[Archivesspace_Users_Group] Family names as Creators/Subjects

[Kottman, Miloche]

Karen,

We export our records out of ArchivesSpace as MARC and add to OCLC (one more place for discovery won’t hurt) so we use NACO for creators and SACO for subjects.

This way we have less cleanup to do on the MARC record and it allows patrons looking for materials about a family to find all the collections we own with that surname and determine on their own if and/or how they are related (i.e. they may find connections we missed).

--Miloche

From: archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org <archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org> On Behalf Of Karen Miller
Sent: Friday, April 3, 2020 4:20 PM
To: Archivesspace Users Group <archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org>
Subject: Re: [Archivesspace_Users_Group] Family names as Creators/Subjects

Hi, Kate.

NU decided several years ago that these records weren’t  going into OCLC, but we NACO catalogers have a hard time disobeying those rules. ☺ They are going into our discovery layer (but not through the library catalog, so they never pass through a MARC representation) and into ArchiveGrid. Since we can do whatever we want in AS, I thought it would be good to do something similar to what others are doing in it. It looks like ArchiveGrid has a lot of family names formulated in the SACO format (Smith family), so that might be the best option. It’s certainly easier than creating the NAF record, especially if we don’t actually go to the trouble of creating a SACO proposal!

Karen

From: archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org<mailto:archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org> <archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org<mailto:archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org>> On Behalf Of Bowers, Kate A.
Sent: Friday, April 03, 2020 2:46 PM
To: Archivesspace Users Group <archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org<mailto:archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org>>
Subject: Re: [Archivesspace_Users_Group] Family names as Creators/Subjects

RDA is only relevant to the records written in accordance with RDA. You can do anything you like in ArchivesSpace.  If the records are exported to a MARC environment, the consequences may vary depending on the system. Most MARC systems are shared, meaning that other people might  be able to alter the record to “correct” it. I’m not sure what OCLC would do with them.

Kate

From: archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org<mailto:archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org> <archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org<mailto:archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org>> On Behalf Of Karen Miller
Sent: Friday, April 3, 2020 3:38 PM
To: Archivesspace Users Group <archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org<mailto:archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org>>
Subject: [Archivesspace_Users_Group] Family names as Creators/Subjects

Happy Friday, everyone!

I’ve been using my WFH time to do some ArchivesSpace cleanup and have a question about how people are using family names. We are a NACO library and have been creating personal and corporate body name headings for people and organizations represented in our collections. When we have a collection that is created by a person or corporate body and also includes biographical or historic information about the person or corporate body, we assign the Agent record as both Creator and Subject.

This works fine for LC NAF records for people and corporate bodies, but for families, we have a dilemma. RDA says that families can be “creators” and specifies that they are to be established in a format like this:

            Abdurahman (Family : 1872-1963 : South Africa)

But when a family is the subject, it’s supposed to be established in a format like this (the SACO format):

            Abdurahman family

which can refer to any family with the surname Abdurahman, not just the family that existed in South Africa from 1872-1963.

I don’t think the SACO format is all that useful, but we used it for a long time, before RDA came along. Then when RDA came along, we established some family names in the NAF and used them in ArchivesSpace. Now we have family names in both formats, which looks a little weird. We only have 13 of them, so cleanup isn’t an insurmountable task.

I’ve been considering several options:


1.    Use the NACO format for all family names, including as both Creator or Agent. This goes against RDA, but it looks more consistent to the end user and I think is provides more information for browsing patrons.

2.    Use the SACO format for all family names, including as both Creator or Agent. This also goes against RDA, but it looks more consistent to the end user. I think it’s not as useful, though, for people looking for families with common names (like Baker instead of Abdurahman)

3.    Use the NACO form for Creator and the SACO form for Subject. It’s inconsistent, but follows RDA. Since these aren’t BIBCO records, it’s not as if this is a mortal sin!

I’m sure there are more options, but I think I’ve gone on enough here. What are other institutions doing?

Karen


Karen D. Miller
Monographic Cataloger/Metadata Specialist
Northwestern University Libraries
Northwestern University
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
www.library.northwestern.edu<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.library.northwestern.edu%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cmkottman%40ku.edu%7C34df388b9a7f428222f908d7d814d2d5%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C1%7C637215456279983454&sdata=yGT2XffWAIvf8gsO%2BPGObJurzZ7y1s46Yts%2BwwRW2w4%3D&reserved=0>
k-miller3 at northwestern.edu<mailto:k-miller3 at northwestern.edu>
874.467.3462


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