N.B. LC stated in an email message in March 2007 that NACO libraries should not adjust the 010 field of name authority records. In the near term, I suggest that you do the rest of the updating indicated below but leave the 010 for LC to do as part of the deletion process. In the recent past, artnacoisti have reported that LC deleted other updates they had made on records to be deleted. So update the rest of the record and let me know when you've produced the better record. When I'm sure how this is going, I plan on rewriting this procedure.
Duplicate name authority records are occasionally found in the Anglo-American Authority File. When they are encountered, one of them should be selected, the data merged, and the duplicate deleted. Only LC can delete duplicate records but a NACO participant can revise the record to be kept so that LC needs only to delete the no-longer-needed duplicate. This procedure outlines the steps you may take before notifying me of the situation. You may also simply report that you have found duplicate records. Also, if the duplicate record has not yet been put into production, you should follow the steps below to merge the data onto the existing record and delete the record in save status.
First, select the better record. If the records are exactly the same (or the headings are the same and there are minor differences), pick one record and revise the 010 as indicated below. If the headings are the same but one record is fuller, pick the fuller record and merge the data onto that record. If one heading is clearly better, select that record and merge the data. If neither heading is wrong but one appears on one or more LC bibliographic records, select that heading and merge the data onto the better record. If the heading which appears on the LC bibliographic record(s) will need to be changed, pick the fuller record and revise as necessary. This preference for the LC heading is based on the conviction that LC bib records may have been used by many libraries and there is no reason to upset the authority applecart at those libraries.
In the field-by-field guide below, the record to be kept is called the “good record”; the record to be deleted is called the “bad record.” This is mainly for convenience as the bad record may be exactly the same as the good record or actually may be better in some ways.
010 - The LCCN of the bad record should be put in $z of the 010. Some records do not have an 010, in which case you must add the good record’s LCCN in $a and then the bad record’s LCCN in $z. Some records already have $a and $z(s), in which case you should add another $z. LCCNs are carefully constructed with three spaces for prefix, two spaces for date (four spaces starting in 2001), six spaces for number, and suffix space(s). Records from LC (NAFL in RLIN) have the prefix “n”; records originating in RLIN (NAFR) have the prefix “nr”; records originating in OCLC have the prefix “no”; records originating at the British Library (NAFB) have the prefix “nb.” Input the prefix. Input one or two blanks depending on the prefix in order to fill the three prefix spaces. Input the date digits. Zero-fill on the left the number spaces to fill out the six number spaces. Hit the space bar after the number spaces (or give a suffix if present). For example, NAFL97234 is the good record and NAFR998765 is the bad record. Your 010 would be (# = blank): $an##97000234#$znr#99008765# [N.B. LCCNs from 2001 are being restructured; cf http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lccn.html for details.]
1XX - Revise the heading if necessary
4XX and 5XX - Revise any references if necessary, e.g. add or delete qualifiers, and add relevant ones that appear on the bad record. Remember basic principles like primary elements and variants of variants.
670 - If a 670 for the same work appears on each record, conflate the data from the 670s if possible. If there are other 670s on the bad record with new information, add them to the good record. If there are 670s on the bad record that include information that is already included on the good record, it is advisable but not necessary to copy the 670s onto the good record.
675 - As with the 670s, conflate data into the 675, remembering that 675 is not repeatable, but uses multiple $a’s.
The good record should follow all the guidelines for a current record. When you have revised the data as indicated, notify me and let me know if there is bfm to be done.
procedure prepared by Sherman Clarke, Art NACO coordinator
sherman.clarke@nyu.edu
27 January 2000
(revised 20 January 2001 to include link to LC page on 2001+ LCCNs) (and revised in June 2007 to add note at top)