The Library of Congress (LC) has millions of bibliographic and name authority records in its catalog. These records have been created using a variety of standards and levels of cataloging. While LC's goal is to create cataloging that is as accurate and useful as possible in all aspects, the size of LC's catalog and staff limitations make it impractical to edit or correct records to provide additional information or other enhancements. The policy stated here explains the scope of what LC will and will not do in regards to error reports and requests for changes to the catalog. This policy statement does not indicate the priority of this work; division priorities are explained here.
Library of Congress policies for bibliographic records are:
- LC does not respond to requests to update bibliographic records that were considered correct according to the cataloging standard and level of cataloging used when created.
- LC does not respond to requests to update bibliographic records to add access points.
- LC will not provide cataloging for items that LC do not own or are not yet in LC's collection.
- LC will endeavor to correct errors in bibliographic records, as time and resources allow.
Library of Congress policies for name authority records are:
- As of June 1, 2006, LC does not create or update series authority records.
- Requests for duplicate deletion will be honored.
- LC does not create name authority records for every access point in our bibliographic records, especially those done using “minimal” or “brief” levels of cataloging.
- LC does not create name authority records for persons, corporations, titles, etc. that are not represented in LC's collections.
- LC does not respond to requests to update correct name authority records with additional information.
- LC will endeavor to correct errors in name authority records.
- LC will respond to author requests to change their own name authority record(s), within the limits of what is appropriate to record.
If you find an error in a bibliographic or authority record that should be corrected, please report those errors using the error report form that is found on the page for that record. Bibliographic records can be found in the Library of Congress catalog. Authority records can be found in the Library of Congress Authorities. Include all relevant information to justify the change.
Members of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging should follow the appropriate procedures to provide error reports and BFM to the PCC Secretariat, at [email protected], or the appropriate email account for their program.
