Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 11:01:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Enrique E. Gildemeister" <EEGLC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Subject: Uniform title authorities

This message is being cross-posted to several lists. Please excuse
duplications.

The material presented here came out of some discussions at our consortium's
catalogers' roundtable meeting about a year ago. We are a NOTIS site, using
release 5.12. Authority control is done on an ongoing basis by exporting
authority records from OCLC and then setting the use codes to "c" (not
USMARC, which only allows "b" or "a") to turn on the appropriate cross-
reference(s) in the OPAC.

USMARC authorities have three categories of use: name, subject, and series.
If a series, for example, is entered under title, and the reference is from
a name with $t, you activate both the series and the name use codes by changing
a to c in both cases. The same happens if the series is entered under a name
with a title in the 430 position. If the series is entered under a name,and the
cross-references are made under name only, then the series code is not
activated. The thing one needs to grasp is that "series" here means "title".

The main flaw we've discovered in the system has to do with the limitation
of authority uses to names, subjects, and series (starting with the problem
described directly above). Treaties entered under title, for example, have
authority records in NAF, but the use codes are limited to treating it as
a name or a subject. The crux is: In order to get the heading (130) and cross-
references coded 430 to display correctly in the OPAC, we have to set the
series use code to "c". When we try to edit that online on PRISM Authorities,
we get an error message that the series data elements are missing.

A bunch of us discussed this over dinner after our roundtable meeting, and
the music cataloger was pumping me with questions about serial uniform
titles (at the time I was practically maniacally involved with reforming
LCRI 25.5B). What she had most trouble with was the fact that these "unique
serial identifiers" are not under authority control unless they are monogra-
phic series (you can catalog either the series or the analytics). I really
was at a loss to explain it to her. We just don't have a use code for plain
old uniform title. Anonymous classics, and Bible and Talmud headings
must be treated as names or subjects.

During that period when there was so much discussion about serial uniform
titles and the effort to avoid title changes, Mitch Turitz, I believe,
expressed a preference for corporate body qualifier for the most recent
issuing body and 730's for the older ones (Mitch, did I get that right?).
The consensus was, though, like it or not, we wanted to use place, and said
that the qualifier serves to distinguish two serials with the same title, and
not to try to supply information.

It may not be feasible, but it seems that a uniform title authority could
be made, with 130 giving date, and giving the corporate body qualifiers
in multiple 430's. I guess you would, to be accurate, set up author-title
cross-references and also 530's for title changes, but suppress the display
of these, since the serial already does all that. But the way the USMARC
format for authorities is only set up for *series* titles, not for other
types of titles. To my knowledge, and I did a lot of checking around in
my cataloger's "tool-kit", the only uniform titles *not* controlled by
uniform titles are the ones that serve as conflict-resolving devices, usually
for serials, but LCRI 25.5B calls for something similar in some cases for
monographs.

What I'm trying to say is that there was so much regret expressed over the use
of place rather than corporate body, that I've tried to think of ways that
both can be done. Wouldn't it be great if we could use a *uniform title
authority* (not just for series) that would enable us to use the place
qualifier in the established form, and give the successive issuing bodies as
qualifiers after the title?

How do people feel about that? Or maybe we've had enough of uniform titles! ;-)

*******************************************************************
* Rick Gildemeister                                               *
* Head of Cataloging/OCLC Enhance Coordinator                     *
* Lehman College, CUNY                                            *
*                            "Facilis descensus Averno"           *
* Voice: (718) 960-7773                                           *
* Fax:   (718) 960-8952                                           *
* BITNET:    eeglc@cunyvm                                         *
* Internet:  eeglc@cunyvm.cuny.edu                                *
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