Authority Control

The British Library uses the Library of Congress / NACO Authority File (LC/NAF) to control the forms of names in its catalogues. The British Library is one of the major contributors of authority data to the Name Authorities Co-operative (NACO) component of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging.

In May 1993 the British Library and the Library of Congress agreed the goal of establishing a single, shared name authority file to be created from the merger of their two independent files: the British Library Name Authority List (BLNAL) and the United States Name Authority File (USNAF - now known as LC/NAF). This agreement led to the establishment of the Anglo-American Authority File project (AAAF). The project has been carried out in three phases. In Phase 1 (1994-1996) cataloguing policies were converged; during Phase 2 (1996-1997) the British Library began to contribute authority data directly to LC/NAF. Phase 3, the retrospective alignment of the British Library Name Authority List with LC/NAF, was dependent on implementation of global change functionality in the British Library Integrated Catalogue and began in earnest in 2004.

The British Library has developed guidelines for the most frequently used name headings in order to assist users of BNB records in managing the migration of their catalogues to MARC 21.

The British Library has also contributed to the wider development of international standards and models for authority control through the IFLA report on Mandatory Data Elements for Internationally Shared Resource Authority Records and the IFLA reference model for the Functional Requirements for Authority Records. More recently, the British Library has also been contributing to the ISO working group on the International Standard Party Identifier (ISPI).

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For further information please contact:

The British Library
Authority Control
Boston Spa, Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
United Kingdom

Tel: + 44 (0) 1937 546806
Fax: + 44 (0) 1937 546586
Email: richard.moore@bl.uk