BNA Reconciliation Project

Description

In March 1997, Library of Congress granted the University of Maryland permission to contribute preliminary authority records to the National Authority File for the new BNA (Blackwell North America) Reconciliation Project. The project allows UM catalogers to create national level authority records based on author statements of responsibility seen in bibliographic records. This reduces time spent in creation of authority records and allows conflicts in catalogs to be resolved efficiently.

The "Authority Status" element of the authority record's fixed field indicates the extent to which the record heading conforms to the descriptive cataloging conventions used to formulate the heading. Normally, NACO participants must establish headings for the national authority file with "full level" authority status (i.e. "piece in hand"). In the instance of special projects, the Library of Congress sparingly grants participants permission to contribute "preliminary" authority status records. These records are coded "preliminary" because these headings are established without "piece in hand."

As a preliminary record is based on the author statement in the bibliographic record instead of the author statement in the piece, any nuance of the heading or author usage in LC, OCLC, or other catalogs is taken into account. AACR2 and LCRIs determine the proper form of the heading and any valid cross references. It is at the cataloger's discretion to attain additional research if a problem or question arises. This assures that our preliminary records retain the high quality expected of 'full' status records. In some cases, the cataloger may find it necessary to retrieve the piece and set up the record with full authority status.

Review of lists, determination of headings to be pursued, and reconciliation of headings with the authority file are done by project catalogers. Project director will perform revision and contribution of authority records, as well as replacement of UMC original master records in OCLC.