A New Take on Cataloging Popular Music Recordings

Abstract

Cataloging popular music audio formats such as compact discs (CDs) and LPs has always required different procedures from cataloging Western art music recordings. Bibliographic records and standards have changed during the past twenty years and catalogers have switched from using Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2) to Resource Description and Access (RDA) for cataloging materials. This article will illustrate the changes made in popular music cataloging since the 2001 publication of Terry Simpkins' article "Cataloging Popular Music Recordings." i Additional issues such as name authority and subject authority creation have been included, as well as new codes and Machine-readable record (MARC) tags being used in bibliographic records. With the implementation of Resource Description and Access (RDA), cataloging popular music sound recordings has changed dramatically since Terry Simpkins's article entitled "Cataloging Popular Music Recordings" was published in 2001. 1 Simpkins's article focused on the specific problems regarding popular styles of music and the lag time between the creation of Library of Congress (LC) subject headings, the rapid rate of popular music album releases, and the basic MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) bibliographic fields. Simpkins's article followed the cataloging rules found in the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2 nd edition, 1998 Revision (AACR2). 2 He included the major features of a bibliographic record including title, general material designation, statement of responsibility, publication information, physical description, notes, access points, subjects, uniform titles, and added entries. There have been changes made in all these areas with the introduction of RDA. Although cataloging guidance has been focused primarily on Western art music as cataloger Christopher Holden mentions in his 2015 article "The Definition of the Work Entity for Pieces of Recorded Sound," 3 RDA documentation attempts to address some of the issues involved with cataloging popular music. However some issues remain unresolved and are still in discussion amongst the various cataloging communities involved. In addition, authority records have also been impacted by RDA and have had new MARC tags added for various data and access points, particularly for music materials. RDA has transformed how many MARC fields are either determined or transcribed. Technology has also been a factor in how fields appear or are accessible via the various Integrated Library Systems (ILS) or discovery layers used by libraries. Other advances include the Authority Toolkit, created by Gary Strawn of Northwestern University, which is used to more easily and quickly create and edit authority records and the Music Toolkit, a macro also created by Strawn used to create genre headings