RedGage

The most basic information in any record in a library catalog is the title, subject, and author. I have to put author last, because there are several categories of books that, strictly speaking don’t have an author. An anthology has several, compiled by an editor. Other books have a corporate author. That is, one might say on the title page that it’s written by the Red Cross. We all know that a person or group of persons wrote it, but they might not be identified by name anywhere. The author of a book of court cases will be the particular court, say, the 4th district court of a particular state or one of the federal appeals court circuits.

Also, names (personal, corporate, or geographic) can occur other places in the record besides as author. They can be among the subject headings, for example. That editor who’s not actually the author has to be listed somewhere, as must all of the co-authors if there is more than one. In fact, a person or corporation or jurisdiction might have any number of relationships with an item that would warrant mention in the cataloging record.

Personal names

Library catalogs display personal names last name first, just like a phone book, encyclopedia, or any number of other common resources. Unlike these others, there is one and only one way of expressing a name. For that matter, there is one and only one way of expressing a subject or preferred title. The concept is called “controlled vocabulary,” and the prescribed forms must be taken from an authority file. In the United States, the Library of Congress maintains the authority files, one for names and titles, and the other for subjects.

Suppose you want something by Frank Smith. How many Frank Smith’s do you suppose there are? We can differentiate them by middle initial, middle name, and date of birth, so here are some Frank Smiths from the Library of Congress Name Authority File :

• Smith, Frank, 1854-1940
• Smith, Frank, 1852-1942
• Smith, Frank, 1927-
• Smith, Frank, 1928-
• Smith, Frank A. (Frank Albert), 1922-
• Smith, Frank, b. 1854
• Smith, Frank C., 1947-
• Smith, Frank Charles, 1937-
• Smith, Frank L., of Canterbury,  Conn.

Notice that “Smith, Frank, b. 1854″ and Smith, Frank, 1854-1940″ are two different people. If “Smith, Frank Albert, 1922-” were an authorized heading, he would be a different person from “Smith, Frank A. (Frank Albert), 1922-.” On the other hand, “Smith, Frank A. (Frank Allan), 1927-” is not an authorized heading. If you select him from a list of names, you will be directed to “Smith, Frank, 1927-” Why is the fuller form not preferred in this case? Beats me.

These things can be arbitrary. Confusing? Maybe, but not as confusing as the list of Frank Smiths; with and without middle names, initials, and dates; that you would find in the various Who’s Who books or nearly anything else besides a library catalog! If you’re looking for something by Frank Smith, you will probably not look by author alone. Librarians usually recommend a keyword search combining the author’s name with distinctive words from the title.