Building an improved resource discovery experience for users: a cataloger’s experience and perspective CEAL Conference Toronto, Canada, March, 2012 Jia Xu The University of Iowa

Overview To build an improved resource discovery experience for users, an important cataloging procedure is to achieve consistency of bibliographic headings The projects/tasks aiming to achieve consistency of bibliographic headings within the records for Chinese videos and films o Update personal and corporate name headings o Test Aleph functionality on the automatic updating of bibliographic headings o Examine inconsistency of existing genre/form headings What we have achieved and learned

Aleph Authors index search: “Meng, Jinghui”: the results before and after updating the bibliographic heading. “Heading Information” is missing. Heading Information?

The project to update personal name and corporate name headings Technical reasons to update bibliographic name headings o There had been an increasing number of bibliographic name headings within the existing records that did not match the authorized headings  Newly established authorized headings  Updated authorized headings  Formerly undifferentiated authorized headings o Aleph functionality has not been robust enough to support the automatic updating of headings within bibliographic records

The project to update personal name and corporate name headings Steps toward consistency of bibliographic name headings o Verify the bibliographic heading against the authorized heading  Li, Yu, ( 李玉, drt, aus, 红颜, 苹果 ) o Establish and/or update name authority records  Song, Jia, ( 宋佳, act, 淘金王, 落山风, 寡妇十日谈 )  Song, Jia, ( 宋佳, act, 好奇害死猫, 闯关东, 赤壁 )  Yu, Faye, ( 俞飞鸿, act, 牵手, 千年敬祈 )  Chao, Winston ( 赵文瑄, act, 饮食男女, 红玫瑰白玫瑰 )  Chu, Chunqiu, (pen name, 楚春秋, real name, 徐贵祥, aut, 弹道无痕, 历史的天空 ) o Keep bibliographic headings updated  Updating bibliographic headings requires ongoing efforts and enhanced system functionality

Test Aleph functionality on the automatic updating of bibliographic headings OCLC Closed Dates in Authority Records (Including CJK authority records) Special Aleph fields in authority records o UPD: code: Y or N, determining whether or not to update the bibliographic records automatically o COR: a see reference for the original authorized heading Identified system problems o Does not link the authority record to the bibliographic record(s) in some cases o Updates the paired bibliographic headings to the authorized form o Changes the order of subfield 6

??? : Missing link between the authority and bibliographic records ???

Aleph updated the bibliographic heading from “Engle, Paul, 1908-” to “Engle, Paul, ” successfully.

A test result: if changing UPD code from N to Y in the authority record, Aleph updates the paired fields and moves subfield 6 to the end of the 100 fields.

Examine inconsistency of genre/form headings Local policy on the assignment of genre/form terms for foreign films had been changed over the past ten years o Geographic subdivision for “country of production” Provide the information in 500 field --> Add the subdivision to five genre/form headings --> Add the subdivision to topical heading “Foreign films” --> No longer subdivide genre/form headings geographically o “Foreign films” and “Foreign television programs” Assign the headings for foreign films and TV programs --> Do not use the terms (for they are no longer LCGFT terms, but LCSH headings) o Source thesauri LCSH --> GSAFD and LCSH --> LCSH -->LCGFT o MARC coding > > 650 and > 655

Time periodLocal policy on genre/form headings for foreign filmsRelevant fields in bibliographic records: examples 2005 and before 500 __ A foreign film (Country of production). 650 _0 Feature films. 650 _0 Foreign films. 500 __ A foreign film (China). 650 _0 Feature films. 650 _0 Foreign films _7 Feature films/Short films/Children’s films $z [geographic subdivision]. $gsafd 655 _0 Documentary films/Educational films $z [geographic subdivision]. 655 _0 Foreign films. 655 _7 Feature films $z China. $2 gsafd 655 _0 Foreign films _0 Foreign films $z [geographic subdivision]. 655 _0 Feature films. 650 _0 Foreign films $z China. 655 _0 Feature films _7 Feature films. $2 lcgft Do not use “Foreign films” instead: 257 __ [Country of producing entity] $2 naf (If important) Follow LC SHM H 1913, LC FAQ LCGFT instructions 257 __ China $2 naf 655 _7 Feature films. $2 lcgft

Time periodRelevant fields in bibliographic records OPAC browse search Which records can be found? Feature films – ChinaForeign films – China 2005 and before 500 __ A foreign film (China). 650 _0 Feature films. 650 _0 Foreign films. No _7 Feature films $z China. $2 gsafd 655 _0 Foreign films. YesNo _0 Foreign films $z China. 655 _0 Feature films. NoYes __ [China] $2 naf 655 _7 Feature films. $2 lcgft No

What we have achieved Updated 450 personal and corporate name bibliographic headings by matching them with the authorized headings within 1500 records for Chinese videos and films; created and updated 70 personal and corporate name authority records Tested how Aleph functions to automatically update name headings (Latin and non-Latin names) in 100s, 600s, 700s, 800s; also, subject headings in 650s Examined inconsistency of existing genre/form headings, the first step leading to a potential future project, to fix inconsistency of genre/form headings within existing records for the libraries’ moving image collection

What we have learned It is important to look at bibliographic data from user’s perspective Authority control procedures are the key steps to support user tasks o The system-generated link between bibliographic and authority records is crucial to control bibliographic headings and to direct users to authorized heading information o The verification procedure is a key step to match the bibliographic heading against established authorized heading o Establishing and updating authority records aids catalogers to identify, contextualize, justify the entity; the authority data then aids users to identify, select the entity Achieving consistency of bibliographic headings requires ongoing efforts and enhanced system functionality Must prepare to transition to implementation of RDA, a standard designed to focus attention on fulfilling user tasks

Thank you! Questions? Jia Xu ( 徐佳 ) East Asian Cataloging Librarian The University of Iowa Libraries Phone: (319)