To be or not to be: A comment regarding the title page

To be or not to be: A comment regarding the title page

Jim Cole, ColumnEditor The Case in Point T o B E OR N O T TO BE: A COMMENT REGARDING THE TITLE PAGE Jim E. Cole "Does the item have a title page?" ...

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Jim Cole, ColumnEditor

The Case in Point

T o B E OR N O T TO BE:

A COMMENT REGARDING THE TITLE PAGE Jim E. Cole "Does the item have a title page?" Consciously or subconsciously, catalogers ask themselves this question every time they process a different publication, be it a serial or a monograph. For monographs, the answer is often in the affirmative; for serials, however, the answer may well be in the negative, at times because of additional information found on what otherwise would be considered a title page.

INTRODUCTION--AND A CAVEAT

Cole is associate professor and principal serials cataloger at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

To BE OR NOT TO BE --

The following is a brief comment regarding serials that have pages meeting the criteria contained in the AACR2 definition of a title page ("A page at the beginning of an item bearing the title proper and usually, though not necessarily, the statement of responsibility and the data relating to publication")1 but that contain other data elements as well, elements that may cause some catalogers to reject them as titlepages. While a variety of additional data are used for illustrative purposes, the focus is primarily on a page rejected because of certain statements of editorial responsibilit y - t h e so-called "editorial page." Several years ago, the American Library Association's Committee to Study Serials Cataloging discussed a proposal to add the contents page to AACR2 rule 12.0Bl's list of title page substitutes, which already included the masthead) Since the American National Standard for Periodicals: Format and Arrangement WINTER 1992

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specifies that "the masthead should be placed if possible on the table-of-contents page, ,,3 the contents/masthead page as a whole could be viewed as the most complete single source of information for many American periodicals. The use of this as the chief source would be in harmony with AACR2 rule 2.0B1 for books, which states in part For printed monographs published without a title page, or without a title page applying to the whole work (as in the case of some editions of the Bible and some bilingual dictionaries), use the part of the item supplying the most complete information, whether this be the cover (excluding a separate book jacket), half title page, caption, colophon, running title, or other part/ Although the discussion below may remind the reader somewhat of the contents/masthead page question, it is concerned instead with the title page itself, and not a title page substitute; the contents/masthead page question is therefore tangentially related, at best.

BACKGROUND

In 1979 the Library of Congress published Special Problems in Serials Cataloging, 5 written by Judith Proctor Cannan of the Serial Record Division. This volume helped standardize serials cataloging in the United States at the time through its discussion of certain of the Library of Congress' rule interpretations and some of its special practices and procedures. One of the basic principles of serials cataloging that Cannan discussed in her work was the selection of the title page or its substitute. Quoting from the glossary of the first edition of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, she defined a title page as "a page at the beginning of a publication, bearing its full title and usually, though not necessarily, the author's (editor's, etc.) name and the imprint. ,,6 Concerning the definition, she stated The Library of Congress follows a strict interpretation of this definition, which applies to monographic as well as to serial publications. As a result, any page in a serial publication that contains additional features is not considered to be a title page. 7 Later, regarding the selection of a title page substitute, she wrote

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The title must be selected from the title page, which is the only page allowed to serve as the basis of information for the title. A page listing editorial staff is an editorial page; likewise, a page listing contents is a contents page. These two pages and a page with copyright information are by definition not title pages. If no page fulfills the requirements of a title page, that is, the pages under consideration contain more than the elements listed in the definition, then a substitute title page is selected.... 8

THE SITUATION TODAY Although the definition of a title page has been modified somewhat in the current cataloging code to reflect changes in terminology, the essence of the definition nevertheless remains the same. Therefore, because of the Library of Congress' interpretation of the term, catalogers in this country are still faced with having to decide how much is too much, that is, whether a page should or should not be considered a title page, given the variety of information found on it. The following cases will serve to illustrate the problem.

CASES 1-2: A LITTLE BIT MORE The chief source of information for the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual North American Power Symposium contained an ISSN and an IEEE catalog number. Likewise, the chief source of information for the 1987 Conference Proceedings of the IEEE Pacific Rim Conference on Communications, Computers and Signal Processing contained an ISSN and a statement beginning "Acknowledgement" that listed organizations providing financial support for the conference. In both cases, the bibliographic records (Library of Congress Control Numbers 88-646439 and 90-655140, respectively) do not specify the source of the title, and so it is to be assumed that these were considered title pages.

CASES 3-4: A WHOLE LOT MORE The chief source of information for the 1990

Fashion Guide included copyright information and restrictions ("No part of this publication may be reproduced...without the prior permission of the publisher") as well as disclaimers. It was nonetheless regarded as a title page, since the CONSER record (LCCN sn90-25321) does not specify the source of the title. Similarly, the chief source of information for the -- JIM E. COLE

The Record of the

IEEE 1975 INTERNATIONAL RADAR CONFERENCE

Held at Stouffer's National Center Inn Arlington, Virginia April 21-23, 1975

Sponsored by the IEEE Washington Section end the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic gyltem$ Society

Tile Institute of Electrical Engineering is an Associate Sponsor

Foreword

iii

Conference Committees

iv

Table of Contents

v

Papers Start on Page

1

Authors Biographies

539

Author Index

567

Preliminary Radar Index Institutional Sponsors

Follows Page 568 Follows Index IEEE Publication 75 CHO g38+1 AES

Figure 1:

- - T o BE OR NOT TO BE - -

Title page

of the Record of the IEEE 1975 International Radar Conference.

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Record of the IEEE 1975 International Radar Conference included not only the IEEE publication number but also contents information (see figure 1). Contrary to Cannan's statement that "a page listing contents is a contents page," this was still treated as a title page in the bibliographic record (LCCN 88-652166).

While it must be admitted that some editorial boards are purely decorative, many play important roles in today's specialized journals. Claude Bishop states The early scientific journals functioned very well with just one editor, to whom manuscripts were submitted, who selected referees and accepted or rejected the papers. With the growth and specialization of science, it became more difficult for any one person to be knowledgeable in all topics covered by a journal so editors designated specific assistants, the first editorial boards. Nowadays, there is hardly a journal published that does not have a list of names on the masthead under a title such as Associate Editors, Editorial Board, or Editorial Advisors. These groups of editorial aides are used in different ways by different journals depending partly upon the subject matter of the journals and partly upon editors' styles. H

CASES 5-6: THE "EDITORIAL PAGE" Each issue of Annals of Hematology includes what would appear to be intended as a title page, listing the title of the journal, the societies of which it serves as an organ, the editors, and the advisory board. Nevertheless, it was rejected as a title page; the bibliographic record (LCCN sn91-21115) includes the note "Title from cover." Likewise, the initial issue of the first volume of Elsevier's Applied Catalysis A: General included what the publisher obviously thought was a title page (see figure 2). As in many of Elsevier's other journals, that page was preceded by a half title page; the verso of the page included copyright information as well as the statement "Printed in the Netherlands." And yet, presumably because it listed the editors and editorial advisory board, it was rejected as a title page, the bibliographic record (LCCN sn92-37003) again containing the note "Title from cover."

A CLOSER EXAMINATION OF THE "EDITORIAL PAGE" Thus, while catalogers today seem at times to exercise a greater latitude in deciding what constitutes a title page, there is at least one area--the "editorial page"--where they still frequently follow Cannan's directives. Are they correct in doing so, or not? In order to assess the appropriateness of their decision, one must examine the "editorial page" and title page more closely. This requires that one look at the definition of a title page, the role of the editorial board, and the definition of an editorial page. As shown above, the AACR2 definition of a title page states that it contains the title proper and usually, although not necessarily, the statement of responsibility and the imprint. It would seem, however, that this is not an exhaustive list of elements that can be found on a title page. For instance, the American National

Standard for Periodicals: Format and Arrangement recommends the inclusion of the subtitle and the ISSN as well on a volume title page. 9 Similarly, the German Lexikon des Buchwesens mentions among other things the number of illustrations or plates and the number of copies printed as items that might be found on a title page. 1°

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He goes on to say that "the main concern of editors in forming editorial boards will probably be to obtain the supplementary expertise needed to help with the review process. ''12 Thus, naming members of an editorial board on a title page would appear to be in accordance with the AACR2 definition of a statement of responsibility ("A statement, transcribed from the item being described, relating to persons responsible for the intellectual or artistic content of the item..."),13 which "usually, though not necessarily," is found on a title page. Finally, in looking at the definition of an editorial page, it might be best to turn first to Cannan's work itself. In Appendix A, Definitions of Commonly Used Terms, she stated

The A.L.A. Glossary of Library Terms is consulted whenever technical bibliographic and cataloging terms do not appear in the AACR Glossary. If a definition cannot be found in either source, consult a current standard dictionary, i4 Therefore, since neither editorial nor editorial page is found in the A.L.A. Glossary or AACR, the reader is to look elsewhere. One possibility would be the 1967 unabridged edition of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, which contains several definitions of editorial, among which are the following two: .

an article in a newspaper or other periodical presenting the opinion of the publisher, editor, or editors. -- JIM E. COLE

-

-

appliedcatalysis A: uenerai AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL DEVOTED TO CATALYTIC SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS Editor-in-Chief

B. Delmon, Universit~ Catholique de Louvain, Catalyse et Chimie des Mat~riaux Divis6s, Groupe de Physico-Chimie Min6rale et de Catalyse, Place Croix du Sud 1, 1348 Louvainla-Neuve, Belgium Associate Editor

J.F. Roth, Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620-5250, U.S.A. K. Tanabe, Central Research Laboratory, Nippon Shokubai Co. Ltd., 5 - 8 , Nishi Otabicho, Suita, Osaka 564, Japan Regional Editors J.N. Armor, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., 7201 Hamilton Boulevard, Allentown, PA 18195-1501, U.S.A. L. Guczi, Institute of Isotopes, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 77, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary D.L. Trimm, School of Chemical Engineering and Industria ! Chemistry, University of New South Wales, P.O. Box 1, Kensington, N.S.W. 2033, Australia J.C. Veddne, Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse, C.N.R.S., 2 avenue Albert Einstein, F-69626 Villeurbanne, France D.A. Whan, Department of Chemistry, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, U.K. Editor News Brief

J.R.H. Ross, University of Limerick, Plassey Technological Park, Limerick, Ireland Editorial Advisory Board

D. Barthomeuf (Paris) L. Beranek (Prague) R.J. Bertolacini (Naperville, IL) ,J.-P. 8runelle (Courbevoie) A. Corma (Madrid) R. DaflaBetta (Mountain View, CA) M.P. Dudukovic (St. Louis MO) P. Forzatti (Milan) M. Guisnet (Poitiers) H, Hofmann {Erlangen) A. Holmen (Trondheim) T. Int~i(Kyoto) K.G. lone (Novosibirsk) O.V. Krylov (Moscow) A. Lecloux (Brussels)

~.



I. Matsuura (Toyama) Min En-ze (Beijing) J.B. Moffat (Waterloo, Ont.) Y. Moro-oka (Yokohama) J.A. Moulijn (Delft) S. Nowak (Berlin) Y. Ono (Tokyo) T.S.R. Prasada Rao (Dehradun) M. Schmal (Rio de Janeiro) M. Shelef (Dearborn, MI) R.A. van Santen (Eindhoven) J.W. Ward (Brea, CA) G. Webb (Glasgow) J. Weitkamp (Stuttgart) P.B. Wells (Hull)

0 •

Volume 79 (1991)

ELSEVIER, AMSTERDAM - OXFORD - NEW YORK - TOKYO

F i g u r e 2: "Editorial Page" in the First Issue o f

- - TO BE OR NOT TO BE - -

Applied Catalysis A: General.

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.

of, pertaining to, or involved in the preparation of an editorial or editorials: editorial page; editorial writer. 15

One therefore sees that the definition of a title page does not provide an exhaustive list of items that may be found on such a page; that a list of members of an editorial board is a type of statement of responsibility, which is, in fact, mentioned in the AACR2 definition of a title page; and that an editorial page is one containing editorials.

LOOKING NORTHWARD FOR A SOLUTION

As with Annals of Hematology, one frequently finds that the titles on the cover and the "title page" are the same. However, this is not always the case, and the decision as to whether a publication has a bona fide title page is not without implications in the online environment of today. For instance, while the "title page" says Official Proceedings, the cover for the 45th International Water Conference says Proceedings. Such discrepancies can affect the "life" of the bibliographic record and thus directly impact cooperative online union listing efforts. Even when the title proper is the same on both sources, the selection of the chief source of information affects what, if any, subtitle is included in Area 1 of the bibliographic description, since it must be on the chief source of information if it is to be recorded. This can have a great impact on the results of keyword title searches in OPACs; it also affects the arrangement and display of titles, for instance in OCLC's Title Phrase Index. Contrary to popular belief, the computer with its enhanced search capabilities is not a panacea for the ills of the cataloging code, nor can it completely compensate for all the problems in the interpretation thereof or for all errors in cataloger's judgment. It would therefore seem wise to clarify the definition of a title page and what information can be found on it, not only regarding the names of editorial board members but other data as well. Fortunately, such a statement has already been formulated by the National Library of Canada (NLC), as part of its interpretation of rule 12.0B1 of AACR2: Note that the definition of "title page", as given in the glossary, requires only that the page bear the title proper. It will usually, though not necessarily, bear the statement of responsibility and the data relating to publication as well. A page at or near the beginning of the issue, bearing in addition to the usual information noted in the glossary definition 32

S~mALSREVU~W

other information such as the volume numbering and/or date, editorial information (e.g., a list of editors or members of an editorial board), etc., may also qualify as the title page, provided it does not contain a table of contents, advertisements for forthcoming issues, etc., or text which would be considered part of the main content of the issue. 16 NLC's clarification has much to recommend it. First, it allows a page naming an editorial board to be still considered a title page, as was clearly Elsevier's intent with Applied Catalysis A: General, for instance. Second, it permits other information (ISSN, copyright information, and so on) to be found there. Third, it clearly specifies what types of information may not be found there--and limits those types to three categories that are easily understood and remembered by the cataloger. This last fact may in some respects be the most important. After all, catalogers are human, and their judgment is consequently subject to error. A workable simplification of their decision-making process, such as this--onethat is not an oversimplification, contradicting reality--is always helpful, since greater consistency and standardization can be the result. It is to be hoped that the Library of Congress would incorporate NLC's statement into its own interpretation of rule 12.0B1. This would benefit both those who create bibliographic records and those who use them.

CONCLUSION A statement by Cannan in 1979 limiting what information may be found on a title page is at times having a negative impact today regarding the "editorial page." Because of this, a clarification is needed. This already exists in the form of a rule interpretation from the National Library of Canada, and it is to be hoped that it could be adopted in the United States as well.

NOTES

1. Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. 2d ed. Rev. (Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, 1988), 624. 2. Ellen Siegel Kovacic, "Report of the Meeting of the Serials Section Committee to Study Serials Cataloging, ALA Midwinter,January 1988," Serials Review 14, no. 3 (1988): 87. (continued on page 85)

-- JIM E. COLE--

Wilding, Michael. Stand 33, no. 1 (Winter 1991): 4147.

Woodruff, Mark (with Robert Grandmaison). Cyanosis no. 1 (1991): 78-86.

Williams, Diane. Review of Contemporary Fiction 12, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 133-140.

Woodward, Gerard. Verse 8, no. 2 (Summer 1991): 112-116.

Williams, Gwyn. Planet no. 70 (August/September 1988): 17-23.

Worley, Kent (with Rick Longenecker). LowLife no. 15 (n.d.): 34-35.

Williams, Mary. Foxfire no. 92 (Summer 1990): 100102.

Xue Fei (Ha Jin). Carolina Quarterly44, no. 2 (Winter 1992): 121-130.

Williams, Philip Lee. Chattahoochee Review 12, no. 1 (Fall 1991): 90-109.

Yackobovitz, Marie. American Writing no. 3 (1991): 56-65.

Williams, Raymond. Planet no. 65 (October/November 1987): 3-13.

Yau, John. Talisman no. 5 (Fall 1990): 31-50. Young, Becky. American Writing no. 1 (1990): 30-46.

Wilson, Jane. Bomb no. 37 (Fall 1991): 10-12. Wilson, Peter Lamborn. Bombay Gin 2, no. 1 (Summer 1991): 7-12.

Zephaniah, Benjamin. Nutshell no. 10 (March 1991): 19-21. Zinsser, John. Bomb no. 37 (Fall 1991): 63.

Wisniewski, Adrian. Green Book 3, no. 7 (1990): 4247.

IIO. Going Down Swinging no. 6 (Spring 1984): 53-60.

(continued from page 32) 3. American National Standard for Periodicals: Format and Arrangement (New York: American National Standards Institute, 1978), 13.

the completion of a volume is not used as the chief source of information because of the timing of its issuance.)

4.

11. Claude T. Bishop, How to Edit a Scientific Journal (Philadelphia: ISI Press, 1984), 29.

Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 62.

5. Judith Proctor Cannan, Special Problerm" in Serials Cataloging (Washington, DC: Processing Services, Library of Congress, 1979).

10. Lexikon des Buchwesens, s.v. "Titelblatt."

12. Bishop, 31. 13. Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 623.

6.

Carman, 43.

7.

Carman, 3.

8.

Carman, 7.

14. Carman, 43.

9. American National Standard for Periodicals, 14. (It must be noted here that a volume title page published upon

LITTLE MAGAZINEINTERVIEWINDEX--

15. 7he Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged ed., s.v. "editorial." 16. Lynne C. Howarth, comp., AACR2 Decisions & Rule Interpretations, 5th ed. Vol. 1 (Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, 1991), 480.

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