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MARC PROPOSAL NO. 2012-04

DATE: May 21, 2012
REVISED:

NAME: New data elements in the MARC 21 Authority Format for Other Designation Associated with the Person and Title of the Person

SOURCE: British Library, Collection Processing

SUMMARY: This paper discusses ways in which the RDA elements Other Designation Associated with the Person and Title of the Person can be recorded as discrete data elements in the MARC 21 Authority Format.

KEYWORDS: Field 368 (AD); Other corporate body attributes; Other designation associated with the person; Title of the person; RDA

RELATED: 2011-5, 2011-07, 2011-DP02 

STATUS/COMMENTS:
05/21/12 - Made available to the MARC community for discussion.

06/24/12 – Results of MARC Advisory Committee discussion: Option 2 was approved with the following additions.  Add subfields $s (Start period) (NR), $t (End period) (NR), $u (Uniform Resource Identifier) (R), $v (Source on information) (R). Consider finding a less general name for the field.

07/25/12 - Results of LC/LAC/BL review - Agreed with the MARBI decision.


Proposal No. 2012-04: New data elements in the MARC 21 Authority Format for RDA Other Designation Associated with the Person and Title of the Person

1. BACKGROUND

As we have become experienced in using Resource Description and Access (RDA), it has become clear that additional RDA data elements could usefully be made explicit in the MARC 21 Authority format. This paper will discuss two elements related to FRBR group 2 entities, specifically persons: Other designation associated with the Person (RDA 9.6) and Title of the Person (RDA 9.4).

It is useful to have this information recorded in separate content designation, whether or not in the access points, to facilitate search and data linking. For instance, we may want to search for all persons with a specific designation or title. Earlier proposals which added attributes to MARC 21 authority records indicated an expansion of the function of the authority record, from being only a vehicle to establish the form of a heading, to gathering more complete metadata about the entity described.

2. DISCUSSION

2.1. Other attributes of a person

2.1.a Other designation associated with the person

RDA defines Other Designation Associated with the Person (RDA 9.6) as “a term other than a title that is associated with a person’s name”. RDA considers Other Designation Associated with the Person a core element for personal names of saints and spirits. In a MARC 21 authority record this element is routinely added to the access point in subfield $c (Titles and other words associated with a name), but there is no place to record it explicitly.

Examples:
Other Designation Associated with the Person: Saint
Person: Sava, Saint, 1169-1237

Other Designation Associated with the Person: Spirit
Person: Jonah (Spirit)

2.1.b Title of the Person

RDA defines Title of the Person (RDA 9.4) as “a word or phrase indicative of royalty, nobility, or ecclesiastical rank or office, or a term of address for a person of religious vocation”. RDA considers Title of the Person a core element for personal names. In a MARC 21 authority record this element is routinely added to the access point in subfield $c (Titles and other words associated with a name), but there is no place to record it explicitly.

Examples:
Title of the person: Princess
Person: Soraya, Princess, 1932-2001

Title of the person: Comte
Person: Anglès, Jules-Jean-Baptiste, comte

Title of the person: Pope
Person: Pius XII, Pope

2.2 Broadening the definition of Field 368

Field 368 (Other Corporate Body Attributes) was defined in the MARC 21 Authority Format with Proposal No. 2011-07, and is defined as follows:

This paper suggests that Field 368 – Other Corporate Body Attributes be broadened to include both Other Corporate Body Attributes and Other Designation Associated with the Person and Title of the Person. There is a precedent for a change of this nature: in Proposal No. 2011-05 field 373 was broadened to include not only the affiliation for a person but also any institution associated with the entity described.

Two options are presented below. Both of them require the name of the field to be changed from “Other Corporate Body Attributes” to “Other Attributes”.

Option 1

Two new subfields could be defined: $d Other Designation associated with the Person and $e Title of the Person. The caption of subfield $c Other designation would also need to be amended.

Examples:

046 ## $f 1169 $g 1237
100 0# $a Sava, $c Saint, $d 1169-1237
368 ## $d Saint

046 ## $f 1932 $g 2001
100 0# $a Soraya, $c Princess, $d 1932-2001
368 ## $e Princess

110 2# $a Church of God (Holiness)
368 ## $c Holiness

Option 2

Alternatively, the caption of subfield $c Other designation could remain as is but its definition would have to be broadened to include other designation associated with the person. Subfield $c would relate to whatever entity was being described in the 1XX field.

Subfield $c is currently defined as: An appropriate designation in the language preferred by the agency creating the data if neither a place nor date associated with the body, nor an associated institution, nor a type of jurisdiction, is sufficient or appropriate for distinguishing between two or more bodies.

The following amendment is suggested:

For a person: A term other than a title that is associated with a person’s name.

For a corporate body: An appropriate designation in the language preferred by the agency creating the data if neither a place nor date associated with the body, nor an associated institution, nor a type of jurisdiction, is sufficient or appropriate for distinguishing between two or more bodies

Only one subfield for Title of the Person would have to be created.

Examples

046 ## $f 1169 $g 1237
100 0# $a Sava, $c Saint, $d 1169-1237
368 ## $c Saint

046 ## $f 1932 $g 2001
100 0# $a Soraya, $c Princess, $d 1932-2001
368 ## $d Princess

110 2# $a Church of God (Holiness)
368 ## $c Holiness

3. PROPOSED CHANGES

3.1. Option 1: In the MARC 21 Authority Format, amend Field 368 as follows:

3.2. Option 2: In the MARC 21 Authority Format, amend Field 368 as follows:


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