What's in a (Family) Name? DACS, LCSH, and Mixed-Standard Catalogs

Abstract

The source code "dacs" was recently approved by the Library of Congress Network Development and MARC Standards Office for use in MARC field 600, subfield ‡2. Catalogers who follow DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard) to describe archival materials in MARC records should use the new code to identify DACS as the source of family name headings used as subject access points. Because LC family-name subject headings are based on the LC Subject Cataloging Manual, rules that conflict with DACS, indicating that a family heading is based on DACS can prevent integrated library systems and authority vendors from automatically changing (or “flipping”) that heading to the Library of Congress subject heading (LCSH) for that family.