reviews.indd


Book Reviews 

Baca, Murtha, et al. Cataloging Cultural Ob-
jects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works 
and Their Images. Chicago: American Li-
brary Association on behalf of the Visual 
Resources Association, 2006. 396p. $75 
(ISBN 0838935648). LC 2006-13342. 

At my small library I am the only Cata-
loging Librarian. This means that I am 
responsible for cataloging materials in all 
formats. That having been said, though, 
the only realia I had ever cataloged was 
the shovel used to break the ground 
when our new building site was formally 
dedicated in 1973. Therefore, when I was 
asked to write a review of this book, I 
wondered how I could make the review 
a practical assessment and not just a theo-
retical evaluation. Then my supervisor 
presented me with a mold for a medal 
awarded in the field of archaeology. I 
jumped at the chance to use this guide to 
catalog the beautiful but unfamiliar object 
in my hand. However, I soon discovered 
the shortcomings, as well as the strengths, 
of the manual before me. 

Cataloging Cultural Objects is a detailed 
and thorough manual that helps a cata-
loger, or noncataloger, deal with the attri-
butes particular to cultural objects—from 
small pieces of realia, to buildings—from 
sections of a painting to digitized images 
of artworks. Its scope includes all art and 
architecture but does not include natural 
history or scientific collections. The book is 
divided into three parts. The first part con-
sists of theoretical considerations. Topics 
covered include: the nature of a work ver-
sus an image; the concept of related works; 
and the importance of authority fi les and 
controlled vocabularies. The second part 
consists of a chapter on each element of 
the final metadata record. Each chapter 
includes information about the metadata 
element, cataloging rules, and informa-
tion on the presentation of the data. For 
example, for the element “object naming” 
(what a cataloger would call the title field) 

the book presents information 
about naming, cataloging 
rules, and information on how 
the object name should be 
displayed. At the end of each 
chapter, there are a number 
of extremely pertinent and 
useful examples. The third part deals with 
authority control. Four different types of 
authorities are covered in separate chap-
ters. They are personal/corporate names, 
geographic places, concepts (materials, 
form/genres, etc.), and subjects. 

For the task I had at hand, namely 
the cataloging of one piece of realia, the 
guide was helpful, but it was not what I 
had hoped it would be. This is because I 
do all of my cataloging following AACR2 
(Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd 
ed.) rules and in the MARC (Machine-
Readable Cataloging) format. Although 
the guide follows some AACR2 rules, it 
does not conform strictly to them. Instead, 
it takes a relational approach, following 
many of the concepts presented in FRBR 
(Functional Requirements for Biblio-
graphic Records). This means that if you 
are cataloging just one object, you need to 
look at each element, match it up against 
the corresponding area in AACR2, and 
then map the information to the corre-
sponding MARC format. The guide was 
still helpful in bringing to my attention 
certain concepts and properties that are 
unique to cultural objects. For example, 
there was much information on how to 
measure and describe the object, as well 
as information on what kinds of notes 
were helpful to the community. The guide 
also provided me with lists of pertinent 
thesauri for each of the elements. 

However, I feel that the guide is most 
useful for the cataloging of an entire 
database of cultural objects, especially 
in a nontraditional (in other words, non-
MARC) setting. The guide is extremely well 
presented and has a logical approach to 

364 



the subject. It can be used as a stand-alone 
manual to create a database of cultural ob-
jects. Although it is not intended for system 
designers, it is so thorough and explains the 
issues of the relationships between, for ex-
ample, a work and its creator, so well, that 
it can be used as the basis for designing a 
database of metadata about objects. 

It is especially useful for noncatalogers, 
in that it covers each element of a meta-
data record clearly and explains not only 
what should be present in the record, but 
why. The manual is not prescriptive. It al-
lows the individual institution to decide at 
which level they need to catalog an item, 
but it offers clear guidelines on minimal 
cataloging requirements. It also seeks to 
establish a basic uniformity, especially in 
the use of thesauri, so that the exchange 
of information across institutions is made 
easier. Finally, at the end of each chapter 
there are complete examples of cataloged 
cultural objects. The examples do not just 
include the element covered in the chap-
ter, but instead include the entire record. 
This helps to put each element in context. 
Likewise, the corresponding authority 
records are also included in the examples. 
Again, these are very helpful in lett ing the 
cataloger understand and appreciate the 
concepts behind the metadata he or she 
is encoding. 

In summary, the book is helpful for the 
cataloger who is faced with cataloging 
one object, but it is not a manual based 
on AACR2/MARC. So, unlike Nancy B. 
Olson’s Cataloging of Audiovisual Materials 
and Other Special Materials (1998), it is not 
going to relate every rule to AACR2 or 
present the examples in the MARC for-
mat. However, that was not the authors’ 
intent. The intent of the guide is actually 
much broader, and the authors have come 
up with a guide that is extremely well 
thought out, forward-thinking, and very 
clearly presented. It is an enormous asset 
for any institution contemplating catalog-
ing a set of cultural objects, especially if 
they do not have a metadata structure in 
place yet.—Isabel del Carmen Quintana, 
Harvard University. 

Book Reviews 365 

Libraries & Culture: Historical Essays 
Honoring the Legacy of Donald G. 
Davis, Jr. Eds. Cheryl Knott Malone, 
Hermina G.B. Anghelescu, and John 
Mark Tucker. Washington, D.C.: 
Library of Congress Center for the 
Book, 2006. 294p. alk. paper, $25 (ISBN 
0844411558). LC 2006-18763. 

As a tribute to an admired and beloved 
person’s career, the festschrift lends a 
warm, personal touch to the chilly world 
of scholarly publishing. The individual 
contributions are heterogeneous, to be 
sure, but no more so than those in most 
other edited collections. Libraries & Cul-
ture: Historical Essays Honoring the Legacy 
of Donald G. Davis, Jr., is a good example of 
the genre. Originally published as a spe-
cial issue of the journal Libraries & Culture 
(v. 40, no. 3, summer 2005), it is now being 
offered in book form by the Center for the 
Book at the Library of Congress. 

Colleagues and former students offer 
personal reminiscences in glowing praise 
of Davis’s activities as professor at the Uni-
versity of Texas at Austin, editor of Libraries 
& Culture, and leader in IFLA, the Library 
History Round Table, and the Conference 
on Faith and History. Also included are 
a bibliography of Davis’s works and an 
essay by John Mark Tucker, “Fides et 
Historia: Christian Sources for the Profes-
sional Contributions of Donald G. Davis, 
Jr.” In this unusual piece, Tucker attempts 
to interpret the intellectual and religious 
underpinnings of another person’s life, 
based on Davis’s own extensive writings 
about his Christian faith and the practice 
of librarianship as a life of service. 

Davis’s lifelong interest in library his-
tory is the focus of the remainder of the 
collection, beginning with articles on 
Library History and Education Research 
that assess the current state of the field. 
The pioneering contributions of Davis’s 
generation of advocates for library history 
may be taken for granted today. But, as 
Edward A. Goedeken shows in his survey 
of literature reviews published in the 
Journal of Library History/Libraries & Cul-
ture from 1967 to 2002, the groundwork