Controlled Vocabularies >> Contributor Roles
Contributor Roles
Below is a complete list of Contributor Roles available in the drop-down lists occuring in the Contributors tab of Work and Container records, and in the Contributors field in Instantiation records. Whereas this list is exhaustive, only selected terms are commonly used in each setting. For more information on specific uses of these Role terms, see the Cataloging Interface and Fields and Procedures pages.
- Actor: Use for the person who principally exhibits acting skills in a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment.
- Arranger: Use for the person who transcribes a musical composition, usually for a different medium from that of the original. In an arrangement the musical substance remains essentially unchanged.
- Attributed name: Use to relate an author, artist, etc. to a work for which there is or once was substantial authority for designating that person as author, creator, etc. of the work.
- Censor: Use for the censor, bowdlerizer, expurgator, etc., official or private.
- Choreographer: Use for the person who composes or arranges dances or other movements (e.g., "master of swords") for a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment.
- Composer: Use for the person who creates a musical work, usually a piece of music in manuscript or printed form.
- Conductor: Use for the person who directs a performing group (orchestra, chorus, opera, etc.).
- Copyright holder: Use for the person or organization that holds the copyright.
- Dancer: Use for the person who principally exhibits dancing skills in a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment.
- Dedicatee: Use for the person or organization to whom a book, manuscript, score, etc., is dedicated (not the recipient of a gift).
- Director (stage, lighting, costume, etc.): Use for the person who is responsible for the general management of a work or who supervises the production of a performance for stage, screen, sound recording, lighting, video, costume, or other types of directing. If there is a specific type of design indicated, provide this type in the parentheses, e.g., “Director (lighting).”
- Distributor: Use for then agent or agency that has exclusive or shared marketing rights for an item.
- Editor (series): Use for the person who prepares for publication a work not primarily his/her own, such as by elucidating text, adding introductory or other critical matter, or technically directing an editorial staff. If the person prepares a series, use “Editor (series).”
- Engraver: Use for the person responsible for engraving.
- Illustrator: Illustrator of print publication types. Use for the person who conceives, and perhaps also implements, a design or illustration, usually to accompany a written text.
- Librettist: Use for the writer of the text of an opera, oratorio, etc.
- Licensee: Use for the original recipient of the right to print or publish.
- Licensor: Use for the signer of the license, imprimatur, etc.
- Lithographer: Use for the person who prepares the stone or plate for lithographic printing, including a graphic artist creating a design directly on the surface from which printing will be done.
- Lyricist / poet / text writer: Use for the writer of the text of a song, such as poet, etc.
- Mixer: Use for the person responsible for balancing and controlling the dialogue, music, and sound effects on a recording, motion picture, etc.
- Musician: Use for the person who performs music or contributes to the musical content of a work when it is not possible or desirable to identify the function more precisely.
- Performer: Use for either a person or group.
- Person: Use for the person who principally exhibits singing skills or plays an instrument or instruments in a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment. Currently, there is no mechanism for identifying the voice type of or instrument used by the performer.
- Group: Use for various performing groups such as:
- Instrumental players such as orchestra, quartet, various chamber groups, etc.
- Group of vocalists such as choir and other vocal combinations
- Mixed group players including both instrumental and vocal performers.
- Photographer: Use for the person or organization responsible for taking photographs, whether they are used in their original form or as reproductions.
- Printer: Use for the person or organization who prints texts, whether from type or plates.
- Producer: Use for the person who is responsible for the making of a motion picture, including business aspects, management of the productions, and the commercial success of the work.
- Provenance (collector / donor): Use for the person who has brought together material from various sources, which has been arranged, described, and cataloged as a collection. The collector is neither the creator of the material nor the person to whom manuscripts in the collection may have been addressed. Also use for the donor of a book, manuscript, score, etc., to its present owner.
- Publisher: Use for the organization responsible for the publication of the materials.
- Recording engineer: Use for the person who supervises the technical aspects of a sound or video recording session.
- Screenplay: Use for the person responsible for script play (e.g., motion picture screenplay, dialog, spoken commentary, etc.).
- Sequencer: Use for the person responsible for sequencing.
- Speaker (commentator / narrator): Use for the person who provides interpretation, analysis, or a discussion of the subject matter on a recording, motion picture, or other audiovisual medium. Also use for the speaker who relates the particulars of an act, occurrence, or course of events.
- Transcriber: Use for the person who prepares a handwritten or typewritten copy from original material, including from dictated or orally recorded material.
- Translator: Use for the person who renders a text from one language into another, or from an older form of a language into the modern form.
- Writer of accompanying material: Use for the person who writes significant material, which accompanies a sound recording or other audiovisual material.