INTERMARC Authorities: Presentation

Specificity of this format

The new INTERMARC Authorities format, used in the catalogue général de la BnF, was developed as part of the BnF’s project to have a unique, integrated catalogue. It features:

• a highly refined structure allowing for a fine granularity in data management;
• the possibility to deal with the various roles of an access point (author, title, subject heading…) in just one authority record;
• the introduction of new types of authority records, allowing the format to cover all types of authority records created for all types of printed and audio-visual materials described by the BnF in the catalogue général de la BnF: persons, corporate bodies, conventional titles, uniform titles for textual works, uniform titles for music, trademarks, RAMEAU subject authority records;
• the introduction of new types of links;
• the introduction of new types of notes fields.

This format went through several versions. The present document contains INTERMARC Authorities version 4. This is the stabilised version that has been in usage in the catalogue général de la BnF since December 2008.

This is the format in which the BnF’s bibliographic data is supplied.

Presentation of the document

• The present document exhibits only a part of the INTERMARC Authorities format, namely, only those fields and subfields that are supplied in products. Confidential information fields and fields that serve the purpose of internal management of the records within the BnF are excluded.
• Information is organised in the sequential order of field tags. For each field, a table shows the structure of the field, its repeatability and usability in the various kinds of authority records. This table can be accompanied by textual information providing a definition for the field and explanation about the entire field or parts of it (subfields, positions, values).
• Code lists that are useful for managing some fields or subfields of this format are provided in appendices.

Explanatory notes

• The graphic symbol "#" represents a blank; so does the character "." (point);
• letter "O" (for "obligatoire" in French) indicates that a field or subfield is mandatory; letter "A" indicates that it is applicable; letter F (for "facultatif") indicates that it is optional; letter I (for "interdit") indicates that it is forbidden; letter C (for "chargement") indicates that a field or subfield may be present in records that were converted form an older format but is no longer allowed in newly created records;
• letter R is for "repeatable"; "NR" is for "non-repeatable";
• subfields are not filed according to a logical order;
• in linking fields, the names of subfields that are automatically transferred from other authority records are not given in the present document.