Page 246 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Unit 13: Filling Entries Rules: CCC and AACR2

confirmed that. Verona also delivered a set of ‘Suggestions’, in which she advocated a framework Notes
in which variations dictated by national interests are eliminated and simple solutions are given.
A corporate author is defined as “an organization or a group of persons that is identified by a
particular name and that acts, or may act, as an entity” (Wynar, 1992).
Corporate authorship did not appear until the middle of the 19th century (Chan, 1981). Cataloguers
began to classify books by the person who was responsible for its creation. As defined in the
ALA 1908, ALA 1941, ALA 1949, AACR 1967, and the AACR 2, the author is the person or person
who is responsible for creating the work intellectually and artistically.
Corporate authorship is more difficult to define for some cataloguers. The book is defined by its
author and title, but when a corporate entity is responsible for the book, it can lead to some
problems. Some questions may arise for the cataloguer; who was the person who actually wrote
the work? Shouldn’t the cataloguer give the person/persons credit who wrote the work?
Corporate authorship is also different in nature than personal authorship. Personal authorship
is the author’s or editor’s creation or compilation. A personal author will create something to
contribute to society, in the form of a creative literary work, a journal article, film, sound
recording, or a photograph. A corporate work is generally published to promote a product, or
their company. Some corporations will publish transcripts of conferences, official documentation
of their company. Corporate authors create publications that deal with the corporate body itself.
The actual writers behind the work are in the background, and they must represent the
corporation. Some corporations will publish annual reports, their company profile. Some
corporate authors, such as the government, will publish government documents periodically to
discuss a topic like “education policies in the province of Ontario from 1980-1990.” There is a
chief writer, or many writers, but they do not receive credit for their work. They represent the
corporate body, and they are not recognized as individuals. Their work is not recognized as
being personal, but representative of the corporation or a governmental agency. They leave
their personal identities behind them when they create this publication.

Notes The corporate author’s name should appear in full, followed by a period and two
spaces (prior to the next part of the entry). Even if the corporate author and the publisher
are the same, the corporate author’s name should still appear in the author (as well as
publisher) position of a bibliography entry.
In the AACR 2, there is a shift in language from corporate author to corporate body. This results
in giving credit to the institution as a whole for the publication, rather than a team of writers and
researchers who deserve the credit. Since the ISBD will contain the corporate body as the main
entry, it will be difficult to track down the team of writers who wrote the publication.
The AACR 2 treats the corporation as the author. In some publications like the World Directory
of Al-Anon Family Groups and Ala-teens, the corporate body (Al-Anon Family Group
Headquarters) is responsible for the work, thus it is the main entry (Wynar, 1992). This can be
somewhat related to the fashion industry. When many young designers work as apprentices to
top designers like Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, and Ralph Lauren, they may design new creations,
but they do not receive the credit or recognition, because their work is catalogued according to
the corporate body.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:
9. Corporate authorship is simpler to define for some cataloguers.

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