Music Cataloging at Yale Subject cataloging

Click here to see some of the more unusual subject headings I've encountered, including some I've assigned myself. Who says there's no creativity in cataloging?

It is Yale's practice to not add the number of voices to any chorus subject heading. We do follow LC practice for adding the subdivisions Scores, Scores and parts, etc. See Those darn chorus subject headings for an explanation of adding subdivisions to chorus subject headings.

Chorus subject headings in LC records brought over from LTLC should have the number of parts deleted:

650    Choruses, Secular (Mixed voices, 4 parts) with piano.

When there are two or more subject headings with the number of parts included, deleting the number may result in indentical subject headings. In that case, delete the number of parts from one of them and delete the other subject heading entirely:

650    Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices, 3 parts) with continuo. 650    Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices, 5 parts) with continuo.

A chorus subject heading such as this, in which the number of parts are indicated even though the accompaniment is an ensemble:

650    Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices, 6 parts) with instrumental ensemble v Scores.

is incorrect, anyway, since you do not add the number of voices when there are eight or fewer with accompaniment of two or more instruments (other than two keyboard instruments or continuo). This subject heading should be:

650    Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices) with instrumental ensemble v Scores.

There are Beinecke records in ORBIS with chorus subject headings including the number of parts. Do not change these, unless they are incorrectly formulated.

Until July 2001, local subject headings were tagged as LC subject headings with second indicator 4. As of July 13, 2001, use 69X tags when assigning subject headings that are not LC headings, including headings that are assigned according to locally-developed (Yale) standards.

	Former practice	Current practice
Personal names	600 _4	692 _4
Corporate names	610 _4	693 _4
Conference names	611 _4	694 _4
Uniform titles	630 _4	695 _4
Topical subjects	650 _4	690 _4
Geographic subjects	651 _4	691 _4

This is a list of subdivisions (x) we apply in music to 600s and 610s:
Bookplate
Dedicatee ¹
Gift ²
Inscription
Library
Provenance
Signature
Stamp

Add a 590 note (see 590 Notes and marking the item for when and how to add a 590 note)

¹ Use "Dedicatee" following a personal when that person has been named in a presentation inscription. This varies from the standard list of relator terms, in which dedicatee is the person to whom a work is dedicated (i.e., in the printed dedication).

² Use "Gift" following a personal name when that person or that person's estate has presented the library with the physical item. Use "Gift" when the library buys an item and pays for it with income from an endowment fund bearing either an individual (Carl Miller), corporate (Friends of Music), or fund (Susanna Fund) name.

We add these to rare materials when applicable, e.g.:

590    MUS : Signature of Lowell Mason on cover. 590    MUS : Lowell Mason bookplate: 2139. 692    Mason, Lowell, |d 1792-1872 x Bookplate, 2139. 692    Mason, Lowell, |d 1792-1872 x Signature.

590    MUS: From the library of Newell Jenkins. 692    Jenkins, Newell x Provenance.

590    Bookplates on front endpaper: Rinck's Library ... Lowell Mason Library of Music 693    Rinck's Library x Bookplate.

or to non-rare materials when they are purchased from specific funds, e.g.:

590    MUS: Purchased with income from the Carl Miller Fund, 1991. 692    Miller, Carl S. x Gift, 1991.

Some of the more unusual subject headings I've encountered:
Arthropoda--Songs and music.
Bars (Drinking establishments)--England--Colchester--Songs and music.
Circumcision--Songs and music.
Crickets--Songs and music.
Deadly sins--Songs and music.
Distilling, Illicit--Songs and music.
Fermat's last theorem--Drama.
Gorse--Songs and music. [Gorse is a densely branched shrub of the bean family]
Holmes, Sherlock (Fictitious character)--Songs and music.
Humpback whale--Vocalization--Songs and music.
Insanity--Songs and music.
Jesus Christ--Blood--Songs and music--History and criticism--Congresses.
Jupiter (Planet)--Satellites--Songs and music.
Outer space--Songs and music.
Patent medicines--Songs and music.
Peptic ulcer--Songs and music.
Polygamy--Songs and music.
Purgatory--Songs and music.
September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001--Songs and music.
Seventh Avenue (New York, N.Y.)--Songs and music
Shopping--Social aspects--Songs and music.
Streets--Ohio--Mansfield--Songs and music.
Subways--Spain--Madrid--Songs and music.
Teddy bears--Songs and music.
Thunderstorms--Songs and music.


§ Based in part on e-mail messages of July 13, 2001 from Martha Conway (for local (non-LC) subject headings) and of Nov. 4, 1997 from Helen Bartlett (for subject subdivisions for rare materials)