RDA and the “cascading vortex of horror”: proposals for simplification of RDA 2.7-2.10

Alan DanskinMetadata Standards Manager, British Library

British Library Representative to Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA

ISNI: 0000 0001 1825 6037

www.bl.uk 2

From JSC Agenda 2014

• 6JSC/ALA/29 Clarifying core element status for “not identified” elements in the Distribution and Manufacture Statements (RDA 2.9 and 2.10)

• 6JSC/ALA/Discussion/4 Transcription issues associated with the Production Statement (RDA 2.7)

• 6JSC/BL rep/1 Simplification of RDA 2.7-2.10

www.bl.uk 3

Overview

• Imprint

• From Panizzi to RDA

• Cascading Vortex of Horror

• Problems with imprint in RDA

• What is to be done?

• Next Steps

• Links

www.bl.uk 4

www.bl.uk 5

Panizzi’s 91 Rules

XXVII

Then the place where the book was printed; and in particular cases, as in the instance of early or very eminent typographers, the printer's name to be specified. Next the date : when no date or place is specified, then either or both to be given, if known to, or conjectured by, the librarian ; but in these instances to be included in brackets. The form to follow, whether fol., 4to, 8vo, &c.

www.bl.uk 6

AACR

138. Imprint. A. Order of elements. The imprint is recorded in the catalog entry in the conventional order of place, publisher, date.C. Printer's imprint as a substitute for publisher's imprint. If neither the place of publication nor the publisher is named in the work and the place of printing and the name of the printer are, the latter are used in the imprint.

139. Place of publication. Preliminary note. The place of publication is the place in which the offices of the pub- lisher are located. It is commonly designated on the title pages of his publications, immediately preceding or follow- ing his name.

140. Publisher. A. General rule. The publisher statement appearing on a work is abridged as much as possible without loss of intelligibility or identification of the publisher.

141. Date. A. General rule. An imprint date on the title page is always recorded.F. Date uncertain. If there is no imprint date given in the book and the exact date cannot be ascertained, a date is supplied....

www.bl.uk 7

AACR2

1.4B. General Rule

1.4B1 In this area, record information about the place, name, and date of all types of publishing, distributing, releasing, and issuing activities. For unpublished materials, see 1.4C8

1.4B2 Record information relating to the manufacture of the item in this area.

1.4B3 When more than one place, name, or date is recorded in this area, give them in the order that is appropriate to the item being described.

1.4B4 Give names of places, persons, or bodies as they appear, omitting accompanying prepositions unless case endings would be affected. Use abbreviations as instructed in appendix B

1.4B5 If the original publication details are covered by a label containing publication details relating to a reproduction, reissue, etc., give the publication details of the later publication in this area. Give the publication details of the original in a note if they can be ascertained readily.

1.4B6 If an item is known to have fictitious publication, distribution, etc., details, give them in the conventional order. Supply the real publication, distribution, etc., details as a correction if they are known.

www.bl.uk 8

www.bl.uk 9

Changes from AACR2 to RDAAACR2 RDA

Record Transcribe

Record shortest form

Penguin

Generally don’t omit information

Penguin Books

Aggregate functionsPublication, Distribution, etc. Area

Separate functionsProduction StatementPublication StatementDistribution StatementManufacture Statement

Chapter 4 Manuscripts Distinction between published unpublished resources

www.bl.uk 10

Some issues

• Cascading vortex of horror

• Published and Unpublished resources

• Transcription and identification

• Resource Discovery requirements

• Complexity

www.bl.uk 11

“Cascading vortex of horror…?”*

“Refers to the chain of instructions the cataloguer may be required to follow in order to satisfy the core requirements, when a piece of information is not available.”

* Phrase Attributed to Kathy Glennan

www.bl.uk 12

For example…

Publication Statement Edinburgh : Canongate Books , 2013Publication statement when all components are known.

Publication Statement Edinburgh : [publisher not identified] , 2013Distribution Statement Kirkcaldy : Danskin Distribution , [2014]

Statements required when core element cannot be identified

www.bl.uk 13

Published and Unpublished resourcesPublication “Products”

Books, Serials, Scores, Commercial Recordings, etc.

Archives, Manuscripts, artworks, naturally occurring or manmade objects, etc.

“Self describing” Not self describing

Explicit statement by publisher No statement

Transcription Transcription …of what?

Explicit statement by publisher No statement

Authoritative Dubious, erroneous, unclear

www.bl.uk 14

Transcription and identification

Transcribed noteImprinted at London by Thomas Este, the aßigné of William Byrd, & are to be fold at the houfe of the fayd T.Este, being in Alderfgate street, at the figne of the black Horfe. 1590.

Publication Statement : London : Thomas Este, 1590Distribution Statement: London : T. Este, [1590]Manufacture Statement London : Thomas Este, 1590

www.bl.uk 15

Discovery relying on transcribed data

Thomas Este

T. Este

Thomas Est

Thomas Easte

T.E.

T. East

Find things printed by T. Este

www.bl.uk 16

Discovery relying on controlled data

Thomas Este

T. Este

Thomas Est

Thomas Easte

T.E.

T. East

Find things printed by T. Este

www.bl.uk 17

ICP Objectives and Functions of the Catalogue

The catalogue should be an effective and efficient instrument that enables a user:

4.1.1. to find a single resource

4.1.2 to find sets of resources representing: …

• all resources defined by other criteria (language, place of publication, publication date, content type, carrier type, etc.), usually as a secondary limiting of a search result;

www.bl.uk 18

FRBR User TasksFRBR User Task FIND IDENTIFY SELECT OBTAIN

Group 1 Entities W E M I W E M I W E M I W E M I

Attributes of a manifestation

                               

Place of publication/distribution

            L   L L L         H

Publisher/distributor     L       H     L L         H

Date of publication/distribution

M M L   M M H   M M H         H

Fabricator/manufacturer     L       L       L          

Relationships Between a Manifestation and:

                               

persons/corporate bodies responsible for production/dissemination

    M                          

www.bl.uk 19

RDA and use cases

RDA 21 has PPDM/is PPDM

Place of PPDM PPDM Name

Date of PPDM

has property/is property

ManifestationRDA 9,10,11

Person, Family,Corporate Body

FIND IDENTIFYSELECT

OBTAIN (ITEM)

FIND SETS

www.bl.uk 20

Complexity

4 Statements x 5 elements

54 Pages

186 instructions

Conditional core requirements

Optional additions

Option omissions

Exceptions

Alternatives

Different from AACR2

www.bl.uk 21

What’s to be done?

1. Separate the IDENTIFY and FIND tasks:– Same data cannot support both

2. Replace aggregate elements with simple statement transcribed from source– Production Statement an exception?

3. Use relationships to support collocation– How far can we take this?

4. Propose new elements/instructions to fill gaps– What are the wider implications

www.bl.uk 22

Choices

There are different approaches

I have illustrated the main options in two scenarios

Scenario A (lighter touch)

Scenario B (major impact)

www.bl.uk 23

Summary of Scenario A

Transcribe dates in 2.7-2.10– i.e. do not apply instructions for numbers recorded as words,

etc. at RDA 1.8

Deprecate subordinate elements – i.e. Place, Name, Date

Define new elements Date of Manifestation & Place of Manifestation to record controlled form of dates or names of places

www.bl.uk 24

Example 1; Scenario A

2.8 Publication Statement Imprinted at London by Thomas Este, the aßigné of William Byrd & are to be fold at the houfe of the fayd T.Este, being in Alderfgate street, at the figne of the black Horfe. 1590.

2. ? Place of Manifestation London2. ? Date of Manifestation 1590

21. 3 relationship to Publisher East, Thomas, 1540? – 1608?

www.bl.uk 25

Summary of Scenario B

• Transcribe dates in 2.7-2.10– i.e. do not apply instructions for numbers recorded as words,

etc. at RDA 1.8

• Deprecate 2.7-2.10

• New Element 2.7 Issuance Statement

• Deprecate subordinate elements for Place, Name and Date

• Extend model to– Unconstrain Place entity– Add Timespan entity

www.bl.uk 26

Example 1; Scenario B

2.8 Issuance Statement Imprinted at London by Thomas Este, the aßigné of William Byrd & are to be fold at the houfe of the fayd T.Este, being in Alderfgate street, at the figne of the black Horfe. 1590.

21. 3 relationship to Publisher East, Thomas, 1540? – 1608?23.? relationship to Timespan 159023.? relationship to Place Sign of the Black Horse, Aldergate

Street, London

www.bl.uk 27

Example 2: Scenario B

2.7 Issuance Statement Published by: Prospect, London. Printers: Wyndeham (Peterborough) Limited,

21.3 relationship to Publisher Prospect21.5 relationship to Manufacturer Wyndeham Limited23.? relationship to Timespan Published 2001-23.? relationship to Place Published

www.bl.uk 28

Benefits: Scenario B

More consistent instructions on transcription

No aggregate elements

Simpler to apply:No cascading vortex of horror

Shorter text

Simpler metadata

www.bl.uk 29

Benefits: Scenario B

Richer discoveryVariant terms

Place Entity and Timespan EntityAttributes, e.g. calendar; script; system of numeration

Wider applications, e.g. Place of Birth; Date of Work

Extensibility

www.bl.uk 30

Scenario B

RDA 23.? has place of publication/is place of publication

RDA 21.3 has publisher/is publisher

RDA 23.? has date of publication/is date of publication

issuance statement

(Literal)

has property/is property

has property/is property

Manifestation

RDA 16 Place

RDA 9,10,11Person, Family,Corporate Body

RDA? Time Span

calendartype

www.bl.uk 31

Simplification: Pages

RDA Reference Current Text Scenario A Scenario B

2.7 11 6 6

2.8 14 6 0

2.9 12 6 0

2.10 13 6 0

2.17.6. 1 1 1

2.17.7 1 1 0

2.17.8 1 1 0

2.17.9 1 1 0

Date of Manifestation 0 2 0

Place of Manifestation 0 2 0

Total 54 32 7

www.bl.uk 32

Simplification: Instructions

RDA Reference Current Text Scenario A Scenario B

2.7 26 22 22

2.8 40 22 0

2.9 43 22 0

2.10 45 22 0

2.17.6 8 8 8

2.17.7 8 8 0

2.17.8 8 8 0

2.17.9 8 8 0

Date of Manifestation 0 7 0

Place of Manifestation 0 7 0

Total 186 134 30

www.bl.uk 33

Wider issues

Substantial changes to instructions

Changes to RDA element set

Changes to MARC 21Additional subfields and indicators for 264

New fields

Changes to FRBR modelNew entity Timespan

Remove constraints from Place

ISDB

www.bl.uk 34

What happens next?

Constituency responses to JSC papers due by 4th October

JSC meets in Washington, D.C. 3-7 November

Minor changes could appear in RDA April 2015 Update

Major issues will need further work, even if agreed

www.bl.uk 35

Links to RDA

Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA

http://rda-jsc.org/rda.html

RDA Toolkit

http://www.rdatoolkit.org/

RDA Registry

http://www.rdaregistry.info/

www.bl.uk 36

Links to papers discussed

• http://rda-jsc.org/docs/6JSC-ALA-29.pdf

• http://www.rda-jsc.org/docs/6JSC-ALA-Discussion-4.pdf

• http://www.rda-jsc.org/docs/6JSC-BL-rep-1.pdf

www.bl.uk 37

Links to IFLA

IFLA Statement of International Cataloguing Principles

http://www.ifla.org/publications/statement-of-international-cataloguing-principles

Final Report of the IFLA Study Group on Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)

http://www.ifla.org/publications/functional-requirements-for-bibliographic-records