1. Vendor-Supplied Authority Control -- What Can the Vendor Deliver? What Still Needs to Be Done Locally?

2. 2 Presenter Lihong Zhu Head, Bibliographic Control Dept. Washington State University Libraries P.O. Box 645610, Pullman, WA 99164-5610 E-mail: lzhu2@wsu.edulzhu2@wsu.edu Presented for the American Library Association ALCTS Cataloging Norm Discussion Group Meeting at American Library Association Annual Conference, Chicago, June 2005.

3. 3 What is authority control? Authority control is a set of procedures to update the authority file and to maintain the consistency in the form of the headings used in bibliographic records by verifying the headings in bibliographic records against the authority file.

4. 4 Three main facets of authority control 1.Brings up the existing database to current authority standards. 2.Brings up the records added to the database after the initial authority wash to current authority standards. 3.Updates the existing bibs, and the existing authority database in the local system, as the external authority structure changes.

5. 5 What is vender-supplied authority control? Contracting to external companies or organizations the authority control workload that would otherwise be performed by library employees

6. 6 What basic services does the vendor supply? Automatic MARC update processing Automatic batch authority control processing Manual review Current cataloging service. Authority notification service

7. 7 How to use vendor-supplied authority control to achieve the three main facets of authority control? 1.Brings up the existing database to current authority standards. 2.Brings up the records added to the database after the initial authority wash to current authority standards. 3.Updates the existing bibs, and the existing authority database in the local system, as the external authority structure changes.

8. 8 What still needs to be done locally?

9. 9 How does your local system handle authority control? Does your library system have an automatic authority processing function? How does the automatic authority processing function work in your local system? What reports can your library system generate to support authority control? Do those reports cover 5XX inconsistencies, free-floaters, subfield z, obsolete headings in wrong MARC tags? What kind of bib records do you want to send out for authority control? Do you need separate output and load tables for authority control?

10. 10 Routine procedures Sending records to the vendor according to schedule Loading records from vendor into the local system Deal with reports from vendor Inform your vendor of the changes you have made to your local authority database Deal with authority reports from your local system

11. 11 Issues Gap time policy Staffing

12. 12 My publications on authority control “OCLC MARS and Millennium: Authority Control Procedures” was published in a special issue of Cataloging and Classification Quarterly on authority control edited by Barbara Tillett and Arlene Taylor, vol. 39, nos. 1&2, 2004. “Vendor-Supplied Authority Control: Some Realistic Expectations” (co-authored with Marilyn Von Seggern) was accepted to be published in Technical Services Quarterly, v.23, no. 2.