Provisional Authority Records

The Library of Congress Name Authority File contains headings designated "provisional" which can be identified by Level of Establishment fixed field 008/33 “c” and a note in a 667 field which says “Coded provisional because [reason]”. Generally, these are authority records that could not be fully established according to the rules because of insufficient information about the entity in the 1XX field.

Usually, provisional authority records are created in the following instances: 1) a cataloger does not have the language expertise to establish the heading as a fully established authority record; 2) correct romanization is lacking; 3) the library lacks adequate reference sources for research on the entity in question; 4) the languages of a parent body and a subordinate body differ, and information is not available to determine the correct form of the subordinate body’s name; 5) the author publishes in different languages and his/her native language is unknown.

Catalogers are expected to upgrade these records whenever possible. When upgrading the record, change the heading in the 1XX field to the correct form. Move the provisional heading from 1XX to a 4XX field with the ǂw nne. Change the coding in the Auth Status fixed field from “c” to “a” (fully established heading), and delete the 667 note.

Note: Per Descriptive Cataloging Manual, Chapter 008/33 Level of Establishment, “BIBCO participants may not create provisional records if the NARs being contributed by BIBCO libraries are in support of their BIBCO bibliographic records, i.e., those records with “pcc” in 042.”

Examples (in MARC format):

100 1 Akhverdi︠a︡n, Gai︠a︡nė

400 1 Akhverdi︠a︡n, G. ǂq (Gai︠a︡nė)

400 1 Akhverdyan, Gayane [arbitrary reference in Armenian added]

667 Coded provisional because cannot determine whether Akhverdi︠a︡n is Russian or Armenian--born in Russia, grew up in Armenia, wrote first book in Russian.

670 Akhverdi︠a︡n, Gai︠a︡nė. Nezhnostʹ k chernomu golubi︠u︡, 2002: ǂb title page (Gai︠a︡nė Akhverdi︠a︡n) verso title page (Akhverdi︠a︡n, G.)

130 0 Aktualʹnye voprosy psikhologii--nasledie i sovremennostʹ

643 Samara ǂb Samarskiĭ gos. pedagog. universitet

644 f ǂ5 DLC

645 t ǂ5 DPCC ǂ5 DLC

646 s ǂ5 DLC

667 Coded "provisional" because uncertain whether a series.

670 Soderzhanie i formy priobshchenii︠a︡ podrastai︠u︡shchikh pokoleniĭ k tvorcheskomu i kulʹturnomu nasledii︠u︡ naroda, 1999: ǂb title page verso (Aktualʹnye voprosy psikhologii--nasledie i sovremennostʹ)

110 2 All-Ukrainian Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. ǂb Press Section

667 Coded provisional because Ukrainian form not available.

670 Its News bulletin, July, 1930: ǂb caption (All-Ukrainian Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Press Section)

111 2 Mezhdunaroden kolokvium po starobŭlgaristika

411 2 Kolokvium po starobŭlgaristika, Mezhdunaroden

667 Coded provisional because English form of name not available.

670 Mezhdunaroden kolokvium po starobŭlgaristika (6th : 1994 : Banki︠a︡, Sofia, Bulgaria). Acta palaeoslavica, 2000- : ǂb volume 1, page 5 (Mezhdunaroden kolokvium po starobŭlgaristika; 6th held 1994 in Banki︠a︡)

The final example illustrates an issue specific to Slavic conferences. Per earlier cataloging rules, and also under RDA (11.2.2.5.2), if the name of an international body has appeared in resources associated with the body in several languages, and one of the languages is English, the cataloger is instructed to use the English form of name. This instruction sometimes was applied incorrectly to Slavic conferences that had the word “international” in the conference name. “International” in these instances normally reflects the international make-up of the delegates rather than the status of the corporate body (the conference). Through misinterpretation of “international” in the conference name, however, many Slavic “international” conferences have been mistakenly considered to be subject to the “international body” rule and have therefore been established under their English name. Furthermore, some authority records for Slavic conferences have been established as provisional, as here, because the resource lacked an English form of name. When encountering such provisional records, catalogers are encouraged to try to determine the preferred conference name and upgrade the record to fully established.