A c t i o n f o r L i b r a r i e s — J a n u a r y 2 0 0 4

Update to AACR2 Brings
Minor Changes to Cataloging

By Linda Gonzalez

The 2003 update to the Anglo American Cataloguing Rules, Second Edition, has been released by the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of Anglo American Cataloging Rules (JSC) and is now available from the American Library Association. Please go to www.alastore.ala.org/ and choose Cataloging and Classification under the Browse Catalog section for ordering information.

If you still haven't completely adjusted to the changes of 2002, which brought a rewrite of Chapter 12, the introduction of integrating resources and other significant changes, you may take comfort that relatively few changes have been made in 2003. Many of the changes that were made are actually incorporations of Library of Congress practices mandated by Library of Congress Rule Interpretations (LCRIs) in the past.

Here is a brief summary of the amendments, with the affected rules noted:

You may now add the type of binding, in parentheses, after an ISBN, even if it's the only ISBN for the item (1.8E1).
"Earth" is always capitalized if used to refer to the planet. Previously it was capitalized only when used with the names of other planets (1.10C2b, 3.0A1, Appendix A.27A and several Glossary entries).
There are now two new examples of summary notes (520s) for integrating resources (12.7B18).
The rearrangement in the title of a serial publication of any word indicating the type of resource it represents (e.g., "magazine," "newsletter") is now a minor change. Previously only the addition or deletion of such words was a minor change (21.2A2i).
A title-added entry is now made for any resource entered under personal or corporate name or uniform title (21.30J1, 25.2E1, footnote 2 to 26.4B1). In the past there were several exceptions. You will now see the 245 first indicator value set to 1 if any 1XX field is present.
You may now add the name of an incumbent, and the dates of incumbency, to headings for heads of government who are not heads of state and to headings for the heads of intergovernmental organizations. This makes such headings consistent in structure with headings for heads of state and heads of religious organizations (24.20C1 through C3).
The abbreviation for "Newfoundland and Labrador" has been changed to "N.L.," and "Newfoundland," with its abbreviation "Nfld," has been added (Appendix B.14).

Among the proposed future changes JSC is considering are several that would incorporate FRBR (Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records) concepts into AACR2, and others that would bring more consistency among the rules for bibliographic description within Part I.

JSC has approved the removal of area 3 (Material Specific Details) from Chapter 9 for electronic resources, but has for now decided against making changes to the lists of specific material designations (SMDs) in 9.5B1, 6.5B1 and 7.5B1.

For more details on these and other potential changes, please see the JSC Web site at www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/.

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Update to AACR2 Brings Minor Changes to Cataloging

Update to AACR2 Brings
Minor Changes to Cataloging