Authority Work Done by OCLC Orbis Cascade Alliance Summer Meeting 2014 Tom Larsen

OCLC announcement “Controlling More Headings in WorldCat” /2012/announcement1.en.html /2012/announcement1.en.html Or Google: oclc announcement controlling more headings in worldat

Our Questions: 1.The OCLC announcement was dated Is there more up to date documentation? 2. The 2012 announcement says, “New stand-alone controlling software. OCLC is extending the Control All functionality by developing a stand-alone batch service that runs independently. The software evaluates all bibliographic records in WorldCat and controls headings as detailed below. Records evaluated for processing. The software will evaluate the following bibliographic records in WorldCat for processing according to different time schedules: · Master bibliographic records newly added to WorldCat contributed either through online applications or through batchload will be evaluated daily. · Master bibliographic records changed and replaced in WorldCat will be evaluated on a pre-determined schedule. · Existing master bibliographic records in WorldCat will be evaluated on a to-be- determined schedule and as capacity allows.” Could you give us more details on “pre-determined schedule” and “to-be-determined schedule and as capacity allows”? 3.Is there a list of the type of heading changes that are or are not made? For example, are 6XX $z geographic subfields updated when the related 151 authority headings are changed? 4. When a heading ‘splits’, i.e., when one heading is replaced by multiple headings, how is that change handled in WorldCat master bib records? 5.The 2012 document says that the software will not attempt to control a heading to an undifferentiated authority record. This is good. We have noticed that we can also no longer do this manually. However, it is still possible to manually control an unqualified personal name. Will the software also control unqualified names?

Their Answers: 1. The OCLC announcement was dated Is there more up to date documentation? A: Not at this time; but I would anticipate this document will be updated in the coming months.

2.The 2012 announcement says, “New stand-alone controlling software. OCLC is extending the Control All functionality by developing a stand-alone batch service that runs independently. The software evaluates all bibliographic records in WorldCat and controls headings as detailed below. Records evaluated for processing. The software will evaluate the following bibliographic records in WorldCat for processing according to different time schedules: · Master bibliographic records newly added to WorldCat contributed either through online applications or through batchload will be evaluated daily. · Master bibliographic records changed and replaced in WorldCat will be evaluated on a pre-determined schedule. · Existing master bibliographic records in WorldCat will be evaluated on a to- be-determined schedule and as capacity allows.” Could you give us more details on “pre-determined schedule” and “to-be- determined schedule and as capacity allows”? A: Since the 2012 announcement, OCLC has been concentrating on processing the newly added and changed bibliographic records on a daily basis. Most recently, system capacity has allowed the processing of all of those records each day. As capacity allows, OCLC will start processing the entire WorldCat database in an attempt to control headings in the bibliographic records. Staff are continuing to gather information to determine the amount of time needed to process the entire WorldCat database, but more information will be posted to OCLC-Cat and other listservs with information related to this effort.

3.Is there a list of the type of heading changes that are or are not made? For example, are 6XX $z geographic subfields updated when the related 151 authority headings are changed? A: No, there is no list of that type available, but if you have a list of changes that are of interest to you, I would be happy to respond to that. In answer to if 151 headings are changed is the $z geographic subfield updated, the answer is no, because we link $z to the 781 field in authority records, and only 651 fields can be linked to 151 headings. If the 781 field were to change, then yes, the $z geographic subfield in a heading would be updated.

4.When a heading ‘splits’, i.e., when one heading is replaced by multiple headings, how is that change handled in WorldCat master bib records? A: When a heading is identified as split, the heading is given a different status and no changes are made to the heading. These include splits to a main heading or a split to a subdivision.

5.The 2012 document says that the software will not attempt to control a heading to an undifferentiated authority record. This is good. We have noticed that we can also no longer do this manually. However, it is still possible to manually control an unqualified personal name. Will the software also control unqualified names? A: At this time, there are no plans to change the automated controlling software to allow authomatic controlling of unqualified personal names. Additional strategies to control these type of headings will require additonal research and investigation.

Additional Questions: Is that good enough? Are there other things we need? ◦ And if so, can those things be done via Alma processes? ◦ Or do we need to find other ways of doing them?