Chief Source, Prescribed Source and Prominence

AACR2 defines for each type of item cataloged the appropriate sources of bibliographical information to be used in preparing a description. The basic concepts of this definition are "chief source," "prescribed source," and "prominence." These three concepts overlap to a certain degree and can therefore be easily confused. What follows is an attempt to clarify the differences among them.

Prescribed source

Any source from which the cataloger is permitted to draw information

Chief source

A prescribed source of information which is to be preferred over other prescribed sources. A given area of the description may have several prescribed (permitted) sources, one of which may be designated by the rules as the preferable (chief) source.

For example: the prescribed sources of information for the edition of a monograph are the title page, the preliminaries, and the colophon; of these the source to be preferred (the chief source) is the title page. The chief source is thus a special variety of prescribed source.

For each type of item to be cataloged (books, microforms, sound recordings, etc.) the rules specify a chief source which applies to all areas of the description. In addition to this the rules specify for each area of the description a number of other sources which may be used as substitutes for, or as supplements to, the chief source. The complete list of chief source plus other permitted sources is referred to as the "prescribed sources" for a given area of the description.

2.0B Monographs
Area of Description	Chief Source	Other Prescribed Sources
Title and Statement of Responsibility	Title page	Title page*
Edition	Title page	Preliminaries, colophon
Publication/distribution	Title page	Preliminaries, colophon
Physical description	Title page	Entire item
Series	Title page	Series title page Cover, rest of item
Notes	Title page	Anywhere
*For the title and statement of responsibility the title page is thus the only prescribed source.

Important information may usually be taken from sources other than those prescribed for a given area, but when this is done, the information is bracketed.

For example, if the statement of responsibility is taken from the colophon:

. . . / [edited by John Smith]

Prominence and Statements of Responsibility [0.8, 1.1F1, 1.1F2]

As far as the "body" of the description (i.e. the description exclusive of main and added entries) is concerned, the concept of prominence has in practice to do only with information used for the statement of responsibility. While other areas of the description may use information from any non-prescribed source so long as such information is recorded in brackets, the rules limit the non-prescribed sources that may be used for the statement of responsibility to those which are defined as prominent.

Prominent sources for the statement of responsibility are the following:

• Cover
• Any page/leaf preceding the title page
• Verso of the title page
• Colophon

A statement of responsibility found in a non-prominent source cannot be recorded at all (i.e. not even with the use of brackets) in the statement of responsibility area. When it is necessary to record such information in the description a note is used; for example:

Authors: John Smith, William Jones.

(It should be remembered that main entries never have to be justified by something which appears in the description. Thus, if there is a single author, and that author's name does not appear in a prescribed source or prominently, there is no need to record it at all in the description to justify its use as a main entry. A note like that illustrated above is used to justify an added entry for a co-author.)

LCRI 1.1F1 provides further guidance on prominence and the transcription of statements of responsibility:

• objective is to record only those statements that are of bibliographic significance: significant from the point of view of the intellectual and artistic content of an item
• include in the statement of responsibility the names of those whose contributions are judged to be of bibliographic significance if such names appear prominently
• if there is doubt whether a statement is of bibliographic significance
  • transcribe the statement only when it is in the chief source