NACO workflow
Catalogers who have been trained to create NACO name authority record records (NARs) create them in OCLC using the NACO macro.
They save them in the OCLC online save file.
The cataloger who has created a NAR or revised a NAR gives the following to Sue: a printout of the NAR including the OCLC save file number and photocopy of the t.p. or whatever part of the work being cataloged was used to establish the heading. Alternatively, the cataloger passes the entire work being cataloged to Sue.
Sue looks over the NAR to see if she sees any problems or has any questions; if she does, she will discuss the questions with the originating cataloger. For more complex questions, she may schedule a call with our NACO trainer, Edward Swanson.
Sue searches the OCLC bib file to check usage and headings; she checks particularly that there are no other authors having that same name.
She checks the heading itself and the various cross references in the OCLC authority file to make sure that meanwhile another library has not already input a record under the same form of name or under an alternative form of name. Immediately after making sure we are not inputting a duplicate, Sue adds the authority record to OCLC.
She notes on the printout that the NAR has been added or revised and asks the originating cataloger to count the work in their stats.
For new NARs, they count one "New/Original Authority Records" on the Authority stat sheet; for revised NARs, they count one "Revised Authority Records." (We will not count national level NARs separately from local NARs; at the end of the government fiscal year, we will use whatever official statistics are posted by the Library of Congress for our NACO contribution.)