Apologies for duplication; the message below will be cross-posted to various listservs.
NACO participants recently began applying a new policy for undifferentiated personal name authority records. An undifferentiated authority record is a record in which the 008/32 element in the fixed field (Name:) is coded as 'b', meaning that more than a single identity is represented in the authority record. Under this new policy (http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/rda/PCC%20RDA%20guidelines/Z01%20008%2032%202014 rfeb.pdf), no new undifferentiated personal name authority records will be created under RDA and no new identities will be added to existing undifferentiated name records. Instead, NACO participants will use RDA attributes to create a unique authorized access point for the identity being established. The list of attributes is given in the new guidelines. The policy also gives guidelines on how to break apart existing undifferentiated name authority records and create new authority records to represent each of the identities that were previously covered by the undifferentiated name record. Steps in the process include creating new records for each of the identities, adding the LCCN of the undifferentiated authority record to both $z in the 010 field of the newly created records and a 667 note, and requesting that the Library of Congress delete the undifferentiated authority record once all of the identities are represented in separate records. As a consequence of this new policy and as part of a strategy to ensure that incorrect updates are not applied to WorldCat records as NACO participants implement the new guidelines, OCLC is making two changes: 1) As part of the February 9, 2014, Connexion install, the ability to control a name to an undifferentiated authority record will no longer be supported. When attempting to control to a heading that is found on an undifferentiated authority record, the Control Headings window will open, the heading will be presented but cannot be viewed. A message will appear that reads: Note: Requested control is for an unqualified personal name Future changes may be made to support the ability to view the record, as well as changes to return a specific message that the record matched was an undifferentiated authority record. No date is currently associated to support those enhancements. 2) Shortly after the February 9 install, OCLC will uncontrol all headings in bibliographic records that are currently controlled to undifferentiated authority records. Please contact OCLC-Support at <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] with any questions or concerns related to this announcement. Regards, --Becky Dean Senior Product Analyst [email protected]
