Even when cataloging materials from relatively related legal systems, such
as the Anglo-American Common Law, and the Roman-based Civil Law, many
problems arise (and this is what I do most of the day, Hebrew is a
sideline for me). However Jewish law, and Jewish publishing in general,
don't follow the same publishing patterns. The title page is probably a
less reliable course among traditional (what some call "rabbinical")
publishers. And this is before we thinking about personal names, since
many traditional authors haven't fully bought into the idea of using
surnames consistently.
Furthermore, even among non-Jewish publishers, publishing patterns are
breaking up in the age of online self-publishing. I recently had a problem
with an American lawbook where the author confused a pseudonym with a
festscrift - LC eventually set up the NAF for author based on the name of
the person he was honoring, since that was on the title page, and
disregarded what the author clearly stated at the book's website, not
mention the "about the author" page.
Perhaps reflecting that I am first of all a subject cataloger, I would
suggest we should focus less on a preferred source of information, and
more on the substance (which means, horror of horror for a descriptive
cataloger - opening the book to see what comes after the t.p.). In a
related example, we often make an added entry for Karo's "Shulhan Arukh"
or a part thereof (e.g. Hoshen Mishpat), based on the t.p. (our "holy of
holies" under descriptive rules), when in the fact the book is actually a
treatise whose subject matter is defined by those aspects of Jewish law
covered by the original Shulhan Arukh (by the Tur, several centuries
before Karo was born). We should limit treatment as a commentary to
situations where the author is discussing textual analysis (where did Karo
get this from, how do Karo and Isserles compare), but not for works that
are presenting the authors take on the subject. A similar situation exist
for the treatment of Justinian's "Corpus Iuris Civilis" which has come to
define what "civil law" is, and is not, throughout the Civil law (meaning
other than common law) countries - and we only use commentary treatment
for works analyzing the text, and use a subject heading ("Civil law") for
works on contemporary's authors treatments of the subjects defined by
Justinian's code. By this standard, the Mishnah Brurah would probably be
entered under the Hafets Hayyim, with a 7xx analytical for the Shulhan
Arukh's Orach hayyim, and a 650 heading for "Orach hayyim" (which doesn't
exist, though I did set up an equivalent for Hoshen Mishpat).
Since the cataloging world as we know it is about to self-destruct, and
hopefully be reborn, now might be a good time to rethink what we've been
doing, and reconsider past practices that probably never were fully
justified to begin with.
Aaron
Aaron Wolfe Kuperman
Library of Congress, ABA USPL, Law Cataloging Section
This is NOT an official communication from the Library of Congress.
On Tue, 29 May 2012 [email protected] wrote:
> Hallo all
>
> In response to my posting, Ms. Meira Harroch, Head of Hebrew Cataloging,
> Israeli National Library, sent me a private message and asked me to
> explain National library Policy to the list.
>
> Their decision is based on the structure of the title page. If the Mishnah
> Berurah appears first, then the main entry will be under the Hafetz
> Hayyim. Where the phrasing emphasizes the Shulhan Arukh, i.e Shulhan Arukh
> with the commentary Mishnah Berurah, then the heading will be under Caro.
>
> Chaim
>
> Chaim Seymour
> Head of Cataloging and Classification
> Wurzweiler Libary
> Bar-Ilan University
> Ramat Gan, Israel, 52900
> [email protected]
> Tel: 972-3-5318127, Fax 972-3-7384065
>
Aaron Wolfe Kuperman
Library of Congress, ABA USPL, Law Cataloging Section
This is NOT an official communication from the Library of Congress.
__
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