Lihong Zhu Interim Cataloging Manager/Monographic Cataloging Librarian Washington State University Libraries

 Presented at the 2002 Northwest Innovative User Group Conference, Portland, OR, Oct , 2002.

Special thanks to Mike Nelson, the Bibliographic Control Librarian who takes charge of the authority control project on the side of Eastern Washington University, for his invaluable insight and extensive trouble- shooting work in the early stages of this project, without which it would not have gotten off the ground.

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 a library catalog by verifying the headings in newly added items against the authority file.

Introduction to the Authority Control Project at WSU and EWU 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 database, and the authority structure existing within the local system, as the external authority structure changes.

INNOPAC Authority Control Module Searches for a matching bibliographic heading for each see from heading (MARC 4xx) in an authority record. Updates the bibliographic heading based on the valid form (MARC 1xx) in an authority record.

Tips for INNOPAC Authority Control Module Does not modify authority records. Does not deal with 5xx inconsistencies in authority records. If an authority record is used in both the name and subject indexes, it will be necessary to process the two authority records separately to change all the relevant bibliographic headings.

Tips for INNOPAC Authority Control Module Does not do automatic update when processing180, 181, 182, 185. Does not update subfield z. Ignores subfields that do not fall under authority control. Reports non-unique 4xx.

Reports Generated by INNOPAC  Used for the first time  Invalid headings  Blind references  Duplicate authority records  Bibliographic updates  Duplicate numbers and other errors  NON-unique 4XXs  Cross-thesaurus matches  Near matches  Busy matches

INNOPAC reports do not cover the following instances: 5XX inconsistencies Free-floaters Subfield z Obsolete headings in wrong MARC tags

Global Update

Tips for Global Update  Depends upon retrieving a list in the standard way of headings to be changed  “Rotate subject headings feature”  Be careful about title change  Name change has to be done twice if used both as author and subject  Be careful about authority records

Authority Control Procedures

Routine procedures Monitoring new headings Maintaining an up- to- date local authority file Updating existing bibliographic records in local systems

Routine procedure--Monitoring new headings Weekly review of INNOPAC headings lists Bimonthly authority processing by MARS

Routine procedure--Maintaining an up- to- date local authority file MARS authority records MARS notification service

Routine procedure--Updating existing bibliographic records in local systems INNOPAC automatic authority control module INNOPAC Global Update

Special procedures Informs OCLC of changes to our authority profile (deletes and adds) Deletes WLN authority records Deletes obsolete authority records in Griffin Updates split headings Updates free-floaters Subfield z

Issues that need to be watched out for during the authority control process

OCLC authority control service  What kind of records should be included in the authority control process?  Have all the bib records sent to OCLC been returned (those required) and reloaded?  Have all authority records sent from OCLC, resident in Griffin files, been loaded?  Are all the requested reports produced every time?  Do you need to update your OCLC authority service profile?

Loading problems  Be sure the load tables in your local system are correctly set up. Otherwise you will experience problems like fields missing or duplicated in the newly loaded bibliographic records.

Blind references Why not simply suppress the blind references in OPAC? Blind authority records won't show in OPAC at all unless they have see or see also reference. As a matter of fact, you won't even be able to search them in OPAC. So they are hidden from the public view to a certain extent. Should we leave blind references that appear as 5XXs in other authority records in the database?

Blind references Keep a blind reference authority record if there are subject headings beginning with that blind reference in Griffin.

01 ACODE1: - 02 ACODE2: - 03 ASUPPRESS: sh DLC i| anannbab| |a ana ||| nz n sh DLC|cDLC Opium poppy growers Growers, Opium poppy |wg|aFarmers Work cat.: : Griffith, W. Opium poppy garden, c1993:|bCIP t.p. (... grower)

1. Opium Poppy Growers--Colombia 2. Opium Poppy Growers--Thailand--History--20th Century

Growers Opium Poppy is not used in this library's catalog. Opium poppy growers is used instead. SEARCH for Opium poppy growers