Dear NACO Advisory Group,

I'm wondering if this is a "one-off" decision or a pattern to be followed going forward.  In the case of Kalikaha, the cataloger didn't know it was pseudonymous when they first established it.  If I get a work about a place with a pseudonymous geographic name and I know that it is pseudonymous, should I establish it in the NAF with a 675 and 667 note such as the one below?  Or, not bother establishing in the NAF?  Do we need a policy for establishing (or not) pseudonymous geographic headings when you know the name is pseudonymous?

thank you,
Margaret 

Margaret W. Hughes
Metadata Librarian for Humanities, Social Sciences & Africana
Head, Classification Unit
Metadata Department
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305
https://library.stanford.edu/people/margarin

From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of naco <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 5:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] pseudonymous geographic name heading
 

PCC list readers,

 

Denis Brunke asked a very interesting question last week about the pseudonymous place Kalikaha. There were many different opinions posted by PCC list readers. The five members of the NACO Advisory Group looked at the issue and came to agreement. The Advisory Group will take these actions:

 

1)     Leave the authority record for Kalikaha (n  88194374) in the LC/NACO Authority File and re-code it to RDA

2)     Add an updated BGN search citation in the 675 field

3)     Add a 667 note:

667        Kalikaha is a pseudonymous name for a Senufo village whose real name is unknown; the pseudonymous name was chosen to preserve the privacy of the town and its residents.

 

If the real name is ever revealed, the situation will be reevaluated in light of the new information at hand.

 

The authorized access point Kalikaha (Côte d'Ivoire) may be used for both descriptive and subject access.

 

NACO Advisory Group

 

 


 

 

From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Denis Brunke
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2020 4:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] pseudonymous geographic name heading

 

Regarding:  Kalikaha (Côte d'Ivoire) [n  88194374 ]

 

I'm still not sure how to proceed. It's not really an "imaginary place" like Wakanda or Middle Earth.  It's a fake name for a real place,  a real individual village. But we don't know the real name. In fact the author wants that real name to be secret, so they don't suffer political repercussions.

 

Should the name authority record be deleted or edited? Does it really deserve a subject authority record as a fictitious place? Or maybe there shouldn't be any authority records at all for this?

 

 

Denis Brunke

Original Cataloger

University of Wisconsin--Madison

312 Memorial Library

728 State Street

Madison, WI 53706

Phone: (608) 262-3529