Greetings—

I’m updating a composer’s NAR to include a death date. There are an additional 70+ authority records for works by the composer (Walter Hartley).

It’s clear from various guidelines, that when personal name authorities are involved, old forms of headings should be included as a see-reference. For example, the CDM Z1 in the 4xx See From Tracings reads: “Generally provide a variant form 4XX access point for a former 1XX authorized access point, unless the former authorized access point was egregiously incorrect.” The NACO FAQ also indicates this practice (http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/naco/personnamefaq.html#13).

What doesn’t seem as clear is whether the same practice should apply to name-title authority records. In practice, sometimes such VAPs are included (e.g. the 350+ VAPs from ‘Byrd, William, 1539 or 40-1623’), but that is not always the practice (e.g. there are only 12 VAPs from ‘Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich, 1804-1857’, though roughly 150 NARs were updated to reflect a name change).

I’d appreciate clarification on this point, before I revise all the NARS for Walter Hartley.

Thanks in advance,

David—