CATALOGING POLICY AND SUPPORT OFFICE
AUTHORITY DATA ELEMENTS
IMPLEMENTATION (1999)
The Technical Notice Additions
to MARC Authority Records Distributed Through the MARC
Distribution Service issued March 17, 1998, announced that the Library of
Congress is making
changes to its automated authority files (both names and subjects) to support current MARC
data
elements. That announcement contains a link to Data Element Update to Authority
Distribution
Service that lists the data elements that may start appearing in authority records, as
appropriate, issued
from the Library of Congress. The changes to name authority records took place on January 20,
1999. Changes to subject authority records occurred on February 17, 1999.
Note: For the implementation on January 1, 2000 relating to Indicator 1,
value
"2" (Multiple surname) in X00 fields, see Implementation of Change in
Indicator
Value for Multiple Surnames in MARC 21.
NAME AUTHORITY DATA ELEMENTS
The changes in name authority records referenced above include:
-
Nonfiling indicator. This change reflects the decision to make the second
indicator
(Number of nonfiling characters) obsolete in fields X00/X10/X11/450/550/X51.
Newly created records/fields will contain value "blank" instead of "0"; value "0" will
continue to occur as there are no plans at this time to update existing records/fields
containing that value.
-
Language of cataloging. Newly created records will contain the code "eng" in
subfield $b (Language of cataloging) in field 040 (Cataloging source).
-
Subdivision Heading Linking Entry--Geographic Subdivision (781). The Library
plans to include the 781 linking field for subdivision forms of geographic names in
name authority records for geographic names in the future, but the exact details of
implementation
have not yet been worked out. NACO libraries should not include this field in records that
they create or modify until further notice and after instructions for this field
are issued by NACO.
SUBJECT AUTHORITY DATA ELEMENTS
The changes in subject authority records referenced above include:
-
Nonfiling indicator. This change reflects the decision to make the second
indicator
(Number of nonfiling characters) obsolete in fields X00/X10/X11/X50/X51. Newly
created records/fields contain value "blank" instead of "0"; value "0" was changed to
"blank" in existing records/fields at the time that subject authority records were migrated to the
Library of Congress integrated library system (LC ILS) in August 1999.
-
Language of cataloging. Newly created records contain the code "eng" in
subfield $b (Language of cataloging) in field 040 (Cataloging source).
-
Subdivision Heading Linking Entry--Geographic Subdivision (781). New and
revised subject authority records for geographic names include the 781 linking field for
subdivision forms of geographic names. As of January 2003, this field was added to
approximately 20,000 existing subject authority records for geographic names.
-
Subdivision authority
records (18X). Subdivision authority records have been created
to control the approximately 3,250 form, topical, and chronological free-floating
subdivisions. Based on data supplied by Gary Strawn of Northwestern University,
these records contain subdivision data in 18X fields and codes in 073 fields that
identify their controlling instruction sheet numbers from the Subject Cataloging
Manual: Subject Headings (H 1095-H 1200). All records contain a basic
usage statement, and some records contain references that may be enhanced in the
future.
-
Subfield code $v. The Library is now using subfield code $v for form
subdivisions in new subject authority records. In addition, form subdivisions
occurring in existing subject authority records are being revised to change subfield code
$x to subfield code $v as time permits. As of January 2003, approximately two-thirds of
the instances of form subdivisions have been recoded.
Guidelines on form subdivisions and the application of subfield code $v in
bibliographic records are included in
the Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings.
LC staff began subfielding form subdivisions that function as forms as
$v in Library of Congress subject headings assigned to bibliographic records on
February 17, 1999.
Note: Form subdivisions in existing bibliographic records are being
recoded on a case-by-case basis only as subject headings in individual records are updated or
revised for other reasons.
-
Authority records for form/genre headings (155). Creation of authority records
for
form/genre headings in 155 fields and more widespread assignment of form/genre
terms in 655 fields of bibliographic records will occur in future stages of the
form/genre implementation plan and may be phased in by format or discipline. The
Library is not yet projecting any specific dates for these future stages of
implementation.
Go to:
Library of Congress
Library of Congress Help Desk
(01/22/2003)