Theology Cataloging Bulletin 3-1 Section 3 
Vol. 20, No. 4—August 2012 

Section Three:  News And Views Of The Members Of The 
Atla Technical Services Section 

Edited By Tammy Johnson 
 
 

NACO NEWS 
 

NACO FUNNEL PARTIPANTS PREPARE FOR RDA 
 
                Under AACR2 rules, the purpose of authority records was to create the established 
heading and its references. The notes on the record were specifically designed to justify elements of 
the heading and the references. Under RDA rules, the purpose of authority records is to establish a 
unique identity for the entity. Developing a primary access point and secondary access points are 
secondary. To this end, many new fields have been added to the authority format to allow for the 
recording of many kinds of information, such as coded dates, affiliation, occupation for a person, 
field of activity, gender, language, fuller form of name, etc. While all of these fields are optional, 
recording this information will enhance the usefulness of the file. 
                LC has created an online course of twelve to fourteen hours which will introduce NACO 
catalogers to the differences between AACR2 and RDA and to introduce the new fields. This 
training is freely available to all, not just NACO catalogers, and can be found at:   
http://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/courses/rda_naco/course%20table.html.     
                For NACO participants, once they have completed the online training and two two-hour 
webinars, they will begin doing all their authority work following RDA rules. All will be subject to 
review by LC staff to make sure they are understanding the use of the new fields. 
                All NACO participants will be trained by March 31, 2013, the date that LC and PCC 
have designated as Day One for all authority work. There is currently no day one for bibliographic 
records. OCLC has set no cut off for the changeover to RDA for bibliographic records. 
 
Submitted by 
Judy Knop 
ATLA NACO and CONSER Funnels Coordinator 
 
 

LC GENRE/FORM TERMS FOR RELIGIOUS MATERIAL PROJECT 
 

Project participants have responded to the comments from LC on the second draft of terms. A third 
draft of terms should be circulated to Project roster members in early August.   

Submitted by Erica Treesh 
Database Manager for Authority Control, ATLA Religion Database 
American Theological Library Association