The National Archives Catalog

Contributor Type Authority List

The Contributor Type Authority List provides data values for the Organizational Contributor Typeand Personal Contributor Type elements. The Contributor Type Authority List is based on the MARC Relator Code List.


A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Actor
scope note: Use for a person who principally exhibits acting skills in a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment.

Adapter
scope note: Use for a person who 1) reworks a musical composition, usually for a different medium, or 2) rewrites novels or stories for motion pictures or other audiovisual medium.

Animator

Annotator
scope note: Use for a person who writes manuscript annotations on a printed item.

Applicant

Architect

Arranger
scope note: Use for a 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.

Art director

Artist
scope note: Use for a person (e.g., a painter) who conceives, and perhaps also implements, an original graphic design or work of art, if specific terms (e.g., Engraver, Etcher) are not desired. For book illustrators, prefer Illustrator.
UF Graphic technician

Assignee
scope note: Use for a person or organization to whom a license for printing or publishing has been transferred.

Assistant director

Associate producer

Associated name
scope note: Use as a general term for a name associated with or found in an item or collection, or which cannot be determined to be that of a Former owner or other designated term indicative of provenance.

Attributed name
scope note: 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.
UF Supposed name

Auctioneer
scope note: Use for a person or corporate body in change or the estimation and public auctioning of goods, particularly books, artistic works, etc.

Author
scope note: Use for a person or corporate body chiefly responsible for the intellectual or artistic content of a work, usually printed text. This term may also be used when more than one person or body bears such responsibility.
UF Joint author

Author in quotations or text extracts
scope note: Use for a person whose work is largely quoted or extracted in a works to which he or she did not contribute directly. Such quotations are found particularly in exhibition catalogs, collections of photographs, etc.

Author of afterword, colophon, etc.
scope note: Use for a person or corporate body responsible for an afterword, postface, colophon, etc. but who is not the chief author of a work.

Author of introduction, etc.
scope note: Use for a person or corporate body responsible for an introduction, preface, foreword, or other critical introductory matter, but who is not the chief author.

Author of screenplay, etc.
scope note: Use for a person or corporate body responsible for a motion picture screenplay, dialog, spoken commentary, etc.

Bibliographic antecedent
scope note: Use for the author responsible for a work upon which the work represented by the catalog record is based. This may be appropriate for adaptations, sequels, continuations, indexes, etc.

Binder

Binding designer
scope note: UF Designer of binding

Book designer
scope note: Use for the person or firm responsible for the entire graphic design of a book, including arrangement of type and illustration, choice of materials, and process used.

Book producer
scope note: Use for the person or firm responsible for the production of books and other print media, if specific terms (e.g., Book designer, Engraver, Type designer, Printer) are not desired.
UF Producer of book

Bookjacket designer
scope note: UF Designer of bookjacket

Bookplate designer
scope note: UF Designer of bookplate

Bookseller

Calligrapher

Camera assistant

Camera operator

Cartographer

Censor
scope note: Use for a censor, bowdlerizer, expurgator, etc., official or private.
UF Bowdlerizer Expurgator

Choreographer
scope note: Use for a person who composes or arranges dances or other movements (e.g., "master of swords") for a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment.

Cinematographer

Client
scope note: Use for a person or organization for whom another person or organization is acting.

Collaborator
scope note: Use for a person or corporate body that takes a limited part in the elaboration of a work of another author or that brings complements (e.g., appendices, notes) to the work of another author.

Collector
scope note: Use for a 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.

Collotyper

Commentator
scope note: Use for a person who provides interpretation, analysis, or a discussion of the subject matter on a recording, motion picture, or other audiovisual medium.

Compiler
scope note: Use for a person who produces a work or publication by selecting and putting together material from the works of various persons or bodies.

Complainant
scope note: Use for the party who applies to the courts for redress, usually in an equity proceeding.

Complainant-appellant
scope note: Use for a complainant who takes an appeal from one court or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment, usually in an equity proceeding.

Complainant-appellee
scope note: Use for a complainant against whom an appeal is taken from one court or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment, usually in an equity proceeding.

Composer
scope note: Use for a person who creates a musical work, usually a piece of music in manuscript or printed form.

Compositor
scope note: UF Typesetter

Conceptor
scope note: Use for a person or corporate body responsible for the original idea on which a work is based, this includes the scientific author of an audio-visual item and the conceptor of an advertisement.

Conductor
scope note: Use for a person who directs a performing group (orchestra, chorus, opera, etc.).

Consultant
scope note: Use for the person called upon for professional advice or services in a specialized field of knowledge or training.

Consultant to a project
scope note: Use for a person or corporate body engaged specifically to provide an intellectual overview of a strategic or operational task and by analysis, specification, or instruction, to create or propose a cost-effective course of action or solution.

Contestant
scope note: Use for the party who opposes, resists, or disputes, in a court of law, a claim, decision, result, etc.

Contestant-appellant
scope note: Use for a contestant who takes an appeal from one court of law or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment.

Contestant-appellee
scope note: Use for a contestant against whom an appeal is taken from one court of law or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment.

Contestee
scope note: Use for the party defending a claim, decision, result, etc. being opposed, resisted, or disputed in a court of law.

Contestee-appellant
scope note: Use for a contestee who takes an appeal from one court or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment.

Contestee-appellee
scope note: Use for a contestee against whom an appeal is taken from one court or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment.

Contractor
scope note: Use for the person or corporate body who enters into a contract with another person or corporate body to perform a specific task.

Co-producer

Copyright claimant

Copyright holder

Corrector
scope note: Use for a corrector of manuscripts, such as the scriptorium official who corrected the work of a scribe. For printed matter, use Proofreader.

Correspondent
scope note: Use for a person or organization who was either the writer or recipient of a letter or other communication.

Costume designer
scope note: Use for a person who designs or makes costumes, fixes hair, etc., for a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment.

Curator of an exhibition
scope note: Use for a person who is responsible for conceiving and organizing an exhibition.

Dancer
scope note: Use for a person who principally exhibits dancing skills in a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment.

Dedicatee
scope note: Use for a person or organization to whom a book, manuscript, etc., is dedicated (not the recipient of a gift).

Dedicator
scope note: Use for the author of a dedication, which may be a formal statement or in epistolary or verse form.

Defendant
scope note: Use for the party defending or denying allegations made in a suit and against whom relief or recovery is sought in the courts, usually in a legal action.

Defendant-appellant
scope note: Use for a defendant who takes an appeal from one court or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment, usually in a legal action.

Defendant-appellee
scope note: Use for a defendant against whom an appeal is taken from one court or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment, usually in a legal action.

Delineator
scope note: Use for a person or organization executing technical drawings from others' designs.

Depositor
scope note: Use for a person or organization placing material in the physical custody of a library or repository without transferring the legal title.

Designer
scope note: Use for a person or organization responsible for design if specific codes (e.g., Book designer, Type designer) are not desired.

Director
scope note: Use for a person who is responsible for the general management of a work or who supervises the production of a performance for stage, screen, or sound recording.

Dissertant
scope note: Use for a person who presents a thesis for a university or higher-level educational degree.

Distributor
scope note: Use for an agent or agency that has exclusive or shared marketing rights for an item.

Draftsman

Dubious author
scope note: Use for a person or corporate body to which authorship has been dubiously or incorrectly ascribed.

Editor
scope note: Use for a 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.

Electrotyper

Engineer
scope note: Use for a person or organization that is responsible for technical planning and design, particularly with construction.

Engraver

Etcher

Executive producer

Expert
scope note: Use for a person in charge of the description and appraisal of the value of goods, particularly rare items, works of art, etc.
UF Appraiser

Facsimilist

Filer

Film editor
scope note: Use for an editor of a motion picture film. This term is used regardless of the medium upon which the motion picture is produced or manufactured (e.g., acetate film, video tape).

Forger
scope note: UF Copier, Counterfeiter

Former owner
scope note: Use for the person or organization who owned an item at any time in the past. Includes those to whom the material was once presented. The person or organization giving the item to the present owner is designated as Donor.

Funder
scope note: Use for the person or agency that furnished financial support for the production of the work.

Guest

Honoree
scope note: Use for the person in memory or honor of whom a book, manuscript, etc. is donated.
UF Memorial

Host
scope note: Use for the person who is invited or regularly leads a program (often broadcast) that includes other guests, performers, etc. (e.g., talk show host).

Illuminator

Illustrator
scope note: Use for the person who conceives, and perhaps also implements, a design or illustration, usually to accompany a written text.

Inscriber
scope note: Use for the person who signs a presentation statement.

Inspector
scope note: Use for a person who conducts an inspection or otherwise ascertains the state of affairs.

Instrumentalist
scope note: Use for a person who principally plays an instrument in a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment.

Interviewee

Interviewer

Inventor

Judge
scope note: Use for a public official appointed or elected to hear and decide legal matters in court.
source: Black's Law Dictionary, 1999

K - none

Landscape architect

Lender
scope note: Use for a person or organization permitting the temporary use of a book, manuscript, etc., such as for photocopying or microfilming.

Libelant
scope note: Use for the party who files a libel in an ecclesiastical or admiralty case.

Libelant-appellant
scope note: Use for a libelant who takes an appeal from one ecclesiastical court or admiralty to another to reverse the judgment.

Libelant-appellee
scope note: Use for a libelant against whom an appeal is taken from one ecclesiastical court or admiralty to another to reverse the judgment.

Libelee
scope note: Use for the party against whom a libel has been filed in an ecclesiastical court or admiralty.

Libelee-appellant
scope note: Use for a libelee who takes an appeal from one ecclesiastical court or admiralty to another to reverse the judgment.

Libelee-appellee
scope note: Use for a libelee against whom an appeal is taken from one ecclesiastical court or admiralty to another to reverse the judgment.

Librettist
scope note: Use for the writer of the text of an opera, oratorio, etc.

Licensee
scope note: Use for the original recipient of the right to print or publish.

Licensor
scope note: Use for the signer of the license, imprimatur, etc.
UF Imprimatur

Lithographer
scope note: 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
scope note: Use for the writer of the text of a song.

Manufacture place
scope note: Use for the name of the place of manufacture (e.g., printing, duplicating, casting, etc.) of a resource in a published form.

Manufacturer
scope note: Use for a person or organization that makes an artifactual work (an object made or modified by one or more persons). Examples of artifactual works include vases, cannons or pieces of furniture.

Marine artist

Metadata contact
scope note: Use for the person or organization primarily responsible for compiling and maintaining the original description of a metadata set (e.g., geospatial metadata set).

Metal-engraver

Moderator
scope note: Use for the person who leads a program (often broadcast) where topics are discussed, usually with participation of experts in fields related to the discussion.

Monitor
scope note: Use for a person or organization that supervises compliance with the contract and is responsible for the report and controls its distribution. Sometimes referred to as the grantee, or controlling agency.

Musician
scope note: 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.

Narrator
scope note: Use for the speaker who relates the particulars of an act, occurrence, or course of events.

Organizer of meeting
scope note: Use for the person or corporate body responsible for organizing a meeting for which an item is the report or proceedings.

Originator
scope note: Use for the author or agency performing the work, i.e., the name of a person or organization associated with the intellectual content of the work. This category does not include the publisher or personal affiliation, or sponsor except where it is also the corporate author. Includes a person designated in the work as investigator or principal investigator. Use in cases where an individual is named in the series title but is not the archival creator.
UF Principal investigator

Other
scope note: Use for terms from other lists which have no equivalent in the MARC list or for terms which have not been assigned a relator.

Owner

Papermaker

Participant
scope note: Use for a person who participates in or contributes to a council or meeting but who may not be the subject of the meeting.

Patent holder

Patron
scope note: Use for the person responsible for commissioning a work. Usually a patron uses his or her means or influence to support the work of artists, writers, etc. This includes those who commission and pay for individual works.

Petitioner

Performer
scope note: Use for a person who exhibits musical or acting skills in a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment, if specific terms for those functions (Actor, Dancer, Instrumentalist, Vocalist, etc.) are not used. If specific terms are used, Performer is used for a person whose principal skill is not known or specified.

Photographer
scope note: Use for the person or organization responsible for taking photographs, whether they are used in their original form or as reproductions.

Plaintiff
scope note: Use for the party who complains or sues in court in a personal action, usually in a legal proceeding.

Plaintiff-appellant
scope note: Use for a plaintiff who takes an appeal from one court or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment, usually in a legal proceeding.

Plaintiff-appellee
scope note: Use for a plaintiff against whom an appeal is taken from one court or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment, usually in a legal proceeding.

Platemaker

Printer
scope note: Use for the person or organization who prints texts, whether from type or plates.

Printer of Plates
scope note: Use for the person or organization who prints illustrations from plates.
UF Plates, Printer of

Printmaker
scope note: Use for the person who makes a relief, intaglio, or planographic printing surface.

Process contact
scope note: Use for a person or organization primarily responsible for performing or initiating a process, such as is done with the collection of metadata sets.

Producer
scope note: Use for a 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.

Production personnel
scope note: Use for a person who is associated with the production (props, lighting, special effects, etc.) of a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment.

Programmer
scope note: Use for a person or corporate body responsible for the creation and/or maintenance of computer program design documents, source code, and machine-executable digital files and supporting documentation.

Proofreader
scope note: Use for a person who corrects printed matter. For manuscripts, use Corrector.

Publisher

Publishing director
scope note: Use for a person who presides over the elaboration of a collective work to ensure its coherence or continuity. This includes editors-in-chief, literary editors, editors of series, etc.

Q - none

Recipient
scope note: Use for the person to whom correspondence is addressed.

Recording engineer
scope note: Use for a person who supervises the technical aspects of a sound or video recording session.

Redactor
scope note: Use for a person who writes or develops the framework for an item without being intellectually responsible for its content.

Renderer

Research team head
scope note: Use for the person or corporate body that directed or managed a research project.

Research team member
scope note: Use for the person or corporate body that participated in a research project but whose role did not involve direction or management of it.

Researcher
scope note: Use for the person or corporate body responsible for performing research.
UF Performer of research

Respondent
scope note: Use for the party who makes an answer to the courts pursuant to an application for redress, usually in an equity proceeding.

Respondent-appellant
scope note: Use for a respondent who takes an appeal from one court or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment, usually in an equity proceeding.

Respondent-appellee
scope note: Use for a respondent against whom an appeal is taken from one court or jurisdiction to another to reverse the judgment, usually in an equity proceeding.

Reviewer
scope note: Use for a person or corporate body responsible for the review of book, motion picture, performance, etc.

Rubricator

Scenarist
scope note: Use for the author of a motion picture screenplay.

Scientific advisor
scope note: Use for a person who brings scientific, pedagogical, or historical competence to the conception and realization on a work, particularly in the case of audio-visual items.

Scribe
scope note: Use for an amanuensis and for a writer of manuscripts proper. For a person who makes pen-facsimiles, use Facsimilist.

Sculptor
scope note: Use when the more general term Artist is not desired.

Secretary
scope note: Use for a recorder, redactor, or other person responsible for expressing the views of a corporate body.

Signer
scope note: Use for the person whose signature appears without a presentation or other statement indicative of provenance. When there is a presentation statement, use Inscriber.

Singer
scope note: Use for a person who uses his or her voice with or without instrumental accompaniment to produce music. A singer's performance may or may not include actual words.

Space artist

Speaker
scope note: Use for a person who participates in a program (often broadcast) and makes a formalized contribution or presentation generally prepared in advance.

Sponsor
scope note: Use for the person or agency that issued a contract or under the auspices of which a work has been written, printed, published, etc.

Sound

Stereotyper

Surveyor
scope note: Use for a person or organization who does measurements of tracts of land, etc. to determine location, forms, and boundaries.

Thesis advisor
scope note: Use for the person under whose supervision a degree candidate develops and presents a thesis, mémoire, or text of a dissertation.
UF Promoter

Transcriber
scope note: Use for a person who prepares a handwritten or typewritten copy from original material, including from dictated or orally recorded material. For makers of pen-facsimiles, use Facsimilist.

Translator
scope note: Use for a person who renders a text from one language into another, or from an older form of a language into the modern form.

Type designer
scope note: Use for the person who designed the type face used in a particular item.
UF Designer of type

Typographer
scope note: Use for the person primarily responsible for choice and arrangement of type used in an item. If the typographer is also responsible for other aspects of the graphic design of a book (e.g., Book designer), codes for both functions may be needed.

Vocalist
scope note: Use for a person who principally exhibits singing skills in a musical or dramatic presentation or entertainment.

Witness

Wood-engraver

Writer of accompanying material
scope note: Use for a person who writes significant material which accompanies a sound recording or other audiovisual material.

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