Adding Date to Conventional Collective Titles : Questions and Answers

Question: According to slide 8 of http://www.loc.gov/aba/rda/source/special_topics_compilations.ppt we are to add the date to conventional collective titles beginning with "Works". Please verify if this is now optional or required.

Answer:  The PPT  take a look at it now. http://www.loc.gov/aba/rda/Refresher_training_dec_2011.html

Question: Great! Slide 8 is now revised. However, slide 9 still gives an example of the old practice.

Answer (Ana Lupe Cristán, Library of Congress): Yes, the point is you DON’T HAVE to add it but you can if you want too.  It used to be mandatory now it is optional, plus you'll see a lot of them still in the LC/NAF and we do not expect catalogers to remove the dates.   

Revised Slides as Discussed Above

Compilations of one creator: Things to remember

• If your resource is a compilation by a single creator, determine if that compilation has become known over time by a title and use that title, otherwise use a conventional collective title
• Not necessary to know if a creator created works only in a single form.
• Do not use “Selections” in subfield $a of the 240.
• Current LC practice is NOT to add routinely add a date to any collective conventional title that begins with Works.

Notes: Let’s recap and say it in a different way - If your resource is a compilation by a single creator, determine if that compilation has become known over time by a title; this situation does not occur often but you’ll know it when it does.

No longer will a cataloger need to determine what AACR2 requires: knowing if the creator created works only in a single form. No longer will LC catalogers apply different policies if the title proper of the compilation is a “distinctive title.”

Under AACR2 and when we first implemented RDA, we added a date in subfield $f following “Works” or “Works. Selections” in a 240. Our current practice is not to add the date, thus we reuse the same authorized access point for a compilation of the complete works of an author published in 2012 and one published in 2013.

Compilations – one creator

• Remember that a corporate body can be a creator also so long as the contents meet the criteria at: RDA 19.2.1.1.1

 [Source: Library of Congress]

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