Charles,
Thank you, that was very helpful indeed.
But I wonder: Was it never discussed whether it might be a good idea to
change the practice for transcription, in order to align it with the
practice for access points? There would be three advantages:
#1: consistent display in catalogs
#2: no problems with keyword indexing of titles and statements of
responsibility
#3: easier for catalogers (only one rule to remember for initials in
names of persons instead of two)
LCCN 00339347 is a nice example for #1. The Permalink
http://lccn.loc.gov/00339347 doesn't seem to work as it should today, so
here are the main things users are shown in LC's catalog (the "old" one):
*Main title:*
Lieber C.G. Jung : was ich Ihnen schon immer sagen wollte / Marianne
Schiess (Hrsg.) ; mit Beitra?gen von Ruth Ammann ... [et al.].
*Related names:*
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961.
Schiess, Marianne.
Ammann, Ruth, 1934-
*Subjects:*
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961.
Jungian psychology.
Perhaps users don't care about details like this anyway, but I still
find it somwehat confusing to have "C.G." in the title
and "C. G." in the entries.
A good example for #2 is LCCN 88034257 (permalink would be
http://lccn.loc.gov/88034257):
C.G. Jung and the humanities : toward a hermeneutics of culture / edited
by Karin Barnaby and Pellegrino D'Acierno.
I tried a title keyword search in LC's catalog with "c g jung
humanities", which was successful - bravo, well done!
Then I tried the catalog of the British Library. A title keyword search
for "c g jung humanities" got one result (a record where there seems to
be a mistake in the title, as it has a space between the initials). A
title keyword search for "cg jung humanities", on the other hand, got
three results (in all of them, there is no space between the initials).
I conclude that although it is possible to come up with adequate
indexing for initials without spaces, not all catalogs seem to have
managed that (probably because some additional effort is needed). It
certainly would be interesting to try out some more catalogs.
Here in Germany, we will have to discuss whether we should give up our
practice of always using internal spaces, or whether we should make use
of the first alternative in RDA 1.7.1. in this case (which allows to use
in-house guidelines instead of the rules in 1.7.2-1.7.9).
Heidrun
Charles Croissant wrote:
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
<mailto: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 <http://www.hdm-stuttgart.de/bi>
--
Charles Croissant
Senior Catalog Librarian
Pius XII Memorial Library
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO 63108
--
---------------------
Prof. Heidrun Wiesenmueller M.A.
Stuttgart Media University
Faculty of Information and Communication
Wolframstr. 32, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany
www.hdm-stuttgart.de/bi
