Others have made many points in this discussion that I agree with, which I'd just like to summarize and reiterate; my opinion that the heading should be constructed as simply "Snoopy" remains unchanged.
If one consults the OCLC bib file and other reference resources for the predominant form of name for Snoopy, the unadorned name clearly wins. Therefore, based on RDA 9.2.2.2a/c, the preferred form of the name should be Snoopy, without any mention of doctorness. As Mr. Creider has stated: " The existence of the title 'Dr.' does not, by itself, imply two distinct identities"; we've certainly seen resources before where name forms have varied, and included professional criteria on only some preferred sources of information. Unless one assumes that Dr. Snoopy is somehow different from plain Snoopy, and would advocate a series of maybe linked authorities for each differing guise of a character. Mr. Schouten, for example, claims that: "even fictional characters are entitled to their own Personae". But I would argue against this route for multiple reasons. Fictitious character cannot truly have professions, so they aren't really different "persons" despite the guise; moreover, because of their fluid, unreal nature, they can have a plethora of possible guises, much more so than a real person, which would make creating authorities a nightmare. Do we really want to go down the route of providing linked (and constantly changing) authorities for characters like superheroes, who change aliases depending on storyline (like Spider Man, who for a brief period was Ben Reilly instead of Peter Parker--until it was determined that Ben Reilly was a clone, who is now the Scarlet Spider in a different series), or include personae created in one-off graphic novels exploring aspects of a character but intended to be part of a character's continuity? I believe that insisting on following "real person" rules too strictly for fictitious characters, without allowing common sense to influence the decision about headings, does a disservice to users, who would certainly not expect, need, or desire, to find information about Snoopy under "Snoopy, Dr." Particularly since LC may void subject headings in favor of created name headings for fictitious characters, I believe it behooves catalogers to be conservative, and general, in their creation of such headings. It does not benefit access to force users to use multiple/related searches, with the dreaded attendant mouse clicks, to find everything about Snoopy under his supposed different personae. As Mr. Weinheimer has pointed out, headings and changes to headings should be made only because "it has been demonstrated that these are the kinds of changes that will help our patrons find the materials they need". For all the reasons above, I still believe that the heading example should be changed to simply "Snoopy", and I will be forwarding my requests to the appropriate channels. 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 dtoma...@nypl.org Disclaimer: Alas, my ideas are merely my own, and not indicative of New York Public Library policy.
