Cataloging and Authority Control Spring 2006, 13/15 February Bharat Mehra IS 520 (Organization and Representation of Information) School of Information Sciences University of Tennessee

Where did you find this information? >Dear Dr. Mehra: >For Assignment 1, I am not fullly sure what you mean by "matched items." I >have read through my notes and the Powerpoint slides, but I cannot find >anything referring to them. Could you please clarify this for me? I have >made good progress on the assignment so far. > >Sincerely,

Access Points--Types? main entry added entries (indexes) author(s) title title variations related works series title(s) analytical (parts in the work) subjects (to be discussed) classification number (to be discussed) Bibliographic Subject

Examples of Title Variations Wall Street Journal Wall Street Journal-New York Wall Street Journal, NYC Wall Street Journal (N. Y.) Wall Street JNL, -NYC Wall St. Journal Wall St. Jnl.-NYC WSJ-NYC

Treatment of Title Variations Information processing & management Information processing and management added title: Ellis, L. Ethan. 40 million schoolbooks can't be wrong : ‡b myths in American history / ‡c by L. Ethan Ellis I. Forty million schoolbooks can't be wrong

Series vs. Serials A group of individual publications related in some way How to ensure a bibliographic access point that will bring together all items of a series together? A publication issued regularly or irregularly over time How to ensure all works in a serial are accessible?

Definition of “Series” A succession of usually continuously numbered issues or volumes of a publication, published with related authors or subjects and similar formats. A succession of regularly aired television programs, each one of which is complete in and of itself. Source: The Free Dictionary (

Definition of “Periodical” definition of a periodical outlined in ANSI Z : “A publication that constitutes one issue in a continuous series under the same title, published more than once a year over an indefinite period, with individual issues in the series numbered consecutively or with each issue date. Newspapers are excluded.” ANSI=American National Standards Institute

Series Title The record has a series statement How about access to series title? Rules suggest three types of treatments: 1. An added entry for the same series title 2. No added entry 3. Added entry for series is different from the series statement

Uniform Title (Standard Id) to bring together all catalogue entries for a work for which various expressions and manifestations (e.g., editions, translations, media) have appeared under different titles to identify a work when its well-known title is different from the title proper of the item being catalogued to differentiate between two or more works published under an identical title proper

Let’s search for the Journal of the American Society for Information Science in: UTK OPAC WorldCat Let’s search for the Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology

Definition of a “Serial” 1. Of, forming, or arranged in a series. 2. a. Published or produced in installments, as a novel or television drama. b. Relating to such publication or production. 3. Responsible for a series of usually criminal acts over a period of time: a serial arsonist. 4. Music Relating to or based on a row of tones, especially the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale. 5. Computer Science a. Of or relating to the sequential transmission of all the bits of a byte over one wire: a serial port; a serial printer. b. Of or relating to the sequential performance of multiple operations: serial processing. n. A literary or dramatic work published or produced in installments. Source: The Free Dictionary (

Access Points--More Questions? 1. What are the objectives for adding other bibliographic or subject access points to the eight areas description? 2. What are the most important features of an effective access point? 3. How do we achieve these objectives?

Principles of Access Points Uniqueness each heading should represent one and only one entity (person, corporate body, geographic name, etc.) Uniformness/Consistency each entity should have an identical heading under a specific heading for a person, all the works by him/her should be retrieved under this heading, only the works by him/her should be retrieved

Authority Control The process of determining the form of a heading for a person, corporate body, meeting, subject, title; determining cross references to that form; determining relationships of this heading with other authoritative headings Documenting the above decisions using authority records

Authority Control Catalog records contain: Access points-for the work Bibliographic description-for the item Location-for the individual library’s holdings

Role of Authority Control in Catalog Functions Finding and gathering function Author Titleby given author Subject on a given subject in a given kind of literature What the collection contains Collection contains ‘info object’ specified by: Its author and title If the author is not named in the book, its title alone, or If the author/title are inappropriate or insufficient for ID, a suitable substitute for the title; and Different works by a particular author and different editions of a particular work Cutter’s Formulation Paris Principles

Function of Catalogs Intelligibility: substance and format of catalog entries should be helpful to catalog users; and make sense! Findability: Access should be quick and liberal Fairness (Berman, 1981)

Processes in Authority Control Creation of authority records Gathering of records into authority file Linking of authority file to biblio. file (authority system) Maintenance of authority system Evaluation of authority file and system

Authority Control: Level National authority database (such as Library of Congress) International authority database (OCLC) Local authority files maintained in the library or institution

Authority Records An authority record that shows a heading for person, corporate, geographic name, title, etc. in its established form and cross references Authority records are kept separate from bibliographic records (two databases) There is a card from the unauthorized heading reference to the authorized heading “common characteristic”: what does it mean?

Pollio, Howard see Pollio, Howard R. His Behavior and existence, 1981: CIP t.p. (Howard Pollio) Pollio, Howard R. used for Pollio, Howard

All access points to the record are arranged alphabetically Three types of access points are interfiled in this file Which card is the main entry card?

Components of Authority Records Heading, qualifiers Cross-references “see also…” to heading Notes on creation of heading Related headings Call numbers Name of person who prepared the record Date of preparation Call number of 1 st biblio. Item with the same access point

Role of Authority Records Standardizes the access point framework for the system Ensures collocation of records in a biblio. file that have the same access point Ensures issuance of standardized biblio. surrogates Records the procedures for identifying values for the access points Records (as cross-references) variant manifestations of access points

Cataloger's Reference Shelf A free resource on the World Wide Web by The Library Corporation (TLC), library automation company, developer of BiblioFile software (micro-based) and Library.Solution (turnkey system)

Questions What factors determine the choice of particular authority control standards in a given situation? Why is change a constant issue in authority control? How has machine automation changed the process of authority control?

Assignments Was Due 8 Feb: CR2 Due 15 Feb: CR3 Due 15 Feb: Exercise 1 Due 22 Feb: CR4

Some Rules 0XX (control information, numbers, codes) 1XXfields (main entry) 2XX (titles, edition, imprint: in general, the title statement of responsibility, edition, and publication information) 3XX (physical description etc.) 4XXfields (series statements) 5XX (notes) 6XXfields (subject added entries) 7XXfields (added entries other than subject or series) 8XXfields (series added entries: other authoritative forms) 9XXfields (reserved for local use: used by vendors, systems, or individuals to exchange additional data) X00Personal names X10Corporate names X11Meeting names X30Uniform titles X40Bibliographic titles X50Topical terms X51Geographic names For example, 610: subject heading that is a corporate name

Class Activity 5 Each student is given one card catalog. Identify the value for Cutter’s fields and create an authority record for each field. Go to the Authority Record Database in Library of Congress ( and identify the authoritative headings for each value. Discuss how authorized and unauthorized headings are cross-referenced? For each authorized heading, how many bibliographic records are found in LC collection using the heading? If an authorized heading is not used, why so?

Class Activity 5 Identify issues in the process of compiling: the authority record for that particular “information object” creating an authority file from the compiled authority record linking the authority file to the bibliographic system file (authority system)