1.1.1 The National Council on Archives (NCA) was established in 1988 as a forum in which the interests of owners, custodians and users of archives in the United Kingdom could be represented and openly discussed, and matters of common concern be brought to the attention of the public, the government or relevant institutions. 1
1.1.2 The NCA IT Standards Working Party was set up in 1990. 2 Information Technology Standards and Archival Description: report of a working party to the National Council on Archives (March 1991) recommended (5.5.A(ii)) the establishment of ‘a standing committee to initiate activity and monitor progress. We suggest that this should bring together appropriate representatives of the national repositories, the Historical Manuscripts Commission and the Society of Archivists, with power to co-opt experts as required’ and (5.5.C(ii)) that the national repositories and the Historical Manuscripts Commission should ‘examine the desirability of standardising name authority controls at national level’.
1.1.3 Standardisation of Name Authority Controls: a report to the NCA IT Standards Working Party from the Name Authority Project (June 1993) 3 recommended (7.4) ‘that the National Council on Archives appoint a committee with authority to draw up the rules on which the National Name Authority File should be based and resolve the conflicts in current local practice, taking account of the points raised in the present report and the cataloguing rules of the various repositories which are supplied as supporting documentation’.
1.1.4 The NCA IT Committee met in January 1994. 4 It formally adopted the Report, sent copies to the members of the NCA for approval and comment and agreed an action plan whereby ‘working parties would draft rules for the compilation of individual authority files. These would be endorsed by the NCA IT Committee and circulated to the archive profession for comment. Once agreed, the rules would be published and repositories asked to conform with them’.
1.1.5 Three working parties were convened for personal, place and corporate names 5 and reported by November 1995. 6 A small editorial working party 7 produced a draft, which was widely circulated for comment in early 1996. 8 The same working party has produced this final version.
1.2 Purpose of these Rules
1.2.1 Archivists commonly use proper names, i.e. the names of persons, places and corporate bodies, when describing, cataloguing and indexing their holdings. Most of them have some rules and means of ensuring consistency in the form and choice of these names, at least when using them as index headings (or, to use the current term, access points). Some may have precedent cards, others full-scale authority files.
1.2.2 Such in-house consistency should now be extended to nationally agreed Rules. This will facilitate consistency in the exchange between repositories of data about their holdings, at any level of description, and in the retrieval of this data by remote access users via networks.
1.2.3 The primary purpose of these Rules is to assist cataloguers of archives and manuscripts in forming names for persons, places and corporate bodies which are unique and readily identifiable by users.
1.2.4 No set of rules can be comprehensive. It is hoped that the principles and Rules are set out clearly enough and illustrated with enough examples for archivists to build on them.
1.2.5 The Rules are not intended to provide guidance on the selection of access points within the finding aids produced by each repository. These will continue to be determined in accordance with local practice and circumstances. However, the names of persons, places and corporate bodies formed in accordance with the Rules may be applied at any level of archival description and are not restricted to fonds or class level.
1.3 Name authority definitions
1.3.1 A name authority record comprises the recognised, authorised or prescribed form of a name, usually supported by sufficient information and sources to ensure reliable recognition and use of such a name.
1.3.2 A name authority file is a collection of authority records. It is a source from which those who are creating descriptions of their archives or manuscript holdings can take names for use as headings or access points.
1.3.3 Many of the participants in this work have assumed that the Rules are merely a precursor to the creation of national name authority files. It is hoped that some preliminary exploration of the issues involved will shortly be undertaken by the NCA. However the structure of such files and the rules governing the creation of authority records fall outside this current publication.
1.4 Principle of minimum conformity
1.4.1 Archivists in libraries or other institutions where manuscript and archival cataloguing must conform to more general in-house standards for on-line public access catalogues have a strong case for continuing their current practices. The same is true where manual indexes, perhaps destined for retrospective conversion, have to be maintained in a consistent way.
1.4.2 It is also evident that many repositories have traditionally developed different types of finding aids which are exploited in different ways by their users. These finding aids are often complementary and are not necessarily incompatible.
1.4.3 Nevertheless it would be both feasible and worthwhile to standardise in a name authority the most essential elements ded for data exchange or cross-searching, while allowing individual repositories to make optional additions for in-house applications.
1.5 Sources used to develop the Rules
1.5.1 The Rules have been firmly based on the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (London, 1988). Footnotes indicate those instances where AACR2 is considered not to meet the particular needs of archives and the institutions holding them. Since many archivists work within a larger library environment, departures from AACR2 have been kept to an essential minimum.
1.5.2 The rules for personal names drawn up by the editorial board of the New Dictionary of National Biography have also been taken into consideration. Other sources used, also with modification, are the Canadian Rules for Archival Description (Ottawa, 1990 continuing) and Steven L. Hensen, Archives, Personal Papers and Manuscripts: a Cataloguing Manual for Archival Repositories, Historical Societies, and Manuscript Libraries, 2nd edition (Chicago, 1989).
1.5.3 The work of the International Council on Archives Ad Hoc Commission on Descriptive Standards has coincided with that of the NCA IT Committee and its working parties. Consequently the ICA publications, the General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD(G)), (1994), and the International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families (ISAAR(CPF)), (1996), have been very useful in setting our own work in a wider international context.
1.6 Notes on editorial conventions, terminology, cross-referencing and punctuation
1.6.1 In the Rules there are no mandatory conventions for punctuation and abbreviation. These will continue to conform to the house style of each repository. It is assumed that when data exchange does take place or when name authority files are created, the automated systems used will be sufficiently sophisticated to standardise differences in the data input.
1.6.2 Some examples, in natural language or inverted order, cannot always clearly illustrate the rule without some truncation, indicated by ‘ . . . ’. Examples are given in full in the appendices to each section of the Rules.
1.6.3 So as not to prejudge the issue of automated systems, the Rules have avoided terminology like ‘fields’ and ‘data elements’ when describing the different parts of each record. Instead ‘component’ is used for constituent parts of a name e.g. forename, surname, dates. ‘Element’ is used for separate words within each ‘component’ e.g. Richard John. For the sake of clarity, they are separated by ‘|’ in the text of the Rules and in the appendices to each section.
1.6.4 Cross-references to and from the authority name may be mandatory or discretionary according to the context. The convention followed in the Rules is ‘x’ for ‘see’ and ‘xx’ for ‘see also’ cross-references.
1
The following are members of the NCA: Association of County Archivists,
Association of County Councils, Association of Metropolitan
Authorities, British Association for Local History, British Records
Association, Business Archives Council, Cyngor Archifau Cymru/Archives
Council Wales, Federation of Family History Societies, Historical
Association, Royal Historical Society, Scottish Records Association,
Society of Archivists, Standing Conference of National and University
Libraries.
The following have observer status: Advisory Council on Public
Records, British Library, Historical Manuscripts Commission, Public
Record Office, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
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2
The working party comprised Chris Kitching (Historical Manuscripts
Commission), chairman, Trevor Chalmers (Public Record Office), Adam
Green (Society of Archivists), Jim Parker (Historical Manuscripts
Commission) and Rachel Stockdale (British Library).
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3
The working group comprised Rachel Stockdale (British Library)
convenor, Ishbel Barnes (Scottish Record Office), David Blake (British
Library, Oriental and India Office Collections), Mary Clapinson
(Bodleian Library), Ian Cunningham (National Library of Scotland),
Susan Healy (Public Record Office), Kevin Morgan (Historical
Manuscripts Commission), Tom Pattie (British Library), Jane Savidge
(Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library, Gerry Slater (Public
Record Office of Northern Ireland), Meg Sweet (Victoria and Albert
Museum, National Art Library), John Watts-Williams (National Library of
Wales). Written contributions were received from Penny Bulloch (Balliol
College, Oxford), Michael Cook (Liverpool University) and Catherine
Fahy (National Library of Ireland).
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4
The committee comprised Dick Sargent (Historical Manuscripts
Commission) chair, Louise Craven (Historical Manuscripts Commission)
secretary, Ishbel Barnes (Scottish Record Office), Robert Faber (New
Dictionary of National Biography), Adam Green (Society of Archivists),
Susan Healy (Public Record Office), Gerry Slater (Public Record Office
of Northern Ireland), Rachel Stockdale (British Library).
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5
The Personal Names working party comprised Rachel Stockdale (British
Library) convenor, Louise Craven (Historical Manuscripts Commission)
secretary, Mary Clapinson (Bodleian Library), Ian Cunningham (National
Library of Scotland), Dafydd Ifans (National Library of Wales),
Rosemary Roberts (New Dictionary of National Biography), Meg Sweet
(Public Record Office).
The Place Names working party comprised Gerry Slater (Public
Record Office of Northern Ireland) convenor, David Crook (Public Record
Office), Sue Donnelly (British Library of Political and Economic
Science), Mary Ellis (Historical Manuscripts Commission), Ian Hill
(Scottish Record Office), John Watts-Williams (National Library of
Wales), Chris Williams (Association of County Archivists).
The Corporate Names working party comprised Susan Healy (Public
Record Office) convenor, Elizabeth Briggs (West Yorkshire Archives
Service), Penny Brook (Centre for Kentish Studies), Una O’Sullivan
(Historical Manuscripts Commission), Clare Rider (School of Library,
Archive and Information Studies, University College of London), Jane
Savidge (Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library), Christine
Woodland (Modern Records Centre, Warwick University).
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6 Geraldine Beech (Public Record Office) prepared the section on foreign place names.
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7 Louise Craven, Sue Donnelly, Susan Healy, Dick Sargent, Rachel Stockdale.
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8
Written comments were received from Chris Kitching and Mary Ellis
(Historical Manuscripts Commission), Alan Crookham, Richard Storey and
Christine Woodland (Modern Records Centre, Warwick University), Mark
Nicholls (Cambridge University Library), Michael Cook (Liverpool
University), Brian Dyson (Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull),
David Smith (Gloucestershire Record Office), Gillian Sheldrick and Kate
Thompson (Hertfordshire Record Office), Gareth Haulfryn Williams
(Gwynedd Archives), Nicholas Kingsley (Birmingham City Archives),
Alistair Tough (Greater Glasgow Health Board Archives), Christopher
Williams (Clwyd Archives), Elizabeth Briggs (West Yorkshire Archives
Service), Teresa Doherty (London Transport Archives), Paul Sillitoe and
Len MacDonald (Oldham Archives Service), Ian Cunningham (National
Library of Scotland), Anna Greening (The Fawcett Library), Elizabeth
Rainey (Durham University Library), Clare Rider (School of Library,
Archive and Information Studies, University College London), Mary
Clapinson (Bodleian Library), Patricia Methven, (King’s College
London), Chris Lambert (Essex Record Office), Nicholas Cox and Susan
Healy (Public Record Office), Michael Bateson (Canterbury Cathedral
Archives), Angela Raspin (British Library of Political and Economic
Science), Deidre Sharp (University of East Anglia Library), Heather
Forbes (Hampshire Record Office), Gwyn Jenkins (National Library of
Wales), Frank Rankin (Glasgow University Archives and Business Records
Centre), Gillian Quine (National Monuments Record), Emma Stewart
(Greater London Record Office), Chris Pickford (Bedfordshire Record
Office).
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