ICC and the PSs

I'm slowly working my way through the 11th edition of Introduction to Cataloging and Classification (ICC).

The authors explicitly state that reading this textbook is not a substitute for reading RDA (Resource Description and Access), but in my opinion, using this book plus a couple of other good books on RDA (Maxwell's Handbook for RDA and Mering's The RDA workbook), a cataloger is pretty well equipt to catalog most library materials according to RDA guidelines.

RDA defines different metadata elements for describing resources. Some of these elements are "core" which means they are required. Others are "optional". Using only the core elements results in a pretty minimal record, though enough to identify the resource.

LC (the Library of Congress) and the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) Libraries who do much of the cataloging we see, have issued Policy Statements (PSs) giving their explanations or preferences for using specific areas of RDA. Both LC and PSS recommend more of the RDA metadata elements as "core".

One of the things I really like about ICC is that the authors have issued their own PSs. These are their recommendations that may differ from RDA and/or LC. Here's an example from page 215:

ICC11 PS for Optional Omission for RDA 2.4.1.4 Recording Statements of Responsibility: Although abridgement is not generally recommended, use, judiciously and thoughtfully, the option that allows catalogers to abridge SORs when needed. This may prove to be useful if a statement of responsibility is cluttered with extraneous data. Be careful not to remove essential identifying information.

See why I'm finding this book so useful?