Music Cataloging.(Uniform Titles for Music; Shelflisting Music: Guidelines for Use with the Library of Congress Classificationl; M)(Book review)

Uniform Titles for Music. By Michelle S. Koth. (Music Library Association Technical Reports, no. 31.) Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008. [xiv, 277 p. ISBN 13-9780810852815. $50.] Bibliographic references, index.

Shelflisting Music: Guidelines for Use with the Library of Congress Classification: M. By Richard Smiraglia. 2d ed. (Music Library Association Technical Reports, No. 30.) Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008. [x, 37 p. ISBN-13: 9780810854185. $15.] Illustrations.

Both of these books, each part of the Music Library Association technical reports series, are welcome additions to the literature. The authors, Michelle Koth and Richard Smiraglia, are authorities on music cataloging and need no introduction to most of us.

Uniform titles, perhaps the most complex and difficult part of music cataloging, are important to library catalogs, and bring together all variant manifestations of a musical work under one unique heading. Koth's extensive work in the field has allowed her to produce this long-awaited tome on the subject. She begins the book by defining uniform titles and explaining basic principles, and proceeds to cover every aspect of the topic in fine detail, using plain, easy to understand terms, giving numerous examples throughout. With ease, she simplifies the most complex and confusing aspects of creating uniform titles for music. Basically following the structure of Anglo American Cataloging Rules, 2d ed. (AACR2), chapter 25, and the Library of Congress Rule Interpretations (LCRIs) that go with them, Koth thoroughly discusses generic titles (sonatas, concertos, etc.) and distinctive titles, going beyond the rules and adding much deeper information, including "unwritten" practices used by LC and others.

Koth also includes MARC format information alongside the rules, making this work an excellent reference source. She also discusses authority files and their relationship to uniform titles, which is most helpful. She provides several important and useful appendices, including a valuable list of thematic index numbers for composers whose works are assigned numbers other than or in addition to opus numbers, a chart comparing uniform titles for music and LC subject headings, and an extensive bibliography of sources for catalogers to consult. All of these, with the index, are very useful.

Finely written, Koth's text is accurate and easy to read. She is to be commended greatly for this work. With RDA (Resource ...