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BNB name headings and their NACO equivalents

1. Introduction
2. Definitions
3. Work method
4. Selection criteria
5. Alphabetical sequence of BNB name headings and NACO equivalents
6. Frequency listing
7. Statistical analysis
8. Acknowledgements

1. Introduction

This project identifies the name headings occurring most frequently in the British National Bibliography (BNB) and matches them with headings established under the Name Authorities Co-operative (NACO) component of the Program for Co-operative Cataloging (PCC). NACO headings are used in MARC 21 cataloguing.

The NACO program, which is administered by the Library of Congress, has many participants among national and research libraries, including the British Library.

When the BL implements MARC 21 as its cataloguing format it will cease to assign name headings in records according to the British Library Name Authority List (BLNAL). Instead, it will use NACO headings, many of which are already shared by the BL as a result of work on the Anglo-American Authority File (AAAF), a joint project with LC to share name headings where it is possible to do so.

This is a momentous change as a result of which users of BNB records will most probably find that their catalogues contain former BL headings and shared headings for the same identities, thus raising the issue of amendments.

The project aims to support users wishing to align headings by enabling them to:

  1. Match BNB headings with equivalent NACO headings.
  2. Check if they are the same or different or if a NACO heading is not available.
  3. Trace headings according to frequency of use in BNB records.

When planning amendments it is recommended that users keep the following points in mind:

  1. Personal name headings shown to be the same on the BNB and NACO are headings that are shared under the AAAF and require no amendment.
  2. Personal name headings shown to be different have been aligned with NACO as a result of this project. In other words, these NACO headings are now shared under the AAAF and BNB users can adopt them with confidence.
  3. Corporate name headings are not shared under the AAAF. However, many are the same where BL and NACO cataloguing policy are the same, but there are also considerable differences in areas such as government names. The BL plans to adopt all NACO corporate name headings when it implements MARC 21. As a result differences in corporate name headings will exist in older BNB records and will remain so until the BL is able to address the issue of retrospective alignment.

The points mentioned above are discussed, including plenty of examples, in section 5.

2. Definitions

Name headings used in the BNB are derived from two types of authority records, which are as follows:

  1. Name authorities established by the British Library which, for various reasons, are not shared under the AAAF.
  2. Name authorities shared under the AAAF with the Library of Congress and by extension with other NACO participants.

For the purposes of this project, headings derived from authorities of the first type are described as 'BL headings' and the second type as 'shared headings'. Both types of authorities are distributed via the BLNAL fiche and exchange file services.

The expression 'NACO headings' is used to refer to headings contained in NACO authority records, including those shared by the BL, as they appear on Library of Congress Authorities. This is a free web version of the United States National Authority File (USNAF). Authority records can be displayed as text or in MARC 21 and there is a range of options for delivering them to users.

3. Work method

Headings were selected from the BNB on CD-ROM monthly disc, which contains records created since 1996. The issue chosen was the April 2003 disc, which contained records created up to March 2003. Therefore, headings are derived from records of books mainly published during this period and from records of forthcoming items notified under the Cataloguing-in-Publication programme.

After a pilot study a threshold of 40 occurrences was set for identifying headings. The method used was to browse the personal and corporate name indexes of the BNB on CD-ROM, where headings are displayed with a count of records in which they occur. When a heading with 40 or more occurrences was traced, it was duly noted and a search for a matching NACO heading made on Library of Congress Authorities.

The selection process raised many issues, which affected the counting of headings (see 4 below). A record of decisions made was kept in an issue log.

The project identified 1348 frequent BNB headings of which 957 (70.99%) are the same as NACO, 334 (24.78%) are different and 57 (4.23%) could not be traced.

There are three products of the project, which are as follows:

  1. An alphabetical sequence matching BNB headings with equivalent NACO headings.
  2. A frequency listing showing how often headings occur in BNB records as a guide to planning amendments.
  3. A statistical analysis of the matching of headings.

For descriptions and advice on using them, see sections 5 to 7 below.

4. Selection criteria

Any heading was eligible for selection: personal names, corporate names, headings combining personal and corporate name elements, governments, conferences and meetings, etc. If used as a main entry (1xx), subject entry (6xx) or added entry (7xx), any heading with a minimum of 40 occurrences was selected.

Issues encountered during the selection process can be divided into three broad areas: personal names, corporate names and references.

4.1 Personal name issues

It was found that personal names might occur in the BNB as a BL heading and also as a shared heading. These were counted separately in order to identify the heading with more entries, which could have one of several outcomes:

  1. The BL heading achieved 40 or more occurrences and was selected.
  2. The shared heading achieved 40 or more occurrences and was selected.
  3. If both achieved more than 40 occurrences, the BL heading was preferred because the equivalent NACO heading would be the same as the shared heading.
  4. Neither heading achieved sufficient occurrences, and so neither was selected.

As an example of 3), users are referred to the headings for the author of the 'Mr. Men' books. The former BL heading Hargreaves, Roger, 1934-1988 was matched with the NACO heading Hargreaves, Roger. This is the same as the shared heading, used in current BNB records, while the former BL heading will be found in older records.

On the BNB on CD-ROM, personal name displays may contain entries for various persons who have the same name. This is because browsing does not pick up on epithets and other details used to distinguish them. An example of this is the name Mary indexed as a subject entry in 229 records. When the display was examined it was found to comprise headings for Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ (BL heading), Mary, Blessed Virgin Saint (shared heading), Mary, Queen of Scots, and for various saints and historical figures called 'Mary'. It was necessary, therefore, to count 'same name' headings separately to assess if they were eligible for selection.

Pseudonyms used by personal authors were counted if used as headings, but not if they were references to an author's real name or other pseudonyms.

4.2 Corporate name issues

Corporate name headings including a sub-unit were considered to be eligible in their own right. They were not totalled up under the parent body, as this would have exaggerated the count of headings when the parent body was the sole element.

Superseded forms of government and corporate names were considered to be eligible if, when used as headings, sufficient occurrences were counted. Usage of superseded headings in references to subsequent forms of names was not counted.

It was found that newspaper titles, entered as corporate name headings on the BNB, were coded as uniform titles on NACO. Because they could not be matched with names, newspaper titles were excluded from the selection process.

4.3 References

References have a general significance, to direct the user to an established heading, and are distributed by the BL in every BNB record to which they pertain. Experience suggests that users are likely to hold a reference once, rather than many times, in their catalogue. Assuming this to be so, it was felt that to count occurrences of references would exaggerate the scale of amendments that a user might have to make.

There was another factor to take into account with regard to references, concerning conversion from UKMARC to MARC 21.

In UKMARC records, references are held in 9xx fields. On conversion to MARC 21, this data would be written to field 886 (Foreign MARC data), where it would be searchable, but would no longer be used for reference purposes. The references that would be required are those associated with equivalent NACO headings, held in the MARC 21 Authority format and which do not appear in bibliographic records.

For these reasons, it was decided to exclude references. Because they contain a great variety of data, it is worth taking a moment to summarise what has been excluded:

  1. References from forms of names in languages other than English
  2. References from transcriptions of names in other scripts
  3. References from acronyms, abbreviations and alternative forms of names
  4. References from the name of a country to sovereigns and heads of state
  5. References from former and variant names of government departments to the current heading
  6. References from sub-units of corporate bodies to the main heading for the organisation, country or other entity
  7. References from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and United Kingdom if the main heading was Great Britain and from Irish Free State if the main heading was Ireland.

5. Alphabetical sequence of BNB name headings and NACO equivalents

5.1 Presentation

The alphabetical sequence is in 24 files (one each for letters A to W and one for X, Y and Z). By looking up a 'letter' file users can compare a BNB heading with an equivalent NACO heading, as this example from the 'P' sequence shows:

 
BNB heading
 
NACO heading
   
Pratchett, Terry, 1948- (100)
100.10 $a Pratchett $h Terry $c 1948- 		   
--> Pratchett, Terry.
100 1_ |a Pratchett, Terry.

The BNB heading, on the left, has the count of occurrences in round brackets. Facing it is the NACO heading. The arrow --> is a typographic device used to indicate that a NACO heading is different to a BNB heading. It is not part of the NACO heading itself. No arrow is used when BNB and NACO headings are the same.

BNB headings are formatted in UKMARC and NACO headings in MARC 21. They are shown as main entries, i.e. 1xx, but of course in cataloguing they may also occur as subject entries (6xx) or added entries (7xx).

Users accustomed to dealing with MARC data will notice that spaces have been inserted around subfield codes, which has been done for reasons of legibility. Two differences in coding ought to be mentioned:

  1. In MARC 21, the pipe symbol | is used as the subfield delimiter where the dollar sign $ is used in UKMARC.
  2. In MARC 21, the underscore _ represents a blank indicator value where a zero '0' would be expected in UKMARC. However, it was noticed that on occasions Library of Congress Authorities might display a zero instead of a blank.

Further information about the coding can be found in The UKMARC Manual and the MARC 21 Bibliographic and MARC 21 Authority formats.

5.2 Personal name headings

The British Library shares many personal name headings with the Library of Congress and NACO participants as a result of the AAAF project, for example:

 
BNB heading
 
NACO heading
 
  
Potter, Beatrix, 1866-1943 (162)
100.10 $a Potter $h Beatrix $c 1866-
1943 		   
Potter, Beatrix, 1866-1943.
100.1_ $a Potter, Beatrix $d 1866-1943.

Because the BNB heading shown above is a shared heading it is the same as NACO and will convert satisfactorily to MARC 21. No amendment is required.

It was an aim of the project to identify personal names where a BL heading differed from an equivalent NACO heading, for example:

 
BNB heading
 
NACO heading
   
Smith, Wilbur, 1933- (65)
100.10 $a Smith $h Wilbur $c 1933- 		   
--> Smith, Wilbur A.
100 1_ |a Smith, Wilbur A.

Differences were resolved, where possible, by sharing the NACO heading. As a result, it will occur in recent records imported by users, while the BL heading will be present in older records. The shared/NACO heading is the one to adopt in amendments.

If an equivalent NACO heading could not be traced, this has been noted. Scope notes have been reproduced for headings where a match was not possible because of differences in cataloguing policy; for example, see the heading Anonymous.

5.3 Corporate name headings

Work on sharing headings under the AAAF does not include corporate names, so that there are many differences between BNB and NACO headings, for example:

 
BNB heading
 
NACO heading
   
Automobile Association (362)
110.20 $a Automobile Association


    
--> Automobile Association (Great Britain)
110 20 |a Automobile Association (Great Britain)
   
Careers Research and Advisory Centre (120)
110.20 $a Careers Research and Advisory Centre 		   
--> Careers Research and Advisory Centre (Cambridge, England)
110 20 |a Careers Research and Advisory Centre (Cambridge, England)
   
Great Britain. Department for Education and Employment (304)
110.10 $a Great Britain $c Department for Education and Employment 		   
--> Great Britain. Dept. for Education and Employment.
110.1_ $a Great Britain $b Dept. for Education and Employment.
   
Human Rights Watch (201)
110.20 $a Human Rights Watch

   
--> Human Rights Watch (Organization)
110 2_ |a Human Rights Watch (Organization)
   
Liverpool Football Club (Association football) (84)
710.21 $a Liverpool Football Club $e Association football 		   
--> Liverpool Football Club.
110 20 |a Liverpool Football Club.

The NACO headings shown above are examples of corporate names that the BL will adopt when it implements MARC 21. BNB records created before then will retain the current heading until the BL has addressed the issue of retrospective alignment.

If BL and NACO cataloguing policy are already the same, corporate name headings are the same even if they are not formally shared under the AAAF:

 
BNB heading
 
NACO heading
   
Accounts Commission for Scotland (43)
110.20 $a Accounts Commission for Scotland 		   
Accounts Commission for Scotland.
110 20 |a Accounts Commission for Scotland.
   
Basic Skills Agency (332)
110.20 $a Basic Skills Agency
   
Basic Skills Agency.
110 2_ |a Basic Skills Agency.
   
Great Britain. Health and Safety Executive (905)
110.10 $a Great Britain $c Health and Safety Executive
   
Great Britain. Health and Safety Executive.
110 1_ |a Great Britain. |b Health and Safety Executive.
   
Ireland. Environmental Protection Agency (134)
110.10 $a Ireland $c Environmental Protection Agency 		   
Ireland. Environmental Protection Agency.
110 1_ |a Ireland. |b Environmental Protection Agency.
   
National Galleries of Scotland (71)
110.20 $a National Galleries of Scotland 		   
National Galleries of Scotland.
110 20 |a National Galleries of Scotland.
   
Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries (105)
110.20 $a Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries 		   
Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries.
110 20 |a Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries.

When there is no conflict with NACO, BNB corporate name headings such as those shown above will convert satisfactorily to MARC 21. No amendment is required.

If an equivalent NACO heading could not be traced, this has been noted. Scope notes have been reproduced for headings where a match was not possible because of differences in cataloguing policy; for example, see the heading Society of Friends.

A few geographic names were selected. These are coded 110 as they appear in bibliographic records but equivalent NACO headings have 15x coding as used in the MARC 21 Authorities format; for example, see the heading United States.

6. Frequency listing

The frequency listing provides a quick way of tracing headings as a guide to planning amendments. Headings are arranged in descending order according to how often they occur in BNB records examined in the course of the project, for example:

Item no.

Headings (with occurrences in BNB records)

291

 -->

Pratchett, Terry, 1948- (100)

292

  

Presley, Elvis, 1935-1977 (100)

293

 -->

Alexander, III, King of Macedonia (99)

294

  -->

Chekhov, A. P. (Anton Pavlovich), 1860-1904 (99)

295

  

COSPAR. Scientific Assembly (99)

296

  

Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890 (99)

297

  

Grimm, Jacob, 1785-1863 (99)

298

 -->

Local Government Association (99)

299

  

Roberts, Nora (99)

300

  

Beckett, Samuel, 1906- (98)

An item number has been assigned to each BNB heading. The arrow --> is used to indicate when an equivalent NACO heading is different. The number of records in which the heading occurs is shown in brackets to indicate the scale of amendments required in the full BNB. Users will find that the scale of amendments to their catalogues will depend on how many records with these headings they have selected.

7. Statistical analysis

The matching of headings has been analysed to show, for each letter of the alphabet, headings that are the same as or different to NACO or that could not be traced (i.e. where there is no equivalent NACO heading), as this example shows:

Letter
Headings
Same
  
Different
 
Not traced
 
L
54
38
70%
13
24%
3
6%

A bar chart has been created to show BNB headings with 40 or more occurrences as they occur throughout the alphabetical sequence.

8. Acknowledgements

I would like to thank colleagues in the BL who have advised on the development of this project or who have assisted by investigating queries, by proof-reading and by preparing the material to go on the Library's web site.

R. W. Hill
Bibliographic Research Officer
The British Library
May to September 2003

BNB name headings and their NACO equivalents

For further information please contact:

The British Library
Metadata Services
Boston Spa, Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
United Kingdom

Tel: + 44 (0) 1937 546548
Fax: + 44 (0) 1937 546586
Email: bd-info@bl.uk