|
Chapter 2: Creator Information (Creator/Creator
Role)
2.1.1 Discussion
The Creator of the work and the Role of the creator
are critical elements in cataloging. The creator of
a work may be one person, whether known by name or anonymous
(that is, an artist whose name is not known, but who
is known by some kind of appellation, such as Achilles
Painter). Multiple creators may be responsible for
designing and making a work. A creator may also be a
corporate body-that is an organized group of individuals
who work together to create art, such as an architectural
firm or printmaking atelier. The creator may be unknown,
and the responsibility therefore be assigned to a cultural
group (that is, the hand or oeuvre is not known, and
there thus is no associated appellation; see Various
Types of Attributions below for a discussion of anonymous
and unknown creators).
Creator
The Creator element identifies the individual, group
of individuals, corporate body, cultural group, or other
entity that contributed to creating, designing, producing,
manufacturing, or altering the work.
Creator Role
The Creator Role element records the role or activity
performed by the creator in the conception, design,
or production of the work being cataloged.
Attribution Qualifier and Creator
Extent
In addition to Creator and Role, other elements could
include a qualification of the attribution (for example,
attributed to Raphael) or an indication about
which part (extent) of the work was completed by a particular
creator when there are multiple creators (for example,
figures painted by Peter Paul Rubens, with landscape
by Jan Breughel the Elder) or multiple components
(for example, sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, with
base by Vincenzo Pacetti and eagle by Lorenzo Cardelli),
or both.
Unknown Creators
Many works have creators whose names have been lost
to history. When the creator is unknown, it is common
in certain disciplines to use, in place of the name,
a designation of the culture or geographic place that
produced the work (for example, Thai or unknown
Thai). The examples in CCO follow the unknown-plus-culture
model. Given that creator is such an important field
in retrieval, it is recommended to always record a value
for creator in the work record, even if the creator
is unknown. However, institutional practice may require
that some institutions leave the field blank in the
local database. In that case, another method should
be devised in displays for users at the time of publication,
such as filling in the creator area with unknown
or with the name of the culture that created the work.
For further discussion of issues surrounding unknown
creators, see Part 3: Personal and Corporate Name Authority.
Ambiguity and Uncertainty
If scholarly opinion is divided regarding attribution,
or if attribution is otherwise uncertain or ambiguous,
this should be indicated in the free-text Creator display
element. Such uncertainty may require that the multiple
possibilities be indexed in controlled fields. For example,
if it is uncertain which of two creators created a work,
both should be indexed as such.
Organization of the Data
Creator and Creator Role are primary access points
and therefore required. Both elements should be repeatable.
Museums and other collecting institutions may require
more specialized access points for creator information
than visual resources collections will need. Retrieval
of works based on alternate creator names and basic
biographical information, however, is likely to be important
for all institutions.
Certain parts of creator information are best recorded
in a free-text field for display in combination with
controlled fields for access. Controlled fields should
be linked to an authority file. If this is not possible,
a controlled list of creators and their biographical
information should be used to ensure consistency. Given
that multiple creators may be responsible for a single
work, the link to the authority records or controlled
fields should be repeatable. In addition, one creator
may fill multiple roles in creating a single work. The
Creator Role field should therefore be repeatable for
each creator.
The creator name and enough biographical information
to identify the creator unambiguously should appear
in a Work Record. When referring to the creator in the
Work Record, the preferred name of the creator and a
biography comprising the nationality and life dates
should be displayed. This is most efficiently handled
by a link to the Personal and Corporate Name Authority,
in which a complete record of information about the
creator can be stored, including variant names and biographical
information. Creators in this authority file may include
both individuals and corporate bodies, which may consist
of any group of individuals who work together to create
art, such as manufactories or architectural firms. See
the discussion in Part 3: Personal and Corporate Name
Authority. Additional discussion of creator information
and attributions can be found in Categories for the
Description of Works of Art: Creation-Creator and Creator
Identification.
Recommended Elements
A list of the elements discussed in this chapter follows.
Required elements are noted. (Creator display may be
a free-text field or concatenated from controlled fields.)
Creator display (required)
Controlled creator field (link to authority file)
Role (required)
Creator
extent
Attribution qualifier
|
