John,
I think we're looking at this a little too closely. This element grew out of a note in AACR2 practice. It was never intended to be so precise.
My old fault: Being German (and therefore, very trusting to authority), I tend to take the text too seriously...
Note that in 7.9.1.3 it says "the name of the institution or faculty to which the thesis was presented (see 7.9.3)" but in 7.9.3 it's "granting institution or faculty."
Indeed. I hadn't noticed that at all. The first bit, which sounds a lot more open than the element name of 7.9.3, is taken verbally from AACR2 1.7B13. I assume that while reworking, they decided to change this to the "granting institution or faculty", but forgot to adapt the sentence in 7.9.1.3.
As for Habilitationsschriften, they can be accommodated in the present element. You could record "Habilitationsschrift" in 7.9.2.3. It wouldn't hurt to propose a revision to broaden that instruction to include such terms. I wouldn't like to see new specialized elements created.
You're right. We're always quick here - probably too quick - coming up with new elements and sub-elements.
After re-reading the instruction, I find that RDA's definition of an "academic degree" ("a rank conferred as a guarantee of academic proficiency") is not so strict that one couldn't put somebody with habilitation qualification under this label. And the example "doctoral" shows that it's not necessary to record an exact degree here. So I'm going to propose we record "Habilitationsschrift" under 7.9.2.3 in these cases. Perhaps a slight change of wording might also be proposed. I wonder if "academic degree" could be changed to "academic degree or qualification". And of course, an additional example for a Habilitationsschrift would be nice.
Heidrun -- --------------------- Prof. Heidrun Wiesenmueller M.A. Stuttgart Media University Wolframstr. 32, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany www.hdm-stuttgart.de/bi
