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From time to time, you will find a name that has no authority file. Rather than simply entering [Last name], [First name], there are certain steps that should be taken for how to formulate the heading.

1. Search Connexion for the appropriate authority file. (Authorities--Browse--LC Names and Subjects. Choose "Personal Names" in the search box)

This name appears to have no authority file. First, we do a search on this name:

No luck. Then, we do a search on any variant of his name we can think of. In this case, we should look for "Allende, Robert," in case he is listed under that name.

Still no luck. This person does not have an authority file.

2. In most cases where a name has no authority record, we'll want to create a heading that's simply how the name appears on the item. However, we need to check and make sure this formulation doesn't conflict with any other headings in both our catalog, and in OCLC.

3. First, we'll check our catalog by doing a browse search on Authors. It looks like we already have a "Allende, Bobby" heading in Symphony.

However, if we open the record, we can guess that, beyond a reasonable doubt, this Bobby Allende is the same person as the one in our current record (he's playing the same instrument in the same band). So our formulation of "Allende, Bobby" works for our local system. But we have to make sure it matches everything in OCLC as well.

4. In Connexion, go to Cataloging--Browse--Worldcat. Select "Personal Whole Name Phrase" from the dropdown menu. Do a search for "Allende, Bobby." This will look through every record in Worldcat.

There are 36 other records with this formulation. We want to make sure that all the English language records represent the same figure as our Bobby Allende. Click on his name and sort by cataloging language (CatL).

There are two English language (eng) records with the heading "Allende, Bobby." We need to check both of them, and make sure it's the same person. Again, we'll have to use clues - is this Bobby Allende playing the same instrument around the same time period?

It turns out that these Bobby Allendes are the same. So we're safe to use the heading "Allende, Bobby" to represent this figure. It works well with the data both in WorldCat and our local catalog.

5. What would happen if the heading "Allende, Bobby" represented another figure? In that case, we would have to modify our heading to indicate it is a different person than the other Bobby Allende. One way to do this is by using birth or death dates. If we could find out that Bobby Allende was born in 1976, for example, we could fashion the heading as "Allende, Bobby, $d 1976- ". This is preferable if you can find birth and death dates, but this is not always readily ascertainable; don't spend a lot of time digging if you can't find a Grove or Wikipedia article quickly.

Another way to differentiate is by indicating the person's profession. So, if there was already a Bobby Allende who was a historian, we could distinguish ours by using a $c field to show he is a percussionist: "Allende, Bobby $c (Percussionist)".

The rules for formulating these headings can actually get quite complicated depending on what you run into. The important things to remember are:

2. If two headings match, they MUST represent the same person. (We don't want two different records to use "Allende, Bobby," unless both are referring to the same person).

Reviewed 7/19/16, cdh

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