Authority records are permanent records in machine-readable form that include the following elements:  1) the form of the name chosen for use in headings (1XX); 2) the sources for this form and variant forms (670); and 3) the cross references leading to the heading from variant forms or from related headings (4XX and 5XX) if appropriate.  Additional information may be recorded in fixed fields (008) and cataloger's notes (667, 663, 664, etc.).  Control data and content designation are also included for proper identification and manipulation of the machine-readable data.  The non-NACO form of name preferred by the appropriate national cataloging agency may be recorded in a linking reference (7XX).

Generally, a name authority record is made for any title, person, corporate, meeting, or geographic name heading that may be used as a main or added entry heading (including subject added entries) or in certain cross references.  NARs may also be made for headings used only in certain cross references and for geographic or corporate names that are used as qualifiers in headings.  NARs are not made for personal names when the only clue to the person's identity is a non-alphabetic or non-numeric device (see DCM Z1, Introduction), nor for entities that may be used only as subject entries, e.g., topical subject headings, fictional characters, animals, or geographic features.

NACO participants may contribute name authority records for titles or name/titles (other than series, see below) as needed for cataloging.  At LC an authority record for a uniform title is required only when one or more of the following conditions applies (see DCM Z1, Introduction):

a)   a reference must be traced on that authority record; or,

b)   special research done to establish the heading must be recorded; or,

c)   the heading is needed for a related work added or subject entry, and no bibliographic record for the item exists in the database; or,

d)   special information needs to be recorded, e.g., citation title for a law.

At LC these criteria are applied to each element of the full heading (main title, language, part, etc.) and a separate authority record is made for each element that meets the criteria.

Note that this means that authority records are not automatically created for each element of a uniform title heading.

Types of headings

All name headings are eligible for contribution to NACO, including:

personal name headings

corporate name headings

conference headings

uniform title headings

geographic name headings for jurisdictions

Libraries that have received training in music name-uniform title authority contributions as part of the NACO Music Project may contribute music name-uniform title NARs and make changes to established NARs.

If a NACO member is not sure whether a particular heading is eligible for NACO contribution, he should consult his PCC reviewer.

See also:

Preliminaries