One may choose to add a 670 note to include such information as birth
and death dates if one wishes to spend the time. On occasion I will add
such a note if the name seems  common, or if I have a title which is
about a subject completely different from what the author usually writes
about and I wish to assure people that this is the same author.  These
additions, which I make very selectively, may provide information to
resolve conflicts in future without creating the need for unnecessary
heading maintenance.

Louise Ratliff
Social Sciences Cataloger
UCLA

-----Original Message-----
From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Gary L. Strawn
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 6:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Birth and death dates

At 07:09 AM 10/27/2006, Joseph, Angelina wrote:
>Gary:
>If somebody knows the dob of the author and has the time to add
>it to the authority record, why don't we let that person do that
>by changing the rule a little so that it can be done. If a conflict
>arises later, there will be less work at that time.

Since you ask:

Changing the non-embarrassing heading simply because more information 
is available--i.e., in the absence of a conflict--means that everyone 
else who uses the shared authority file has to do heading 
maintenance, too.  The side-effects of the change aren't limited to a 
single catalog.

---snip---