Practice under RDA has not changed from what it was under AACR2: in the descriptive portion of the record, e.g. statements of responsibility, notes, and the like, initials with full stops are recorded without intervening spaces, for example: "by S.J. Perelman."
The RDA instruction that continues this practice is found at 1.7.6, which governs transcription (as opposed to formulation of access points). In authorized access points, on the other hand, we have always included a space between initials that are separated by full stops, for the exact reasons of indexing that you mention, Heidrun. For example: 100 1_ $a Lane, A. N. S. [see name authority record n 96051095] The RDA instruction to continue this practice is in chapter 8, which governs the construction of authorized points -- see 8.5.6.1. (a): "leave a space between a full stop following an initial representing a forename or surname and the subsequent initial or name." So yes, there is one practice that applies to transcription of information found in the source, and another that applies to the formulation of access points. But there has been no change in practice. AACR2 didn't actually speak to the question of spacing after initials. The example you give from 22.5A1 is just that, an example, and examples in AACR2 are always illustrative, not prescriptive (see AACR2 0.14). So it was left to a Library of Congress Rule Interpretation to determine actual practice, and that determination is at LCRI 22.1B, under the caption: Punctuation/Spacing Conventions in Personal Name Heading Access Points in Name Authority and Bibliographic Records where it states: "Spaces. If the name contains two or more forenames represented by initials, consists entirely of initials, or consists entirely of separate letters that are not initials, input a single space between the initials/letters in all cases." On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 10:01 AM, Heidrun Wiesenmüller < wiesenmuel...@hdm-stuttgart.de> wrote: > I am puzzled by the treatment of initials in names of persons under RDA. > > According to AACR2, I believe there was never a space between two or more > initials, regardless whether the initials appeared in the bibliographic > description (e.g. in the statement of responsibility) or in a heading or > reference. An example in 1.1.F4. reads "edited by P.C. Wason and P.N. > Johnson-Laird", and one in 22.5A1. reads "Byatt, A.S.". So, the treatment > was consistent. > > Now in RDA, initials in the bibliographic description are still > transcribed without internal spaces, e.g. "edited by P.C. Wason and P.N. > Johnson-Laird" (example in 1.7.6). Yet they are transcribed with spaces in > preferred or variant names of persons, e.g. > "Rowling, J. K." (example in 8.5.6.1). > > I find it difficult to understand why the rule was changed with respect to > preferred/variant names only. Wouldn't it be much easier to apply the same > custom in both cases? > > In Germany, we've always put spaces between initials in names of persons, > regardless whether these appear in the bibliographic description or in > headings/references. I think this is mainly due to matters of indexing. > Many systems here simply ignore full stops in indexing. So without internal > spaces we would end up with "PC" in the index instead of "P" and "C". > > Heidrun > > > -- > --------------------- > Prof. Heidrun Wiesenmueller M.A. > Stuttgart Media University > Faculty of Information and Communication > Wolframstr. 32, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany > www.hdm-stuttgart.de/bi > -- Charles Croissant Senior Catalog Librarian Pius XII Memorial Library Saint Louis University St. Louis, MO 63108
