20 CORPORATE AUTHORSHIP IN CCC & AACR-2R: CONFERENCE

Objectives of the Module

Objectives of the module are as follows:

1. To define conference.

2. To discuss the rules of Choice of headings.

3. To discuss the Rendering of Headings of various types of conferences.

Keywords

Conference, Seminar, Symposia, Congress, Conclave, Colloquium, Workshop.

Structure of the Module: E-Text

1.Introduction

2.Definition

3.Rule of Choice of Heading

4.Rules of Rendering of Heading

4.1Periodical Conference

4.2Non-Periodical Conference

4.2.1   Conference with specific name

4.2.2   Diplomatic conference

4.2.3   Conference without a specific name

4.2.4   Organ conference

4.3Organ of Conference

5.Conclusion

6.Questions

7.Further Readings

1. Introduction

If one goes through the columns of news papers, he will find the news of holding of many conferences, seminars, symposia, congresses, workshops, institutes, summits conventions, colloquims, meetings etc at the local, regional, national or international level.

The proceedings, minutes, reports, resolutions, agenda, recommendation etc of the conferences and the papers submitted to these conferences are very important sources of information as the information contained in these is not available in any other form or reading material.

2. Definition

S.R. Ranganathan has defined a conference in his CCC under Rule No. FC24 as follows:

Sense 1: Adhoc assembly for deliberation or formulation and expression of opinion or sentiments 1.  Not confined by 11.  A Government and made up by solely of its own personnel or as a Constituent Assembly to form a Sovereign State, or 12.  An Institution and made up solely of its own personnel or as a Constituent Assembly to form as Institution, or 13.  More than one Government jointly confined solely to their own personnel, or 14.  More than one Institution jointly confined solely to their members.2.  Convened and conducted by 21.  A number of persons and/or corporate bodies, spontaneously to consider matters of common interest, or 22.  A body with no function or existence beyond the conferences convened and held by it, or 23.  A body with only the convening and holding of conferences at intervals, as its primary function.

Ranganathan further defines organ conference under CCC Rule No. FC241 as follows:

“Any category of assembly, excluded from the definition of a conference in Section FC24. It is an organ of the corporate body (ies) convening it”.

In AACR-2, we find two definitions of a Conference in its Glossary. They are

1. A meeting of individuals or representatives of various bodies for the purpose of discussing and acting on topics of common interest.

2. A meeting of representatives of a corporate body that constitutes its legislative or governing body.

Dr. Ranganthan has given two definitions of conference i.e. Negative definition in sense 1 and positive definition in sense 2. As far as the first definition of AACR-2R is concerned, it refers to the concept of a conference similar to that as given in CCC. However CCC   does not treat a conference convened by Government or Institution and made up by solely of its own personnel or members to form a Sovereign State or an Institution as a conference but AACR-2R in its second definition treats such conferences also as conference.

3.  Rules of Choice of Heading

Generally readers demand a document either by its subject or title or author. Subject and title approaches of the readers are well by served preparing added entries viz. specific subject/class index entries and title entries. But in order to satisfy the author approach in the case of conference proceedings, one faces a great problem. In case the name of the conference as well as the name of a person appears on the title page of the book, the cataloguer has to decide whether the heading should be made under the name of the conference or the person. CCC resolves this conflict of authorship as per its rule No. GC5. „A Conference is deemed author only of its agenda, minutes, resolutions, report of proceedings, and similar collective created thought‟. But a collection of learned papers or memoranda presented by person (s) or corporate body (s) at the conference is deemed to have the respective person (s) or body (ies) as author (s).

Theoretically the provision of CCC to enter papers under editor/compiler is correct, since a conference can not be deemed to be the author of the papers presented in the conference. However, in practice, it is found that many of the conference publish their proceedings alongwith the papers presented at the conference. Therefore, the rules do not offer a satisfactory solution to the cataloguing of such publications. According to Miss Navalani the approach of readers in asking for the papers of a conference is usually from the name of the conference and not from the name of its editor etc. In this regard AACR-2R Rule No. 21.1B2 (d) prescribes to enter a work under the corporate body if it falls into one or more of the following categories:

(a)Those that report the collective activity of a conference (proceedings, collective papers etc)… provided the conference… is prominently named in the item being catalogued.

As such the rule provided by AACR-2R is more helpful as compared to CCC because both the entries for the collection of papers as well as the proceedings can be found under the same heading in the catalogue while according to CCC they are scattered.

4. Rules of Rendering of Heading

CCC recognizes two types of conferences:

(i) Periodic, and (ii) Non-periodic

4.1  Periodical Conference

Periodical conferences are those conference which are held periodically or at a regular interval. According to CCC Rule No. PB123*. The periodical conferences are to be catalogued according to the rules for periodical publications. As per Rule No. JE2, the place and year prescribed as addition for a conference heading are to be omitted from the heading of a conference proceedings published periodically. This means that the proceedings of a periodical conference will have a consolidate main entry with a generic i.e. title as main heading and the name of the conference or sponsor as the subheadings. The number, year and place, book number and accession number will be given in a tabular from in Holdings in Full section on a continued card, viz

In this way all such proceedings of a conference will be accommodated at one place on the shelf and their cards will come at one place in the classified part of the catalogue. In AACR-2R they are treated as per Rule No.24.7B2 i.e. by adding the number of conference as individualizing element.

4.2 Non- periodic Conference

CCC divides the non-periodic conferences which are not held at regular intervals under the following 4 types:

(i)   Those with specific name

(ii)  Diplomatic Conferences

(iii)  Those without specific name

(iv)  Organ conferences

AACR-2R does not distinguish between a periodic and a non-periodic conference There is a common treatment for both the types of such conference publications.

1.2.1  Conference with specific name

CCC  Rule No..JE1 to JE177* prescribe the rendering of a conference with a specific name under it and if the name occurs in a variety of forms, the entry will be made in a uniformised form. In rendering the name of the conference initial articles or honorific words will be omitted. If the name of a conference occurs in two or more languages, the name in the language occurring earliest in the scale of languages of the library is to be used for rendering (CCC Rule No. JE1). According to Rule No. JE2, the name of the place of conference and its year in which the conference was held are to be added as individualizing element, viz

RELIGION (International Conference of-s) (Varanasi) (1964).

AACR-2R Rule No. 24.3F1 prescribes that if the variant form of a conference name appearing in the chief source of information include a form that includes the name or abbreviation of the name of a body associated with the meeting. use this form, viz

FAO Hybrid Maize Meeting …..

Rule No. 24.3F2 prescribes that if a conference has both a specific name of its own and a more general name as one of a series of conferences, use the specific name:

Symposium on Protein Metabolism…..

*    Nutrition Symposium

Symposium on Endocrines and Nutrition….

AACR-2R Rule No.24.7A prescribes to omit the words that denotes the number, frequency or year from the name of the conference and Rule No. 24.7B1 prescribes to enter a conference under its name and to add the number of the conference, year and the place in which it was held. Consequently the 17th All India Library Conferences held at Indore in 1968 will be entered as;

All India Library Conference (17th:1968: Indore).

AACR-2R Rule No. 24.7B2, 24.7B3 and 24.7B4 are further expansion of Rule No. 24.7B1. Rule No.24.7B2 prescribes to add the abbreviation of the ordinal number in English, if a conference is one of a series of numbered meeting of the same name. However if the numbering is irregular, it prescribes to omit it from the heading.

AACR-2R Rule No.24.7B3 prescribes to be add the year or years in which the conference was held viz.

Conference on Machinability (2nd: 1985 :….).

However to distinguish between two or more meetings held in the same year, it prescribes to add the specific dates viz.

International Symposium on Cross Breeding (1st: 1987 Feb., 3-5: Paris).

International Symposium on Cross Breeding (2nd: 1987, Dec., 20-23: Paris). AACR-2R Rule No. 24.7B4 prescribes to add the name of the local place or other

location in which the conference was held, viz

Conference on Astrophysics (2nd:1985: Bangalore).

If the name of the institution at which the conference was held provides better identification, it is preferred as compared to place viz.

University Librarians Conference (1966: University of Rajasthan).

If the heading is for a series of conferences, this rule prescribes not to add the location unless they were all held in the same place viz.

Hybrid Corn Industry Research Conference (1st: 1970).

If the location is a part of the name of the conference it is not to be repeated viz.

Paris Symposium on Radio Astronomy (1958).

If the sessions of a conference were held in two places both the names are added viz.

World Peace Congress (1st: 1949: Paris and Prague).

Conference on Learning Process for Mentally Retarded Children (2nd: 1985: Institute of Education, Delhi and Regional College of Education, Ajmer).

If the sessions of a conference were held in three or more places, the first named place is only added followed by etc viz.

World History Congress (2nd: 1949: Delhi etc).

Comments

CCC   believes in consistency of heading, where as in AACR-2R mixed conceptions are there. In addition to place name, it prescribes the use of the name of institution where the conference was held. Some readers may find this prescription more useful for identification and individualization of the conference. However this prescription will give rise to some inconsistencies in the catalogue. AACR-2s‟ prescription of the exact dates in case two conferences with the same name were held at one place is a good provision, but CCC lacks such provision.

4.2.2 Diplomatic Conference

These are adhoc assemblies held with some diplomatic mission and comprise of the representatives of the countries or nations joining that diplomatic mission or cause. According to CCC Rule No. JE3 the name of the place of a diplomatic conference is to be prefixed to the name of the conference not held periodically, so as to form a word group, if it is not already in the name of the conference and the year of the conference is to be used as individualizing element viz:

VIENA (Congress) (1914-15)

PARIS (Peace Conference) (1919)

AACR-2R believes more in the conventional name of the conference. AACR-2R Rule No. 24.3C prescribes that if a body is frequently identified by a conventional form of name in reference source in its own language, use this conventional name. However AACR-2R Footnote No. 8 prescribes that to establish a heading for a diplomatic conference that has no formal name and has yet not acquired a conventional name, use the name found most commonly in periodical articles and newspaper accounts in English. If, later, another name become established, change the heading to that name. As such AACR-2R rules are inconsistent and self contradictory and violate the Canon of Permanence. As most of the diplomatic conferences are known after the name of the place, CCC approach is in conformity with the Canon of Recall Value and Canon of Prepotency.

4.2.3 Conference without a Specific name

Such a conference does not bear a specific name and generally comprises of a group of persons meeting together to discuss some common cause or common problem, e.g. Political sufferers, Textile workers, Indian residents, Citizens, Lawers etc. According to CCC Rule No. JE4, the rendering would consist of the name of the class of persons meeting together. According to Rule No. JE42, name of place, Year, Month and Date of the conference will be used as individualizing elements viz.

INDIAN MIGRANTS (New York) (1966)

HINDI POETS (Delhi) (1970)

Problem: The distribution of national income: Proceedings of a conference held by the International Economic Association (Conference held at Palermo in Sept., 1964).

  The above is an example of conference without specific name. Its heading according to CCC will be:ECONOMISTS (Palermo) (1964)

According to AACR-2R, there is no conference heading for the above title. As per Rule No. 21.1C such work will be entered under title if it emanates from a corporate body but does not fall in one or more of the categories given in Rule No. 21.1B2.

4.2.4 Organ Conference

If a conference is an organ of another corporate body like Government or Institution or Joint bodies, according to Rule No. JE5 of CCC, the heading will be a multiple heading. The first heading would be the name of the corporate body or bodies. According to C.G. Vishwanathan a conference, meeting, etc implying subordination to a higher body….

Normally be entered as a subheading under the name of the body to which it is attached. The name of the conference alongwith its individualizing element would be added to it as a sub-heading e.g.

RAJASTHAN, PRINCIPALS (Conference) (Ajmer) (1973)

MADHYA PRADESH, COLLECTORS (Meet) (Indore) (1981)

AACR-2R Rule No. 24.13 prescribes more or less equivalent treatment. „Enter a subordinate body as a subheading of the name of the body to which it is subordinate if its name belongs to one or more of the following types:

Type 3:  International Labour Organization. European Regional Conference (2nd:1968: Geneva).

Type 5:  Labour Party (Great Britain), Conference (71st: Blockpool)

4.3 Organ of Conference

In CCC, the rendering of the organ of a conference will be made just like the rending of an organ of the Government or Institution i.e. the name of the conference will be the heading and the name of the organ of the conference will be the sub-heading viz.

RELIGION (International – Conference) (Varanasi) (1964), RECEPTION (Committee).

CHILD HEALTH AND PROTECTION (White House Conference on-) (Washington) (1929), SCHOOL CHILD (Committee on the-) (1929) (Chairman: Thomas D Wood). In AACR-2, Rule No. 24.13 prescribes to enter a subordinate body as a subheading of

the name of the body to which it is subordinate. However we do not find any example of rendering of an organ of a conference under this rule. However on the basis of the rule we can render the above heading as follows:-

International Religion Conference (1964: Varanasi), Reception Committee.

White  House   Conference  on   Child  Health  and   Protection   (1929:  Washington). Committee on the School Child).

5.  Conclusion

The above comparison of the rules of CCC & AACR-2 reveals that both the codes have many common concepts. As usual, Dr. Ranganathan has given the rules in a systematic way. The rules pertaining to Periodical conferences, conferences with specific name and Diplomatic conference are logical and easy to follow. However the rule for the construction of heading for a conference without specific name is a violation of the canons enunciated by Dr. Ranganathan himself. The heading is not based on the information provided on the title page of the book, hence it violates the canon of ascertainability. The readers are likely to search either under the title or under the sponsor but not under such an artificially constructed heading. Therefore, it violates the Canon of Sought Heading.

Many rules of AACR-2 are helpful. The order prescribed by AACR-2 for additions to this conference headings (i.e. number, year, place name) is the order most helpful order because this sequence permits the numbered conferences to be arranged sequentially and unnumbered conferences chronologically. However the addition of place name and alternatively the name of the institution is bound to create inconsistencies in the catalogue.

Further Readings

1. Ranganathan, S.R. Classified Catalogue Code. Ed 5. Bangalore, Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science, 1988.

2. Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd ed. 1988 revision. Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, 1988.

3.Navalani, K. Comparison of Classified Catalogue Code and Anglo-American Cataloguing rules: Conference (In ILA Bulletin. V 5 N3: 1969. P 22.

4.Ranganathan, S R and G. Bhattacharya. Names of places of a conference (In Library Science with a Slant to Documentation. V 4N2; 1967. P 192.

5.Parameswaran, M.  Anglo-American  Cataloguing  Rules  (II)  and  CCC  (5):  A comparative study. New Delhi: Ess Ess Publications, 1989.