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Choice and Form of Access Points According to AACR 2
Edward Swanson
Edward Swanson is Principal Cataloger, Minnesota Historical Society, Saint Paul, MN 55101.
SUMMARY. Bibliographic records are retrieved through the use of access points, headings for persons and corporate bodies who are responsible for the creation of the work(s) represented by the bibliographic record, or who have another relationship with the work(s). Part II of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2d ed. (AACR 2) gives instructions for determining which access points should be assigned to a given bibliographic record and the form that those access points should have. This article covers the basic rules in AACR 2 that are needed for determining which access points to assign to an archival or manuscript work (whether a collection or an individual item) and for determining the form of access points for personal names, geographic names, and corporate body names.
Once the bibliographic description of an item (which can be a collection or a single manuscript) has been prepared, the cataloger assigns relevant personal and corporate name headings in order to permit access to the item through a catalog, whether printed or online. These headings generally are referred to as access points, because they provide access to the item. Access points usually include a main entry (i.e., the person or body chiefly responsible for the creation of the item), added entries (i.e., other persons or bodies with secondary responsibility for the creation of the item or related to it in other than a subject relationship), and subject entries (i.e., persons or bodies about which the item contains information). In some cases titles also will be assigned as access points.
Part II of AACR 2 deals with the choice of access points and the form that those access points will take. Chapter 21 (2)1 gives instructions for determining which heading, if any, is to be assigned as the main entry, and which other headings are to be assigned as added entries. Chapter 22 (3) deals with determining the form of heading used for personal names, chapter 23 (4) with the form of heading used for geographic names, and chapter 24 (5) with the form of heading used for names of corporate bodies. In addition, chapter 25 (6) treats establishing uniform titles, and chapter 26 gives instructions for making references from variant forms of a heading and between related headings. Four appendices include rules for capitalization, abbreviations, and numerals, and a glossary.
This article will deal with the rules in chapters 21, 22, 23, and 24. Subject headings are not treated, except insofar as a personal or corporate name heading used as a subject heading has the same form it would have if used as a main or added entry.
Choice of Access Points
The long standing practice in cataloging has been to select one heading as the âmainâ entry, the person or corporate body chiefly responsible for the creation of the work being cataloged. (Whether the main entry should retain its pre-eminence in this era of online catalogs with sophisticated searching techniques is outside the scope of this article.) It is assumed that one heading will continue to be selected as the main entry, and guidance will be given in determining which heading it should be.
Chapter 21 (2) begins with a general rule, 21.1 (2.1), which defines âworks of personal authorshipâ and âentry under corporate body.â There then follow a series of rules for determining the main entry in cases in which (a) one person or body is responsible for the work; (b) the work is by an unknown person or an unnamed group; (c) the work is by two or more persons or bodies; (d) the work is a collection or is produced under editorial direction; (e) the work is one for which different persons or bodies are responsible for different parts; (f) the work is a modification of another work; (g) there is mixed responsibility in a new work (e.g., an interview or a spirit communication); and (h) the work is related to another work. Rules 21.31-21.39 contain instructions for entering certain legal publications (such as laws and treaties) and certain religious publications (such as sacred scriptures).
In cataloging archival and manuscript collections, the rules for determining the main entry can be condensed into the following general guidelines (APPM 2.1). In those cases not covered here, reference should be made to the relevant rules in AACR 2.
Generally, the following types of personal papers will be entered under the heading for a person (APPM 2.1 A):
- the personal papers of an individual;
- the personal papers of two or more individuals, where one of the persons can be considered more prominent, or one personâs papers predominate;
- family papers formed around or generated by members of one family;
- artificial collections assembled by an individual (in which case the term âcollectorâ is added to the heading);
- an individual manuscript, letter, diary, etc.; and,
- an oral history interview, either on audio or video tape or in transcription (in which case the term âintervieweeâ is added to the heading).
Generally, the following types of records will be entered under the heading for a corporate body (APPM 2. IB):
- the corporate records of a single corporate body; and,
- individual official or government documents.
In the case of a corporate body whose name has changed over a period of time, the main entry is made under the heading for the latest name represented in the records, and added entries are made under the headings for earlier names. If the records were in the custody of an agency other than the one responsible for creating them, the main entry is under the heading for the agency responsible for creating the records.
Generally, the following types of records will be entered under title (APPM 2.1C):
- artificial collections that are known by a particular name;
- personal papers of two or more individuals where no one person is more prominent or the papers of one individual do not predominate;
- nonarchival corporate collections;
- papers of multiple families; and,
- manuscripts and collections of manuscripts of unknown origin or authorship.
Rules 21.29-21.30 (2.2-2.3) give instructions on additional (âaddedâ) entries that are to be made for persons, corporate bodies, and titles that are related to the item being cataloged.
Headings for Persons
Throughout the rest of this article two concepts must be kept in mind. The word ânameâ as used herein refers to the way a person or corporate body refers to itself or the way in which it most commonly is identified. The word âheadingâ refers to the way in which the cataloger structures that name to arrive at a uniform means of identifying the person or corporate body in the catalog entry. It doesnât matter if the heading is being used as a main entry, as an added entry, or as a subject entry; the same form of heading will be used in all cases.
It also must be kept in mind that this heading is not a biographical sketch of a person nor is it an organization chart of a corporate body. AACR 2 has been criticized for not using full names of persons or complete hierarchies of corporate bodies in headings. It is not the purpose of a heading to take the place of other reference sources that can give much more detailed information than there is room for in a heading. What is aimed at is establishing a heading that will uniquely identify the person or corporate body, based on the form of name of that person or corporate body in most common usage.
The general rule for determining the name used for establishing the heading for a person is 22.1 (3.1), which states that one is to choose the name by which a person commonly is known. Among possible names that might be used are the personâs real name, a pseudonym, a title of nobility, a nickname, initials, or another appellation.
The first priority for a source for determining the name by which a person commonly is known is given to the name used by the person in published works. The reason for this is simple: because published works can be widely distributed, it is this name that is likely to be the one by which most people know the person. Evidence for this usage in published works can be taken from the works themselves or from statements of responsibility in bibliographic records.
If the person has not published any works, the next choice for determining the name is the manuscript collection itself. During the preparation of the finding aid, the cataloger should record the various names used by the person and decide which of these is the predominant form. It must be kept in mind that one must be honest about this; one cannot start with a form that the cataloger prefers and then skew the information from the collection to give preference to that form.
If a predominant form cannot be determined from the collection, one uses the form found in references sources issued in the personâs language or in the country of the personâs activities. As a final choice, if none of the previous sources identify a predominant form, one selects the latest form of name used by the person.
Rule 22.2B (3.2B) contains special instructions for selecting the name in the case of persons who have used one or more pseudonyms. If the person commonly is identified by a single pseudonym, the pseudonym is chosen as the basis for the heading.
- George Orwell
(not Eric Arthur Blair)
If the person has used more than one pseudonym, or the real name and one or more pseudonyms, and has established separate bibliographic identities (i.e., the person uses one of the names for certain types of works, and another of the names for other types of works), rule 22.2B2 (3.2B2) instructs that each name is to be used to establish the heading for the...
