Cataloging beyond the Notes: Annotating Bibliographic Records for Music Effectively in RDA; Examples Illustrating RDA in the Online Bibliographic Record, Second Edition of "Notes for Music Catalogers." by Ralph Hartsock and Peter H. Lisius (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Cataloging beyond the Notes: Annotating Bibliographic Records for Music Effectively in RDA; Examples Illustrating RDA in the Online Bibliographic Record, Second Edition of "Notes for Music Catalogers." by Ralph Hartsock and Peter H. Lisius Ivan Kaproth-Joslin Cataloging beyond the Notes: Annotating Bibliographic Records for Music Effectively in RDA; Examples Illustrating RDA in the Online Bibliographic Record, Second Edition of "Notes for Music Catalogers." By Ralph Hartsock and Peter H. Lisius. (Music Library Association Technical Reports and Monographs in Music Librarianship Series, vol. 38.) Middleton, WI: Music Library Association and A-R Editions, 2022. [xvi, 858 p. ISBN 9780895798862 (paperback), $210; ISBN 9780895798954 (e-book), $210.] Glossary, bibliography, index. Notes play a crucial function in the bibliographic record, filling in the cracks of descriptions of resources and their contents in ways in which cataloging rules cannot fully account. Rules cannot cover every cataloging situation, so catalogers make use of notes, offering crucial context or explanation on the nature or content of a resource. The first edition of Cataloging beyond the Notes, by Ralph Hartsock and published in 1994 as Notes for Music Catalogers: Examples Illustrating AACR2 in Online Bibliographic Records (Lake Crystal, MN: Soldier Creek Press), dealt with annotations, or notes, that were consistent with the cataloging standard at that time, the second edition of Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2). It presented examples of bibliographic records enhanced with notes, which complemented the factual presentation of metadata about the resource and the nature of its contents by offering helpful explanations or elaborations. It was a highly useful reference source for catalogers working in the AACR2 environment who cataloged books, scores, media, and objects. Since the release of Notes for Music Catalogers, digital media technology has continued to advance, offering new possibilities, such as books [End Page 606] that exist entirely in electronic form, or scores sold as a digital file that can be printed or simply displayed on a screen. The line between formats was increasingly blurred as digital content became ubiquitous, and the guidelines established in the 1994 edition regarding the creation and function of notes in bibliographic records were no longer sufficient. Additionally, on 31 March 2013, AARC2 gave way to Resource Description & Access (RDA). This new cataloging standard placed an increased emphasis on documenting the "Group 1" entities of Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records (FRBR), which are works, expressions, manifestations, and items (WEMI). Rules and best practices were substantially changed and reinvented, necessitating an update to Notes for Music Catalogers. To enhance the text, particularly the chapters that address works and expressions, Hartsock enlisted the assistance of Peter Lisius, a veteran contributor to the NACOMusic Project (NMP). In the words of Hartsock and Lisius, "RDA altered the nature of cataloging," requiring not a revision and enhancement of the first edition, but rather "newly created bibliographic content" (p. xii). Put simply, times have changed, and the notes that are needed and helpful in the bibliographic record have changed as well. This book documents these changes and provides thorough examples of required and useful notes for modern bibliographic records. A significant reflection of this change can be seen in the second edition's coverage of various 0XX, 2XX, and 34X Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) fields. As Hartsock and Lisius observe, "the lines of demarcation between notes and other descriptors [have] blurred with the introduction of RDA" (p. xiii). MARC 5XX notes fields are now extended to other machine-readable sections of the bibliographic record, serving "machine manipulation and sorting. The effect is that users will be able to select the instruments, genre, or musical form they seek, as well as myriad other strategies" (p. xiii). It is important to note that the bibliographic record examples shown in the book were created at various stages along the adoption and progression of RDA and therefore contain various MARC tags and field construction that differ from current practices and rules. For example, the description of the form of notated music for scores is shown in these examples under sub-field $b of the MARC 546 field. Current best practices require the usage of subfield $c of the MARC 348 field, with the optional addition of the previously required MARC 546 field...