Problems and Possibilities for NACO Armed Forces Access Points: The Cases of Serbia and Yugoslavia

Abstract

Creating NACO name authority records for Serbian and Yugoslav armed forces at the national level (Resource Description and Access (RDA) 11.2.2.22.1) exposes how cataloging codes often embody assumptions of particular cultural and national traditions. Catalogers may spend as much effort in authority work parsing the rules as simply identifying corporate bodies. Solutions depend upon cataloger judgment sometimes based upon research. In some cases identity management approaches might offer advantages over an authority control approach to organizing information resources about the armed forces in question. Even so, information organizers would likely still have to account for the particular historical circumstances of the corporate bodies involved.