Dear colleagues,

 

In preparation for RDA, the Library of Congress (LC) has implemented two phases of changes to their Name Authority File, which also contains name authority records created by Name Authority Cooperative Program (NACO) members.

 

Phase 1 of the programmatic changes to the LC/NACO Name Authority File has recently been completed and the revised authority records have been added to the National Union Catalogue (NUC).

 

This first phase involved authority records that have 1XX fields that cannot be used in RDA bibliographic records without review and that cannot be changed mechanically. The 1XX has not changed but a 667 has been added to say that the record cannot be used under RDA until it has been reviewed or updated. This phase affected over 400,000 authority records.

 

Cataloguers working in the NUC will see authority records that contain the following 667 field:

THIS 1XX FIELD CANNOT BE USED UNDER RDA UNTIL THIS RECORD HAS BEEN REVIEWED AND/OR UPDATED

 

Some examples are:

                        SJD (Musician)

Ihimaera, Witi, 1944-

Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand

Please note that the name headings in these authority records are still valid for use in AACR2 bibliographic records.

 

The NACO Team at the National Library of New Zealand can identify those changed authority records with an Nz in the 040 and will review these when they have finished their training in RDA authority records.

 

The second phase will start as close to Day 1 of RDA implementation (i.e. March 31, 2013) as possible and will involve modifying AACR2 authority records with 1XX, 4XX and 5XX fields that can be changed mechanically, e.g. changing Dept. to Department and b. to born. These changed authority records will be updated in the NUC as we receive them.

 

Both these phases will involve a relatively small proportion of authority records. The vast majority of AACR2 authority records have headings that can be used under RDA without modification and these will be re-coded as RDA authority records after March 2013. 

 

Kind regards,

Judy

 

Judy Keats

Authority Record Co-ordinator

Content Services

National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa

The Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua

PO Box 1467

Wellington 6140

New Zealand

Direct Dial: +64 4 470 4518

Email: judith.keats@dia.govt.nz

www.dia.govt.nz