My personal apologies to the cataloging community for what was put in the 300 field. This has nothing to do with RDA, nor does it reflect CGU's policy or philosophy. While NYPL would like to politicize it, this is nothing more than a demonstration of extremely poor judgment of a cataloger who, frankly, should have known better.
___________________________________________ Christopher Cronin Director of Metadata & Cataloging Services University of Chicago Library 1100 E. 57th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Phone: 773-702-8739 Fax: 773-702-3016 Skype: christopher-cronin E-mail: [email protected] ___________________________________________ -----Original Message----- From: Resource Description and Access / Resource Description and Access [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Deborah Tomares Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 3:05 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [RDA-L] Subjective Judgements in RDA 300s???? I just cataloged the book corresponding to OCLC #702491897. When I looked at the record, the 300 read: 319 pages : |b illustrations (some coloured, all beautiful), maps ; |c 25 cm. I've corrected the spelling of "coloured" to American usage--is there an RDA provision I'm missing about this, or was it a typo? But the part I can't understand is the inclusion of "all beautiful". Are we allowed, under RDA provisions, to include value judgements about the illustrations? Are value judgements allowed elsewhere in cataloging under RDA? Under AACR2, we are supposed to be as objective as possible when creating records, and not allow personal biases in subjects, etc. But this is ridiculous. Aren't we supposed to just be transcribing in the 300 field? Is this a rogue cataloger, or is there a provision I should be cringing about now? Thanks in advance for all information (and potential public drubbing of CGU?). Deborah Tomaras, NACO Coordinator Librarian II Western European Languages Team New York Public Library Library Services Center 31-11 Thomson Ave. Long Island City, N.Y. 11101 (917) 229-9561 [email protected] Disclaimer: Alas, my ideas are merely my own, and not indicative of New York Public Library policy.
