French Official Corporate Bodies of the Ancient Regime (COPAR) and Religious Corporate Bodies (CORELI): Two Operations in Creating Authority Records in Order to Standardise the Entries of Bibliographic Records in Bibliothèque Nationale de France Retrospec

During the retrospective conversion of its printed and card catalogues, the Bibliothèque nationale de France was confronted with the existence of old bibliographic records without corporate body headings, because this concept was unknown when the books were catalogued. The Library launched two programs aimed at creating authority records for specific fields important for access to the national bibliographic heritage, respectively named COFAR–for the official corporate bodies, mainly national and preceding the French Revolutionand CORELI–for the religious corporate bodies (parishes, dioceses, confraternities, orders and congregations, etc.). The 2,550 records created by the COFAR and CORELI programs have been included in the authority file of BN-OPALE PLUS; so they are visible either via the online catalogue or separately with other authority records. They give librarians an extra tool for identifying entities. They also represent a valuable source of information accessible to anyone who takes an interest in the history of French government institutions or religious entities. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]