Respect My Authoritay!
Mary S. Konkel, College of DuPage
Illinois Library Association Conference
9/26/2008 [email protected]
WDYM AUTHORITY CONTROL
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Groups the various works by one person
or one corporate body
Groups the various editions of a same
work
Prescribes “authorized” form
Identifies variant forms
AUTHORITY CONTROL WCA
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Library users will become even more
frustrated at their inability to quickly
identify what they need in our catalogs
Non-English language materials will
become less accessible in our catalogs
Library of Congress Working Group
on the Future of Bibliographic Control
“While such mechanisms as keyword searching
provide extremely useful additions to the
arsenal of search capabilities to users, they
are not a satisfactory substitute for controlled
vocabularies” – p. 19
On the Record: Report of the LC WG on the
Future of Bibliographic Control 1/9/2008
1.3 Collaborate on Authority
Record Creation and Maintenance
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Increase Collaboration on
Authority Data
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Promote wider participation
Work with interested parties i.e. ALA
Divisions, OCLC, state libraries
Develop more tools to facilitate AF creation
Increase/create incentive for contributions
1.3 Collaborate on Authority
Record Creation and Maintenance
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Increase Re-Use of Assigned
Authoritative Headings
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Share data for better identification and
management of authority records among
libraries, system vendors, and publishers
Make the LC Name Authority file freely
available as a Web resource for linking to
and downloading into local catalogs
1.3 Collaborate on Authority
Record Creation and Maintenance
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Internationalize Authority Files
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Pursue the development of internationally
shared authority files (IFLA WG FRAD)
National libraries take leadership role in
linking national & international authority
records that represent the same entity
Create structures to identify which forms
are authorized for use in various languages
and for specific geographic audiences
COLLABORATION WIIFM
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Increased sharing of data means more
data available for the good of the whole
Result in workflow efficiencies and
minimize redundancies = $$
Better access = fewer failed searches
and faulty search results
New partnerships and alliances
Enhanced access to non-English titles
National Authority Projects
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Name Authority Cooperative Project
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Established in 1977 as a joint agreement
with LC and GPO for a common AF
NACO funnel project > libraries who jointly
create authority records based on subject
areas, geographic location or consortium
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OLAC-AV Project, NACO Music, ArtNACO, Dance
Heritage Project, Canada Project
National Authority Projects
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Cooperative Online Series Program
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Established in early 1970s as a project to convert
manual serial cataloging into machine-readable
and now is ongoing program to create and
maintain bibliographic records and standards for
serials
Subject Authority Cooperative Project
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Established in 1992 to provide a means for
libraries to submit subject headings and
classification numbers to the Library of Congress
National Authority Projects
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Program for Cooperative Cataloging
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Established in 1995 to oversee national authority
projects and has evolved into “an international
cooperative effort aimed at expanding access to
library collections by providing useful, timely, and
cost-effective cataloging that meets mutuallyaccepted standards of libraries around the world”
Over 400+ institutions worldwide; 2.7
million AF records contributed to date
HOW Do You Do It?
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Initial cataloging vs. post-cataloging
In-house with vendor updates “cleanup”
Outsourcing to vendor
In-house using automated process via
library system w/ global updates
Locally created and edited in ILS
WHERE Do You Get It?
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Library of Congress
OCLC
Your OPAC
Other Library Catalogs i.e. SILC, I-Share
Originally create using AACR2, LCRIs
Authority Record Types
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Personal name headings
Corporate name headings
Conference headings
Uniform title headings
Geographic name headings for
jurisdictions
Anatomy of an Authority Record
1XX Authorized form of the name
4XX Cross-references leading to
authorized form of the name
SEE REFs
5XX Cross-references leading to
related headings SEE ALSO REFs
670 Bibliographic verification sources for
authorized form of the name
Personal Name Authority
Record w/ Cross References
Corporate Authority Record
Cross References From OPAC
Multiple Languages Represented
OPAC Search w/ Cross Ref
College of DuPage Process
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OCLC is primary source of bibliographic and
authority records
Use Innovative Interfaces cataloging module
for automated processing
Primarily post-cataloging but some during
initial original cataloging
In response to public services requests and
user inaccessibility issues
Happenstance while cataloging something
else
Authority File Tools We Use
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OCLC Authority File
Library of Congress online catalog
http://catalog.loc.gov/
Library of Congress Subject Headings
LC Cataloging Service Bulletin
LC Rule Interpretations
Our OPAC
COD Automated AF Processing
Use Innovative Interfaces System
 Reports generated
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Duplicate records
Duplicate call numbers
Blind references
Invalid headings
Headings used for the first time
COD Automated AF Processing
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Handle bibliographic corrections as items
generally still in processing queue
Review blind references and invalid headings
for deletions and editing
Focus on “Headings Used for the First Time”
 Only download AR if XRefs are needed
 Determine if need author and subject AR
 Add local XRefs for accessibility
 Use global update for large scale updates
NextGen Cataloging/Authority
The Future is Now
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Discovery services platforms like Encore
(III), Primo (ExLibris), ProFind (Endeca)
Google and Yahoo
Faceted searching
Social cloud tagging “folksonomy”
Social bookmarking Delicious.com
FACETED SEARCHING
Tag Cloud