Creator Element Help

Definition

The Creator field identifies any persons, groups, or corporations associated with the item in some way , for example, authors, illustrators, binders, publishers, or conferences. This field is repeatable.

The Edit Named Entity form that is part of the full editing form allows users to identify the Name type, and include information about the full name of the creator entity, as well enter information about individual name parts, the Display Form of the name, the Affiliation, the Role, and a Description.

The Name Type indicates whether a name is personal, conference, or corporate. The form also allows users to mark the entry as a 'Principal' or 'Other' author.

The Edit Named Entity form includes the various types of Name Part that can be used to describe a Creator. This includes fields for Given Names (first names), Family Names (last names), Terms of Address, Dates (year of birth to year of death), and Display Form for an entity.

The Description is a textual description for a name when necessary, for example, to distinguish from other names, or to include information about job titles.

The Affiliation is the name of an organization, institution, etc. with which the entity was associated at the time that the resource was created. For example, if there is an entity affiliated with a major university or government group, information about the university or government group would be included here.

The Role designates the relationship of the entity recorded in name to the resource described in the record, for example, Illustrator, Editor, or Translator.

Form Element

In the online templates, this element appears as below:

Upon clicking or typing in the main box, the form below appears to give access to all the individual components of the other titles element:

If the named entity is a corporate entity, the form appears slightly different:

This form element allows the user to enter the name(s) and role(s) for the creator(s). Clicking the + sign adds another line to add additional creators.

Best Practices

Enter names as LastName, FirstName MiddleInitial. Use the plus sign to the right of the field to add any additional authors of this material.

Optionally, add birth year in this format: Taylor, Laurie N., 1978-

Most items should include information about at least one creator. MODS is not restricted by the AACR2 "Rule of Three" in which only three authors are recorded; all persons, corporations, or conferences related to the item should be included in the metadata.

Display forms of names may match the Library of Congress Authority files, but are not required to do so.

When setting roles, you can use any appropriate role name. Some standard role names linked to examples appear in the table below:

Actor Animator Architect Artist Author, primary Author, secondary Binder Calligrapher Cartographer Choreographer Cinematographer Compiler Composer Conductor Conference

Consultant Contributor Curator Degree Grantor Director Dissertant Designer Editor Engraver Engineer Illustrator Interviewee Interviewer Landscape Architect Lithographer

Manufacturer Musician Narrator Papermaker Performer Photographer Printmaker Printer Programmer Producer Publisher Puppeteer Recipient Researcher Research team head

Research team member Reviewer Scientific advisor Sculptor Signer Singer Speaker Sponsor Surveyor Stereotyper Thesis advisor Transcriber Translator Woodcutter Wood-engraver

Examples

Below are several books with creator information that is more robust than just a name:

• Buy your own cherries! and other tales ; and, A Christmas surprise
• Carl Krinken, or, The Christmas stocking

More examples can be found by clicking on select roles in the role list above.

SobekCM / MODS Encoding

The creator information is encoded entirely in the MODS section of the SobekCM METS file.

<mods:name type="personal">
    <mods:namePart>Brown, B.F.</mods:namePart>
    <mods:namePart type="termsOfAddress">Dr.</mods:namePart>
    <mods:displayForm>B.F. Brown</mods:displayForm>
    <mods:affiliation>Chemistry Dept., American University</mods:affiliation>
    <mods:description>Chemistry Professor Emeritus</mods:description>
    <mods:role>
        <mods:roleTerm>Main Entity</mods:roleTerm>
        <mods:roleTerm type="text">Author</mods:roleTerm>
        <mods:roleTerm type="code" authority="marcrelator">aut</mods:roleTerm>
    </mods:role>
</mods:name>

<mods:name type="personal">
    <mods:namePart type="given">John Paul</mods:namePart>
    <mods:namePart type="date">1920-2002</mods:namePart>
    <mods:namePart type="termsOfAddress">Pope, II</mods:namePart>
</mods:name>

<mods:name type="conference">
    <mods:namePart>Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920)</mods:namePart>
    <mods:namePart type="date">1919-1920</mods:namePart>
</mods:name>

<mods:name type="corporate">
    <mods:namePart>United States | Court of Appeals (2nd Court)</mods:namePart>
</mods:name>

<mods:name type="personal" ID="NAM4">
    <mods:namePart>Wilson, Mary</mods:namePart>
    <mods:namePart type="given">Mary</mods:namePart>
    <mods:namePart type="family">Wilson</mods:namePart>
    <mods:namePart type="termsOfAddress">2nd</mods:namePart>
    <mods:displayForm>Mary 'Weels' Wilson</mods:displayForm>
    <mods:role>
        <mods:roleTerm type="text">illustrator</mods:roleTerm>
        <mods:roleTerm type="text">cartographer</mods:roleTerm>
    </mods:role>
</mods:name>

Metadata Mapping

MARC to MODS Mapping

The creator information maps from:

• 100, 700, 796 → name (personal, main entity)
• 110, 710, 797 → name (corporate, main entity)
• 111, 711 → name (conference, main entity)

MODS to MARC Mapping

Mapping from the MODS back to MARC is the reverse of the procedure listed above.

Sources

1. MODS User Guidelines Version 3, Detailed Description of MODS Elements
2. MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data
3. MARC Mapping to MODS version 3.4 : name
4. MODS to MARC 21 Mapping version 3.3 : name
5. MODS Top-level Element: name

Contributors

Nicola Hill, Mark Sullivan, and Laurie Taylor

All contributors >>