The MARC format and the nondescriptors (the subject unauthorized name forms)

Abstract

The bibliographical standards of authority data do not discuss the unauthorized (unestablished) name form as a separate entity. The unauthorized name form is treated as the function of the authority (established) form. Consequently, the unauthorized name forms by entering in the MARC authority format appear only in the simple 4XX „see from tracing fields”, but in the authority formats traditionally they do not have independent records (the unauthorized name form is not heading). Independent records of unauthorized name forms (the tracings), however, are not missed in the authority formats at all: they have two types: see reference having inverse relationship (traced reference) and see references without inverse relationship (untraced reference). Consequently in the authority formats the tracing and reference is not only independent record, but it has more specific function and meaning, as in the standards of authority data. During the application of thesauri it is unavoidable that in the bibliographical data bases nondescriptors (the subject unauthorized name forms) are specified as a heading of independent records not only as related name form in the 4XX „see from tracing fields”. Present paper discusses the reasons of this situation, and illustrates it with some examples.