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Forwarding a message from NACO-Music listserv of interest to all PCC participants-- apologies for the duplication.
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Thanks to Chuck Herrold for calling attention to the large number of preliminary name authorities being added to LC's authority file.

We would like to furnish a brief clarification about the genesis of these authorities and what catalogers can expect in the future.

LC has described its new CD Workflow in various forums over the past two years.  In a nutshell, the workflow, designed to create and maintain currency in processing all CD receipts (over 30,000 annually), attempts to automate copy cataloging and authority work to the greatest extent possible.  Using OCLC standard and custom automated procedures, LC is able to match fifty percent of its receipts.  OCLC-generated authority reports for these matches, via its MARS service, are used by LC catalogers to identify and perform needed authority work.

Because at this point in the workflow the catalogers are working from reports and online records rather than from the actual items, these authorities are necessarily being coded "preliminary" [008/33 value "d"].

The authorities component of this workflow did not move into our general production lines until mid-April of this year. In the last two months, cataloger efforts in this particular workflow have resulted in the following statistics:

5,300 headings examined

2,054 preliminary name authorities created

85 series authorities created

213 authorities modified

865 bibliographic records modified

2,615 copied bib records finished for distribution

Because these numbers are needed in order to maintain currency

but are not possible via one-at-a-time cataloger bib record production,
we have no choice but to rely on the quality of copy we find in OCLC
and on the quality of this semi-automated authority work.

Cooperation is the only avenue to success in the music cataloging community. Standard practice dictates that we upgrade these

preliminary authorities to full-status when we encounter them with a
piece in hand. We encourage NMP participants to do the same. While
we apologize for any inconvenience caused by this workflow, we have operated on the assumption that these preliminary authorities would be useful to the music cataloging community.  If, in fact, they are proving to
be a detriment rather than an asset, we would welcome hearing the reasons for this as well as suggestions for improvements to this
particular product.

Joe Bartl

Joseph Bartl
Music & Sound Recording Team 1
Special Materials Cataloging Division
Library of Congress
202-707-0013
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