PCC Task Group on Name Versus Subject Authorities

Final Report

The PCC Task Group on Name Versus Subject Authorities was established to re-examine and recommend policies for content designation and formulation of headings for entities with characteristics common to both names and subjects, especially events, works of art, and geographic areas, with the goal of regularizing practices between LCSH and AACR 2 and among the variant practices of members of the cataloging community.

The task group is hereby submitting its recommendations which include the identification (as best as possible) of the impact of changed policies on the entire cataloging community.

The task group members are

Amon Carter Museum Library: Sherman Clarke

British Library: Alan Danskin

Library of Congress: Randall K. Barry (Network Development and MARC Standards Office), Lynn M. El-Hoshy (Cataloging Policy and Support Office ), Robert M. Hiatt, member and chair (May 4, 1995- )(Cataloging Policy and Support Office), Elizabeth U. Mangan (Geography and Map Division), Loche A. McLean (Cataloging Distribution Service), Mark Ziomek (member and chair until May 4, 1995) (Cataloging Policy and Support Office)

National Library of Canada: Ralph W. Manning

Although not a member of the task group, Roger Lawson, National Gallery of Art, attended most of the meetings as a local representative for Sherman Clarke and the art library community. The task group wishes to express its appreciation for his willingness to attend the meetings and for his valuable contributions to the task group's deliberations.

Background

On June 17, 1994, the precursor of this task group, CPSO/CCC Task Group on Issues Surrounding Maintenance of Separate Name and Subject Authority Files issued its report. Among that task group's "long-term" issues was a section entitled "Regularizing Descriptive and Subject Cataloging Practices" with the subsections "Subject or name heading" and"MARC tags." It is with these issues that the present task group is concerned.

Subject or Name Heading

1. Works of art. The Anglo-American Cataloging Rules are being adopted more and more by the museum and archival communities. The task group agreed that intellectually there is little, if any, difference between a uniform title for a work of art and uniform titles for materials more traditionally collected and cataloged by the library community, e.g., books, serials, and music.

   Recommendation. The task group recommends that uniform titles for individual works of art should reside in the name authority file and be established according to established rules and guidelines. Furthermore, the task group recommends that the art library community develop guidelines for the treatment of individual works of art within the principles of AACR 2. Until such time as ARLIS/NA makes it recommendations and guidelines are agreed, no change should be made in current practice.

   A subgroup of the Art Libraries Society/North America (ARLIS/NA), Cataloging Advisory Committee (CAC) is currently working on a definition of a work of art and on guidelines for uniform titles for works of art. Other subgroups will also be working on guidelines for buildings and looking into concerns relating to ancient and medieval sites.

   Impact. Since there are as yet no guidelines for the structure of uniform titles for works of art, impact on the library community cannot be determined at this time. The task group estimates that deleting the at least 200 records currently in the LC subject authority file would take about 16 hours. However, deletion of the subject authority records would need to be coordinated with the establishment of the replacement headings in the name authority file. The subject authority record can be "cloned" into a name authority record. However, depending upon the guidelines developed by the art library community (e.g., language of the title), the time to create a name authority record will vary if reference sources need to be checked for a title in the language of the artist.

2. Cemeteries, City Sections, Concentration Camps, Country Clubs. These three types of entities are those that remain in Group 3 (established in either the name or subject authority file) on the list of headings for certain entities (Descriptive Cataloging Manual, Z11, and Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings, H405).

   Recommendation. The task group recommends that these entities be established in the name authority file. This recommendation stems from the use of at least some of these headings as main or added, as well as subject entries. For consistency, all such headings, rather than a selection, should reside in the name authority file. The task group further recommends that these shifts be done as a project, insofar as is practicable. Doing them as a project would lead to less confusion among users.

   Impact. If the change is done only as headings are encountered, the impact is minimal. If projects are undertaken to move the headings in these categories, the impact is more substantial on the Library of Congress where the work would be accomplished but minimal on the rest of the library community. The task group estimates that there are currently about 600 cemetery headings, 100 concentration camp headings, and one country club heading in the subject authority file. There is no way to estimate the number of city section headings in the file. The task group estimates that 1,000-1,500 bibliographic records might need to be revised.

3. Events. The task group agreed that there were basically two types of events. Some events are formally convened, directed toward a common goal, capable of being reconvened, and have formal names, locations, dates, and durations that can be determined in advance of the event. Other events generally cannot be repeated and have no formal name but are commonly referred to by generic terms only; more formal names may be applied to the event only after the fact.

   Recommendation. The task group recommends that events that are formally convened, directed toward a common goal, capable of being reconvened, and have formal names, locations, dates, and durations that can be determined in advance of the event be established in the name authority file under AACR 2 conventions. Events that generally cannot be repeated and have no formal name but are commonly referred to by generic terms only should continue to be established in the subject authority file under LCSH conventions. The task group further recommends that these changes be done as a series of projects.

   The task group developed the following list of events and has indicated the appropriate file for each type of event:

        NAMES FILE                         SUBJECTS FILE
   
      Athletic contests                  Accidents
      Competitions                       Assassinations
      Conferences                        Bombings, explosions
      Contests                           Coronations
      Exhibitions                        Cruises, flights
      Expeditions, Military              Cultural revolutions
      Expeditions, Scientific            Epidemics, famines
      Expositions                        Fires
      Fairs                              Funerals
      Festivals, Folk                    Hijackings
      Festivals and celebrations         Imprisonments
      Folk festivals and celebrations    Inaugurations
      Games (Events)                     Massacres
      Meetings                           Military engagements, operations
      Parades                            Natural disasters
      Public celebrations,               Political incidents, affairs, 
      pageants, anniversaries            scandals
      Races (Contests)                   Purges
      Shows (Exhibitions)                Reigns, rules
      Sport events                       Riots, demonstrations
      Tournaments                        Sieges, blockades
                                         Special days, weeks, months,
                                         years, decades,
   				      umbrella terms for events
                                         that are  composed of  multiple
                                         individual  public celebrations,
                                         pageants, anniversaries
                                         Strikes
                                         Trials
                                         Uprisings, mutinies
                                         Weddings

   Impact. If the change is done only as headings are encountered, the impact is minimal. However, the confusion to the user could be substantial because of the timing of the many changes (e.g., 150 Super Bowl (Football game) could be changed to 111 Super Bowl but 150 World Series (Baseball) remain as is, if that heading had not yet been encountered in current cataloging). If projects are undertaken to move the headings in these categories, the impact is substantial on the Library of Congress where the work would be accomplished and significant on the rest of the library community in revising existing records.

   MARC Tags

4. "Geographic" entities. There is a discrepancy in the tagging of certain entities that have geographic extent among the three national libraries. The British Library and the National Library of Canada tag these entities as X10 while the Library of Congress tags them as X51 (X10 1 when used as main or added entry headings).

   Recommendation. The task group recommends tagging practice in accord with the following table:

             110                           151
             Airports                      City sections
             Arboretums                    Collective settlements
             Botanical gardens             Communes
             Cemeteries                    Military installations
             Concentration camps
             Country clubs
             Herbariums
             Zoological gardens
       

   The principle followed is that those entities that occupy territory with multiple structures and are permanently inhabited by persons are like political jurisdictions and therefore should be tagged X51. Those entitites that occupy territory but are not permanently occupied by persons should be tagged as X10.

   Impact. The impact is high as existing records (both authority and bibliographic) would need to be revised. However, the files are not necessarily consistent currently, even with the tagging of the same entity.

5. Families, Clans, etc.

   Recommendation. Because family names are widely used as main or added entry headings for collections of manuscript material, the task group recommends that the tag used for family names, clans, etc., continue to be 100. (See also the statement on family names in Cataloging Service Bulletin, no. 69, p. 38.)

6. Buildings

   Recommendation. The task group is not making a recommendation on this topic. Since ARLIS/NA is deliberating how to handle buildings (e.g., latest versus successive entry), perhaps this question could be revisited once ARLIS/NA has submitted any recommendations.

   The committee members that were able to meet physically on a regular basis felt that 110 should continue to be used for names of buildings even for noncorporate entitites established in the subject authority file (e.g., Empire State Building) since the user has little or no concept of "corporateness" versus "noncorporateness." Since 110 must be used when the name of the building is identical to the name of the corporate entity that occupies the building (e.g., churches, museums, schools), the task group felt the consistency of treatment was important to the user as well as to the individual creating the record. On the other hand, at the National Library of Canada, entities tagged as 110 can reside only in the name authority file in its new system and thus they can not accept the subject authority record for the Empire State Building tagged as 110.

   As for where the headings for buildings should reside, ARLIS/NA has generally favored establishing buildings in the name authority file, primarily for ease of submission.

7. Other categories. There are additional categories of headings (e.g., fictional characters, parks, "proper" names) about which the task group has received comment but on which it is not making recommendations for reasons of insufficient support for a change (fictional characters, "proper" names) or insufficient time to consider the matter within the timeframe given the task group (parks).

Depending upon the recommendations made by ARLIS/NA, the PCC may wish to consider reconvening this task group or a successor task group to consider those recommendations.