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In case you haven't seen this announcement--be sure you're using the
correct characters. <br><br>
--Steven<br><br>
Message-ID: <20080208T140525Z_A70D000F0000@loc.gov><br>
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008
14:05:25 -0500<br>
Reply-To: Program for Cooperative Cataloging <PCCLIST@loc.gov><br>
Sender: Program for Cooperative Cataloging <PCCLIST@loc.gov><br>
From: CPSO Account <cpso@loc.gov><br>
Subject: Recent and pending NACO cleanup projects<br>
Comments: To: pcclist@loc.gov<br>
To: PCCLIST@sun8.LOC.GOV<br>
Precedence: list<br><br>
<br>
Dear PCC colleagues,<br><br>
We'd like to update you on a few projects that have had, or will have, an
impact on the NACO authority file.<br><br>
Completed cleanup projects:<br><br>
Last fall we issued announcements notifying NACO catalogers to begin
using several new MARC characters, including the degree sign and the
musical sharp. We also indicated that OCLC was considering automated
means to convert earlier records that used substitutes for the degree
sign and musical sharp. We're very pleased to announce that Robert Bremer
of OCLC has just completed a project to convert existing NACO records
that contained a superscript zero where a degree sign was intended, and
to convert pound signs into musical sharps, where appropriate.<br><br>
Pound sign --> Musical sharp<br><br>
Robert reports that this conversion resulted in 538 changed authority
records. Robert has also produced a list of the LCCNs of the NACO records
where any 1XX, 4XX, or 5XX field was changed when converting to a musical
sharp. Anyone interested in the list can contact Dave Reser via email to
receive a copy of the list
<a href="mailto:(dres@loc.gov"><u>(dres@loc.gov</a></u> ).<br><br>
Superscript zero --> Degree sign<br><br>
Robert changed 45,433 authority records as part of this conversion-- the
vast majority were for geographic coordinates in 670 citations on
geographic name heading records. He also manually converted a few records
where the change impacted the 1XX, 4XX, or 5XX (e.g., the musical group
98 degrees (LCCN no 99025097)).<br><br>
<font color="#0000FF"><b>***Because the conversion project has completed,
it is now even more important to be using the new characters instead of
the old substitutions-- we continue to receive several records a week
with the incorrect characters.***<br><br>
</b></font>Additional cleanup projects in the planning stage:<br><br>
Robert is also nearing production on two additional clean-up projects of
the NACO file. The first is a project to add 043 and 781 fields (or 667
SUBJECT USAGE information) to geographic name authority records. This is
a continuation of a project Robert ran two years ago that added such
fields to about 80,000 name authority records. The continuation project
will primarily impact newer geographic name authority records created
without such fields since 2006.<br><br>
The second project concerns the removal of unnecessary ending punctuation
found in 1XX headings on older name authority records (generally impacts
records created before a policy change in 1989 to exclude such
punctuation). While many of these older records will have had ending
punctuation removed as they were updated during the last 20 years, a
number of records remain to be fixed-- these records have presented
vexing challenges to local systems and authority control vendors for many
years and have been the source of many complaints, so it will be great to
have them corrected. While some of the changes will be formulaic and
handled quickly, others will require manual review at OCLC to confirm
whether the removal of ending punctuation is appropriate.<br><br>
We believe these enhancements greatly improve the automated use of the
valuable authority data generated by PCC participants, and send our
thanks to OCLC for taking on these improvements. <br><br>
Thanks,<br><br>
Dave Reser<br>
LC CPSO<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
----------------------------------------------------------<br>
Steven Arakawa <br>
Catalog Librarian for Training & Documentation<br>
Catalog & Metadata Services, SML, Yale University<br>
P.O. Box 208240 New Haven, CT 06520-8240 <br>
(203)432-8286 steven.arakawa@yale.edu<br>
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