Name authority records

Summary: Instructions for original catalogers updating or creating NACO name authority records (NARs).

Local review process

In general, new or updated NACO records require review from Lucas Mak and/or Joshua Barton before submission to Library of Congress. Follow these steps to submit your record for review.

1. Add a 690 to the completed record with MiEM:[yourinitials]

2. If your new or updated record will prompt bibliographic file maintenance in OCLC:
   1. Locate all English-language records with AAPs that would need updating
   2. Put OCLC record numbers for these records in your 690
3. Save the record to the online save file, noting the save file number
4. Email Lucas and/or Joshua the save file number to let them know your record is ready for review

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Important NAR guidelines

These are not comprehensive, but include some of the most common questions around NACO work.

• Dates
  • If readily available, add dates to all personal name AAPs when creating new NARs
  • Don't add to an existing personal name NARs without dates, unless the AAP for the name is also being changed (per LC PCC PS 9.19.1.3)
    
    • Optionally, add a death date to an existing NAR that already has a birth date, or vice versa
• Aliases
• 670 formatting conventions
  
  • Is there documentation to point to for this?
  • The general pattern and punctuation is:
    • Title of work cited, year of publication: $b source of information (piece of info; piece of info; piece of info) source of information (piece of info; piece of info; piece of info)
    • See examples below for more detail
• Bibliographic file maintenance (BFM)
  • For our local catalog, catalogers may make updates manually if they wish, but automated Backstage processes will ensure the new or updated form of the NAR will eventually make its way into our local database
  • For the OCLC database, the MSUL NACO coordinator will use cataloger-supplied OCLC record numbers in the 690 (see above) to address any necessary BFM

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Field-by-field guide

MARC field	Element	Notes	Examples
024	Identifiers	For names, these may come from be ORCID, VIAF, ISNI, etc. Should include URIs	024 _7 1899243 ǂ2 viaf ǂ1 https://viaf.org/viaf/1899243/#Zhu,_Yongjia 024 _8 $1 https://isni.org/isni/0000000047744884
046	Birth and death dates	$f = birth date $g = death date Include $2 edtf to indicate date/time standard	046 __ $f 1931 $g 2023 $2 edtf
375	Gender information	Do not use in new records; remove when updating existing NARs.
670	Work cited information	$a = title of work cited, year $b = source of information in work, all pieces of information gathered from that source repeatable any field in the NAR must be supported by information in the 670	670 __ Si shen chun qiu, 2014: ǂb t.p. (朱永嘉 = Zhu Yongjia) front flap (b. 1931; male; historian; pen name: 羅思鼎 = Luo Siding; author of: Wan nian Mao Zedong chong du gu wen nei mu, Lun Cao Cao, Liu Bang yu Xiang Yu; annotator of: Ming ci hui kan, Lü shi chun qiu, Tang liu dian, Chun qiu fan lu, etc.)

Resources

• Best practices for adding URIs to 024
• Substep b
• Substep c

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