Klarinet Archive - Posting 001159.txt from 1997/08

From: Karl Fattig <kfattig@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Weber, Carl Maria Von or Weber, Carl Maria von
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 13:39:33 -0400

Mark,

My copy of A Manual of European Languages for Librarians gives the
following remarks concerning capitalisation of German proper names:

"Proper names and titles consisting of several words have an initial
capital for the first word and follow the general rules for the rest."

General rules of German capitalisation are to capitalise all nouns and
words used as nouns (there are a couple of adverbial exceptions to this
rule, such as "ein paar" meaning "a few" contrasted with "ein Paar" meaning
"a pair"). Since "von" is a preposition, it is correctly written in lower
case.

You may see Carl Maria Von Weber, but it should not affect searching or
indexing in most library catalogs. Still it is a mistake and should be
corrected, most likely.

As for Carl Maria von Weber, this is from the authority record for him from
the Library of Congress Name Authority File (LC NAF):

06 100 10 Weber, Carl Maria von,|d1786-1826
07 400 10 Weber, Karl Maria Friedrich Ernst,|cFreiherr von,|d1786-1826
08 400 10 Weber, C. M. von|q(Carl Maria),|d1786-1826
09 400 10 Weber, Charles Marie de,|d1786-1826
10 400 10 Veber, K.,|d1786-1826
11 400 10 Weber,|d1786-1826
12 400 10 Von Weber, Carl Maria,|d1786-1826
13 400 10 Veber, Karl Mari{235}i{236}a,|d1786-1826
14 400 10 Veber, K. M.|q(Karl Mari{235}i{236}a),|d1786-1826
15 400 10 Von Weber, Karl Maria Friedrich Ernst

The 400 lines are "See From" cross references. The 100 line is the
authorized form (accoding to Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd ed, 1988
rev.).

One reason you may have seen "Von" is because rules often require
catalogers to transcribe from the piece in hand (mistake on the piece
translates into mistake on the record)... however current rules allow us to
use judgment and grammatical rules in transcription of most materials, if
they are not rare materials.

A long answer to a short question.

Cheers

Karl

At 09:03 PM 8/26/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Nicholas Yuk Sing Yip wrote:
>>
>> I have seen the small "v" most of the time. Either way is right,
>> however.
>> :)Nick Yip
>
>Nick,
>Not to seem insulting, but what is your reference? I, too,
>have seen it both ways, small 'v' most of the time. That
>fact is what brought on my query. Sometimes common usage
>is not proper usage, and I'm trying to get the composition
>database into alignment with proper usage. Common usage will
>be a secondary entry.
>
>The New York Public Reference Library is a formidable source
>of information, and, if I call to correct them, I better be
>on solid ground, not just quoting "common usage". If indeed
>either way is correct then I *won't* have to call :-)
>
>(And, yes, I have been known to call reference sources when there
>is provably incorrect information in them. Most appreciate the
>corrections.)
>--
>Mark Charette "How can you be in two places at once
>charette@-----.com when you're not anywhere at all?"
>http://sneezy.mika.com/clarinet - Firesign Theater
>
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