (except that they appear in the examples).
Essentially it is repeating the prescription in rule 24.13A Type 1. What
it does is expand the examples of terms indicating that the name is to
be treated under the provisions of Type 1.

This RI was written after Crystal Graham, a fellow serials cataloger with
whom I worked at New York University on a retrospective cataloging project
that included newspapers of union locals, wrote Ben Tucker at LC to inquire
about the qualifier issue as it relates to these locals. The decision to treat
them as branches fell in LCRI 24.9. We knew, then, that locals were to be
treated as Type 1 in all cases. There have, however, been problems with this
provision.

I break down names for union locals into three categories. I will use made
up examples, mostly. Category 1 are locals that have a grammatically inde-
pendent name with no enumeration embedded in the name itself; if enumeration
and dependent wording are included, they explain the relationship to the
parent body, or "international", i.e. that {independent name} *is* Local 9
of, say, American Federation of Teachers. The heading for the local is
comprised only of the independent name, with a 410 authority reference to
the international and the local number.

Category 2 are locals that have only the designation "local" plus enumeration.
These always are entered subordinately, no question about it.

Category 3 is the area that has never been clarified. I have browsed through
CONSER and other records but have found nothing consistent. I consider these
"intermediate subordinated" names. These are: locals that have a name that can
stand alone but include an enumeration as part of the name. A real life example
is New York Typographical Union No. 6. Another one is Drug and Hospital Union
No. 1199 (made up). Again, the enumeration refers to the relationship of the
"union", i.e. local to the parent body. I have seen many of these names esta-
blished as if the subject wording of the local constituted the parent body
and the the enumeration was the subordinate unit.

LCRI 24.9 prescribes subordination in all cases. However, Category 1 names,
in practice, have been established independently. It is Category 3 names
that present the biggest problem. Many of the union newspapers of these
locals do not carry the name of the international. One is tempted to use
the Category 3 name and let it stand alone. In practice, what I have done
in order to comply with 24.9 is researched the parent body in reference
sources. What if I had no reference sources (labor directories, conference
proceedings, etc.)? Now, when the name of the international changes, one is
required to formulate a new name for the local. But how does one know when
exactly it did change if it's not on the piece? Does it matter? What if
different sources carry the old form and the new form as if they were variants,
or they fluctuate? The problem is especially tiresome when dealing with
serials, because one likes to give a clear, precise note identifying the issue
as of which the change occurred. The biggest snag of all occurs when there
is a conflict in the title, i.e., another publication with the same name, AND
published in the same place. LCRI 25.5 flatly prescribes a corporate body
qualifier, and LCRI 21.3B prescribes that when the corporate body changes
name, the result constitutes a title change, with a new serial record
prepared with the new name as qualifier. This happens even when the Category
3 local name does not change, but the international does, because the rules
mandate entering the local subordinately to the name, i.e. the new name.

What do you do when you have a union newspaper with a Category 3 name
affiliation that does not change and you can't find the name of the inter
national in relevant sources except in nickname form, or whatever. You find
you are dealing with a name that did not change and a title that did not
change and you can't establish the required new name and you don't know with
what issue to close out the "old title". Very problematic. I think Category 3
names should be entered independently and that the uniform title should be
formulated with place and date.

I mentioned archives. As archival catalogers create collection level AMC
records they have to formulate AACR2 names. When I worked on the labor project
I had archivists asking me what to do. I didn't know, so we improvised when
we definitely knew the name of the international. We entered the local name
with all those nice subject words (i.e. that could stand alone) subordinately
to the name of the international.

I plan to work toward the alternative I present in the last sentence of the
above paragraph. I am already working on the corporate body qualifier problem.

Feedback anyone?

Rick Gildemeister
Cataloger/OCLC Enhance Coordinator
Lehman College of the City University of New York

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Date: 19 Nov 1993 10:35:41 -0500 (EST)
From: "Enrique E. Gildemeister" <EEGLC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Subject: Correction, union names

The last sentence in my previous message should read that I plan to work
on the proposal I make in the last sentence in the NEXT TO last paragraph.

I apologize for the error.

Rick Gildemeister