Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations  (Preliminaries)

AACR – Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (subsequent editions, updates, and revisions).

AACR2-compatible – Denotes the coding on a name authority record (NAR) that was in the database before AACR2 rules came into effect, but was judged to be similar enough to accept in the online catalog without being converted to AACR2 rules.  The 008/10 code is d.

AMICUS – Library and Archives of Canada’s (LAC’s) online database for bibliographic records from over 500 Canadian libraries, including the authority records from the LAC; see yellow pages of MARC 21 Authority Format, DCM Z1 Appendix for Canadian Headings for more information.

BFM – Bibliographic File Maintenance.  In certain circumstances, NACO participants must notify their LC liaison when changing an existing heading found in LC bibliographic records.  LC staff will perform BFM on those bibliographic records.  The complete guidelines for which changes need to be reported are available online at http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/naco/bfmguide.html.  The NACO home page also contains a useful FAQ link on BFM; see http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/naco/bfmfaq.html.

BGN – U.S. Board of Geographic Names.  This agency creates the list of geographic names used as a standard for LC and NACO libraries in establishing headings for geographic entities.

BIBCO – Bibliographic Cooperative Program.  The monographic bibliographic record component of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging.  By definition, all BIBCO institutions are also NACO members.

BIBCO contact or BIBCO liaison – The person within a BIBCO institution who is responsible for coordinating BIBCO activity at that particular institution and for maintaining contact with the LC Cooperative Cataloging Team (Coop).

BIBCO coordinator – A member of the LC Cooperative Cataloging Team who administers membership and training issues for the BIBCO program; often used synonymously with BIBCO contact as the lead person at a particular institution.

"Blue pages" – The Library of Congress Supplement Guidelines to the MARC 21 Format for Authority Data, formerly issued in print format on blue paper.  Issued by the LC Network Development and MARC Standards Office to show which MARC elements in the standard documentation ("white pages") are not implemented by the Library of Congress system, and thus cannot be used in PCC records.

CDS – Cataloging Distribution Service of the Library of Congress.  Publisher and distributor of cataloging documentation and LC database files.

CIP data – Cataloging in Publication data.  This information typically appears on the verso of a title page of a published item but is based on a galley of the item before it is published.

Conflict – A condition in which certain cross references match an established name authority record (NAR) heading, jeopardizing its uniqueness within the database.  Conflicts are to be avoided or resolved wherever possible.

Connexion – See OCLC.

CONSER – Cooperative ONline SERials Program; the serials cataloging component of the PCC.

Consolidated NAR – See Undifferentiated personal name.

Coop Team – Cooperative Cataloging Team, Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division, Library of Congress (RCCD).  The Coop Team assists the RCCD Division chief in the duties of the Secretariat for the PCC and serves as the liaison for the cooperative programs.

DCM – Descriptive Cataloging Manual.  An internal procedural document used by Library of Congress catalogers.  DCM Z1 addresses name and series authority procedures and is prescribed for use in NACO.

DCM Z1 – Descriptive Cataloging Manual (DCM), Section Z1, Name and Series Authority Records; also known as Z1, or "Yellow Pages".

Division of the World – A term used historically in the Library of Congress to reflect two situations:  1) that certain entities must be established in the NACO Authority File (LC/NAF) and others in the Subject Authority File (LCSH) by the rules appropriate for each; and 2) that until recently, most LC catalogers specialized in either descriptive rules or subject rules, and divided responsibility for establishing authority records.  For NACO catalogers, it is important to consult documentation to determine whether the entity should be established according to name authority or subject authority guidelines.  See also Subject Heading Manual (SHM), H 405.

Duplicates – Name or series authority records in which the main headings match, causing a conflict that must be resolved.  If the headings are for the same entity, one record is deleted; if the headings are for two distinct entities, one or both must be changed to make both unique.

ENR – Early Notice Record.  Brief, incomplete authority record input by an LC cataloger into the LC/NAF as a temporary record while the full record undergoes the complete review and input process.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions.  The PCC Web site has FAQs to help users find answers to their questions.

Field – A portion of an online record as defined in the MARC 21 format.  Fixed fields typically may contain very short strings of codes or data, while variable fields are longer, and contain access points and data transcribed directly from the item being cataloged or reference consulted.

Fixed Field – See Field.

FTP – File Transfer Protocol.  In a NACO context, records created in one location can be transferred electronically to another database using this procedure.

Funnel coordinator – The leader of a funnel project who handles recruitment, communication with members, distribution of documentation, voting for PCC representatives during elections, and usually the training and review duties for funnel member institutions.

Funnel project – A group of NACO members who have joined together to contribute authority records to the shared authority file.  Frequently, individual funnel members create records in modest numbers, and consolidate their efforts to make a more significant contribution in terms of quantity.  Funnels may be based on similarities or shared expertise (e.g., NACO Music Project, ArtNACO), geographic proximity (e.g., North Dakota Project), or consortium membership (e.g., CALICO South Africa).

FY – Designation for Fiscal Year (e.g., FY00, FY2003).  Based on the federal calendar, the PCC fiscal year begins October 1 and ends September 30 of the next year.

H 405 – One of the instruction sheets in the LC Subject Headings Manual.  H 405 is entitled "Establishing Certain Entities in the Name or Subject Authority File."  See also Division of the World.

Heading – A term that may be ambiguous in the NACO and SACO environment.  The 1XX in an authority record is defined in MARC 21 as the "heading."  However, an access point used as a main or added entry on a bibliographic record is referred to as a "heading."  An authority record as a whole is often erroneously called a "heading."

ILS – Integrated library system; see also LC ILS.

Independent status – The library/funnel project may contribute its records independently to the shared authority file upon reaching independent status, typically within one year.

Justification – The practice of giving a citation in the 670 field in an authority record for the forms of a name used as the main heading and for cross references.

LAC – Library and Archives of Canada; see also NLC.

LC – Library of Congress.

LC ILS – The name given to the Library of Congress' Integrated Library System (Voyager from Endeavor) that serves as the local system for LC.

LC liaison – The Library of Congress staff member assigned to a NACO library to help with cataloging questions, and especially to delete authority records in the LC database or to arrange for BFM.

LCC – Library of Congress Classification.

LCCN – Library of Congress Control Number.

LC/NAF – Library of Congress/NACO Authority File (formerly referred to as NAF).  As recommended by an international task group, the PCC officially named the authority file the LC/NAF in 2004.

LCRIs or RIs – Library of Congress Rule Interpretations to AACR.  NACO participants are required to follow LCRIs in addition to AACR in their authority work.

LCSH – Library of Congress Subject Headings.  A hierarchical system of subject headings maintained by LC for use on bibliographic records.

MARC – Machine-Readable Cataloging.  A technical standard for the representation and communication of bibliographic and related information in machine-readable form.

MARC 21 Authority Format – Description standard for the representation and exchange of authority data in machine-readable form.  The format is used in conjunction with blue and yellow pages.

MARC organization code – Short alphabetic codes used in MARC records to represent libraries and other kinds of organizations in the bibliographic environment.  Formerly known as the NUC code.  More information about searching or requesting codes can be found at:  http://www.loc.gov/marc/organizations/ or in MARC Code List for Organizations.

MLC – Minimal Level Cataloging.  Indicated by a value of 7 in the Encoding Level fixed field on bibliographic records (Leader/17).

NACO – Name Authority Cooperative Program.  Name authority component of the PCC.

NACO contact or NACO liaison – The person within a NACO institution who is responsible for coordinating NACO activity at that particular institution and for maintaining contact with the LC Coop Team.

NAF – The former name of the Library of Congress/NACO Authority File; see also LC/NAF.

NAR – Name Authority Record.

NLC – National Library of Canada; since 2004, the institution is known as Library and Archives of Canada (LAC); see also LAC.

Non-unique name – A name authority record (NAR) with a 1XX heading that represents more than one person with the same name because there is insufficient information to make a unique NAR for each.  Also referred to as a consolidated NAR.  Synonymous with Undifferentiated personal name.

Normalization – The automated process by which headings are compared for uniqueness to prevent duplicate headings and conflicts between records.  Under the rules of normalization, all diacritics and punctuation marks (except for the first comma) are removed, all letters are converted to uppercase, and modified letters are converted to their unmodified forms.  Subfield delimiters (but not subfield codes) are retained.  Headings that differ only in diacritics, marks of punctuation (except the first comma), or special characters normalize to the same form and are thus considered in conflict.  Such headings need to be further differentiated.  NACO normalization rules appear on the Web at:  http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/naco/normrule-2.html.  A full description is available in the DCM Z1.

NUC – National Union Catalog.

NUC Codes – In the NACO context, the identification codes for NACO institutions formerly were called NUC codes, and currently are called MARC 21.

OCLC – Online Computer Library Center.  One of the two major utilities by which NACO participants contribute records to the NACO database.  WorldCat is OCLC’s Online Union Catalog, a database of bibliographic and authority records.  Connexion is the cataloging interface providing access to WorldCat.

OPAC – Online Public Access Catalog.

PCC – Program for Cooperative Cataloging.

Preliminary records – Authority records with Level of establishment 008/33 value d.  Used for authority records created without an item in-hand, usually created as part of a retrospective conversion project.

Provisional records – Authority records with Level of establishment 008/33 value c.  These may be created by NACO participants when there is not enough information to establish a full record.  Examples:  The contributing library does not have the language expertise to establish the record in full; or a subordinate body name is available only in a language that is different from the language of  the parent body.

PSD – Policy and Standards Division of the Library of Congress; this office identifies cataloging standards and publishes cataloging policy documents.

Qualifier – An addition to a heading or cross reference to further clarify its identity or to make it unique in the database.

Quality review – The review by designated NACO trainers/reviewers of a set number of a new NACO institution's records, conducted to determine readiness for independent status.

RCCD – Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division, Library of Congress, home division of the Cooperative Cataloging Team.  RCCD’s Division chief is the Secretariat of the PCC, assisted in administrative duties by the Cooperative Cataloging Team.

Reference evaluation – The process of examining and adjusting the cross references and related fixed field codes in an existing authority record to bring them up to AACR standards.

RLG – Formerly known as the Research Libraries Group, one of the two major utilities by which NACO participants contribute records to the NACO database.

RLG Union Catalog – Former name of the RLIN (Research Library Information Network).

RLIN – Research Library Information Network, now called the RLG Union Catalog.

RLIN21 – The interface used to create, view, and export bibliographic records into or from the RLG Union Catalog.

SHM – Subject Headings Manual of the Library of Congress.

Surrogate documentation – Copies of the title page, other preliminary pages, and the colophon that are supplied to the Coop Team to aid in the review of certain non-roman language NARs.

Symbols – $ used in published documentation to depict the delimiter sign that separates subfields in MARC records.  # used in published documentation to depict a blank space in a MARC record.

Tag – A numerical label for a defined field of information in a MARC record.

Undifferentiated personal name – See Non-Unique Name.

Usage – The form of name usually found in a statement of responsibility in the item-at-hand.  Variant usages may also appear in other parts of the item, such as in the title proper or in a quoted note.

Variant – A form of the name not chosen as the authorized heading; generally appears in the name authority record (NAR) as a cross reference.

W control subfield – Subfield used in certain references in name authority records to indicate relationships between headings; written as $w.

"White pages" – See MARC 21 Authority Format.

Work cat. – Abbreviation often used on templates for authority records in the 670 field to indicate the work being cataloged, or the item in-hand.

WorldCat – See OCLC.

Xref – Shorthand used in NACO to denote cross references.

"Yellow pages" – See DCM Z1.

See also:

Preliminaries