If you have questions that you would like to share with your fellow law catalogers, please send them to the authors of this column. AUTOCAT may be faster, but you'll get as complete an explanation as possible here!

Sometimes we use examples of LC catalog records as training tools. Our intent is not to criticize or ridicule whoever might have cataloged a particular example.

Many of the problems encountered in cataloging legal materials stem from the wrong answer to the question: What is this work? For instance, in this example:

010    95158749//r95
110 1  Cambodia.
240 10 Constitution$lFrench
245 14 Les Constitutions du Cambodge, 1953-1993 ...
650  0 Constitutions$zCambodia.

What is the item represented by 95158749? It is a collection of constitutions. Should the entry be Cambodia? Yes. Is the uniform title appropriate for this collection? No. Only single constitutions qualify for a uniform title (field 240), unless this exact collection also exists in another languge. The general uniform title rules 25.3 apply. A search did not uncover the same publication in another language.

One might choose to enhance access by making an added entry for the new Cambodian Constitution. What would such a uniform title look like? The official language of Cambodia is Khmer. Some Cambodia corporate headings have been established in Khmer, some French. French was chosen as the uniform title language in authority record (n 88176991). However, the new constitution of 1993 (n95016238) is officially issued in Khmer, not both Khmer and French. A better choice for uniform title would be the Khmer form.

010  n 88176991
110  10 Cambodia.$tConstitution
410  10 Cambodia.tKampuchia honpop
410  10 Cambodia.$tHonpop

010  nr 95016238
110  10 Cambodia.$tConstitution (1993)

Alternate form as found on another RLIN record:

110  10 Cambodia.$tRatthadhammanunn (1993).$lFrench
410  10 Cambodia.$tConstitution (1993)		

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when a book starts off wrong everything goes wrong? Subject access is not within the scope of this column, but note that for a single jurisdiction the subject heading for a collection or single constitution should be Cambodia$xConstitution not Constitutions$zCambodia. We enhanced the record a little with the note to justify the analytical added entry for the new Constitution, but this is optional. An edited version of the record would look like this.

110 1  Cambodia.
240 10 Constitution$lFrench
245 14 Les Constitutions du Cambodge, 1953-1993
500    Collection includes the text of the new 1993 constitution
       which reestablishes the monarchy.
650  0 Constitutions$zCambodia.
651  0 Cambodia$xConstitution.
710 12 Cambodia.$tRatthadhammanunn (1993).$lFrench$f1994.