The Significance of Authority Control in Library Catalog Searching

Written by Ligia Gomez on September 18, 2023. Posted in General

Authority control plays a pivotal role in ensuring efficient and accurate library catalog searching. This essential process involves the standardization and management of names, subject headings, and other bibliographic data to maintain consistency and coherence within library catalogs. Here are the key reasons why authority control is indispensable for library catalog searching:

1. Enhanced Retrieval Accuracy: Authority control minimizes the chances of retrieving irrelevant or duplicate search results. By establishing standardized forms of author names, subject headings, and other metadata, users can more precisely locate the materials they need.
2. Improved User Experience: Consistency in catalog data makes it easier for library users to navigate the catalog and discover relevant resources. This improves user satisfaction and encourages them to return to the library for their information needs.
3. Effective Cross-Referencing: Authority control allows for the creation of cross-references, guiding users to related topics, authors, or terms. This feature facilitates serendipitous discovery and helps users find materials even when they may not know the exact terminology or authorship.
4. Interoperability and Sharing: Libraries often share cataloging records and resources. Authority control ensures that cataloging records are compatible and can be exchanged seamlessly between libraries and library systems, promoting resource sharing and collaboration.
5. Reduced Ambiguity: Names and subjects can be ambiguous, especially when dealing with multiple authors with the same name or terms with multiple meanings. Authority control disambiguates such cases, reducing confusion and ensuring the correct identification of authors and subjects.
6. Support for Browsing: Library users often browse the catalog to explore topics of interest. Authority control assists in organizing catalog entries into logical hierarchies, making browsing more productive and informative.
7. Facilitation of Collection Development: Librarians rely on authority control to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their collections. It enables them to identify gaps in subject coverage and make informed decisions about acquisitions and deselection.
8. Adherence to Cataloging Standards: Authority control is essential for complying with established cataloging standards, such as MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloging) and RDA (Resource Description and Access). This ensures that library catalogs adhere to industry best practices and are readily compatible with other systems.

In conclusion, authority control serves as the foundation for efficient and effective library catalog searching. By maintaining consistency, accuracy, and standardization in catalog data, libraries can provide a superior user experience, promote resource sharing, and support the discovery of valuable materials, ultimately fulfilling their mission to connect users with knowledge. Learn how MARCIVE can automate authority control for your library at [email protected].

MARCIVE processing of Rare Book and Special Collections Cataloging (RBMS) updated, and authority records now available

Written by Ligia Gomez on June 8, 2023. Posted in General

June 8, 2023

The Controlled Vocabulary for Rare Materials Cataloging (RBMS CVRMC) has officially launched. RBMS CVRMC is a linked data thesaurus that combines the former RBMS Thesauri (Genre, Binding, Type, Printing and Publishing, Paper, and Provenance) into a single resource with a redesigned structure. It is hosted by the Library of Congress Linked Data Service at https://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/rbmscv.html.  This thesaurus provides standardized vocabulary for retrieving special collections materials by form, genre, or by various physical characteristics that are typically of interest to researchers and special collections librarians.

This vocabulary was previously represented by one of 7 codes in genre terms (655 _7) subfield $2 (rbgenr, rbbin, rbpap, rbpri, rbpub, reprov, or rbtyp).  These codes have been consolidated into one code ($2rbmscv) and many of the terms have been changed. In order to properly update these terms, all current customers receiving RBMS processing will have terms with any of these obsolete codes updated to the new $2 rbmscv code automatically.  These changes will be done near the beginning of processing so the code will be correct for the authorities matching step.

In the past, authority records for this thesaurus were not available, but libraries can now choose to receive the authority records for matched terms.

Examples: ____________________________________________________________________________

Incoming bib record:           655 _7 $a Manila fiber papers. $2 rbmscv

Changed by MARCIVE to:  655 _7 $a Abaca fiber papers. $2 rbmscv

Incoming bib record:           655 _7 $a Buckskin bindings. $2 rbmscv

OR

Incoming bib record:           655 _7 $a Buckskin bindings. $2 rbbin (obsolete code)

Changed by MARCIVE to:   655 _7 $a Deerskin bindings. $2 rbmscv

Authority record provided: _________________________________________________________________

001    cv00504

003    IlChRBM

005    20230531074559.0

008    230426|| anznnbabn          |a ana     c

024 8 $acv00504 $0https://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/rbmscv/cv00504

035    $a(IlChRBM)cv00504

040    $aIlChRBM $beng $cIlChRBM $dDLC $dMvI $frbmscv

155    $aDeerskin bindings

455    $aBuckskin bindings

455    $aDoeskin bindings

555    $wg $aLeather bindings

If you are an existing customer, please contact your MARCIVE representative to find out how to add this processing to your current profile.  If you are not a customer yet and want to know more about this processing, please contact [email protected] for further information.

Help your Spanish Speakers Find Materials in your Catalog

Written by Joan on April 12, 2021. Posted in General

April 12, 2021

MARCIVE has added new processing where we verify access points in the Spanish Language in your bibliographic records.  Having the language in your database can make your catalog discoverable by keyword search to your Spanish-speaking patrons.  The Queens Borough Public Library (QLSP) created these Spanish headings as a project in 2008, and has made them publicly available for some time.  The headings are static and are not being updated, however MARCIVE can validate theses QLSP headings in your records at no extra charge to our authorities processing customers.  Contact [email protected] for further information.

Examples: ____________________________________________________________________________

Incoming bib record:               650 _7 $a Habitantes de apartamentos $2 qlsp

Verified by MARCIVE as:         650 _7 $a Habitantes de apartamentos $2 qlsp

Incoming bib record:               655 _7 $a Materiales en español $2 qlsp

Verified by MARCIVE as:         655 _7 $a Materiales en español $2 qlsp

New Webpage-Based File Transfers

Written by Joan on April 20, 2020. Posted in General

April 20, 2020

MARCIVE listened to customers and is providing a new, easier way to send and receive record files as an alternative to FTP.  We have created a secure website to easily drag and drop records for processing.  A link is provided for picking up the files when ready.  This website applies to customers for authorities processing, government documents cataloging services, and MARC record enrichment.   The link is provided automatically to all new customers.  Current customers with questions can contact us at [email protected] or by emailing their technical contact.

 

Copying & Pasting Can Cause Havoc in MARC Records

Written by Joan on September 17, 2018. Posted in Blog, General

September 17, 2018

Recently we have received records from libraries containing fields with data that contains incompatible character encodings.  The majority of these fields appear to be summaries, annotations, or tables of contents that may have been copied from websites like Google Books or Amazon.com and pasted into the bibliographic record.

Some of the data used on websites in summaries or tables of contents contains character encodings that are not compatible with a MARC bibliographic record.  Additionally, MARC-8 characters are never appropriate on a web page, so any special MARC-8 data is always incompatible with web data.  Then, when all of the different Web encodings (UNICODE/UCS, UTF-8, UTF-32, Windows 1252, etc.) are added to MARC data, it becomes a conglomeration of many different character sets that is often incompatible with library systems.  We have seen situations in which the special character that appeared as a quotation on a website was represented as a field terminator in the data received by MARCIVE, which makes the record more challenging to process.

Another issue is when a very long summary or table of contents is pasted into a 520 or 505 tag in a MARC record.  There is a size limit for individual fields in a MARC record (9999 bytes), as well as a size limit for the entire MARC record (99999 bytes).  Sometimes these summaries and tables of contents exceed the limits, either for a field or for the entire record.

A few examples of issues with this type of data:

⇒Quotations:  Appears on website   …chance for a “real job”….

The quotations are interpreted by the local system or text editor as something different, and they are incorrect when exported from the library’s system, therefore incorrect when received by MARCIVE. They can appear as question marks or other representations, depending on the editor or function used to view or process the records and how it handles characters that are not valid for bibliographic records.

⇒Apostrophe:  Appears on website   …Jacob’s opinion…..

The apostrophe is interpreted by the local system or text editor as something different, and the data is received by MARCIVE with incompatible coding.

⇒Special characters – non-English:   Appears on website “sueño” and received by MARCIVE as “suñeo”

Depending on how the data is used or displayed, this may appear as “sue?no” or “suñeo” or some other form.  The code for ñ is not being interpreted correctly; it is not the correct code for this special character in MARC records

While we are happy to resolve these problems, sometimes it is not always apparent to the end user where the problems with diacritics and other special characters originated.  Therefore it is good to be aware of the issues that arise from cutting text from websites and pasting it into a MARC record.

The best way to include summaries and Tables of Contents in your data is to have it added by a vendor like MARCIVE that has put procedures in place to make the data compatible with MARC records, or within your system by entering the data using the tools for cataloging bibliographic data or a MARC editor tool.

Written by Carol Love, Programmer/Analyst and Joan Chapa, MLS

 

New 34X fields make resources more functional for emerging technologies

Written by Joan on January 25, 2018. Posted in Blog, General

January 25, 2018

Now as a part of RDA processing performed during authorities processing, we have the ability to create fields that can assist with formulating format facets, and prepare for linked data.    These new 34X fields provide consistency in describing the characteristics of various formats.  They are:

340      Physical Medium
344      Sound Characteristics
345      Projection Characteristics of Moving Image
346      Video Characteristics
347      Digital File Characteristics
348      Format of Notated Music

The conversion is only as good as the data elements that typically are already present in the MARC record in various fields and subfields.  Our processing looks at the LDR, 007, 008, 300, 533, and 538 fields to accurately create the new 34X fields.

Libraries looking to do authorities processing and RDA conversion on their legacy cataloging records can have this new processing included.  Existing customers can request that we add this option to any new bibliographic records sent for processing.  And even better yet—Comprehensive Notification customers can have this option applied with their next processing run—essentially having the entire backfile performed to include new RDA tags.  There is no additional charge for this option.

Here are some examples.

Interested in learning more?  Send us a sample and we can show you all the good we can do to make your records more useable.  Contact us at [email protected].

Written by Joan I. Chapa, MLS

Added Benefits of Comprehensive Notification (CNS)

Written by Joan on July 31, 2017. Posted in Blog, General

July 31, 2017

Our new Comprehensive Notification Service (CNS) has many good benefits and one, in particular, was illustrated with the recent quarterly re-processing of a customer’s bibliographic file.

It was noted that 97.9% of their bibliographic records would be returned to them because of one or more changes made.  Earlier this year, the MARC Advisory Committee made the recommendation to remove the use of a Parenthetical Prefix
“(uri)” in MARC21 linking subfields when the identifier is in the form of a web retrieval protocol.  This change was implemented in our processing, and impacted this customer’s records.  A small percentage of records were not returned, only because we had already previously processed them through Overnight Authorities Service, with the new programming already in place. Ultimately, 100% of their records were affected, bringing them up to current practice.

As national standards change, and we incorporate those improvements into our work, CNS libraries will reap the benefits when the bib file that we have retained for them is entirely re-processed at a frequency of their choice.

For more information on how CNS can provide benefits to your library, go to https://home.marcive.com/blog/new-comprehensive-notification-services-cns

Written by Joan Chapa, MLS

New! FAST Headings Now Examined

Written by Joan on July 31, 2017. Posted in General

July 31, 2017

We have added the FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) vocabulary to the list of vocabularies we process in authorities processing!  For a few years now, FAST headings have been included in bib records without significant benefit. MARCIVE now offers review and maintenance of FAST headings as an automated service!

FAST is available as Linked Data, and MARCIVE can add the URIs to subfield $0 that link to the term at no additional cost with authorities processing.

There are a variety of ways we can handle FAST headings:

  1. Ignore them.
  2. Delete them.
  3. Force them to Library of Congress Subject Headings [LCSH 6XX_0] so they are processed as LCSH/LC-NAF.
  4. Match the FAST heading [6XX_7 $2fast] against LC.  Then flip the term and source coding if recognized, otherwise leave as FAST.
  5. Examine all FAST [6XX_7 $2fast] fields against the FAST database, and report out any changes, validations, or unrecognized FAST fields.
  6. We can supply URIs or control numbers to bib records in the subfield $0.  If a subfield $0 is already in the incoming field, we will make sure that it matches the associated authority record.  We can also ensure it is in the form requested  (such as a control number) and will be changed to a URI.  If the term is not recognized but a subfield $0 is already there, it will be retained.

This processing can be added to customer’s profiles at no additional cost!  If the library is interested in this service, please contact [email protected]

Written by Ligia Groff, MLS

LCGFT Updates

Written by Joan on February 10, 2015. Posted in Blog, General

Library of Congress has announced several big steps forward in adding to the Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT). General genre terms were approved by LC just before ALA Midwinter 2015. The authority records were distributed to MARC Record Distribution Service subscribers on the Tuesday that many conference attendees were still making their way home from snowy Chicago. Music genre terms are being reviewed by the Library of Congress and will hopefully be approved by the end of February. The literature terms are in the queue for review, with anticipated approval in early March.

Although MARCIVE assisted LC and the various ALA/ALCTS/SAC Working Groups in making the MARC records for these terms, we have to wait like everyone else for the Library of Congress to officially approve the terms and then distribute the records in their weekly files to us.

With the approximately 1,000 general, music, and literature genre terms being approved, there will be a noticeable difference in the MARCIVE NewMatch records received by participants. As the records are approved and distributed, these records will be supplied to libraries based on the usage in their catalogs. These new genre records will be included in the authority records MARCIVE supplies to you, if:

  1. The term is in your history file of unrecognized terms;
  2. The term matches a temporary MARCIVE (shg) genre record;
  3. The term is used in a newly processed bib record.

Libraries with the NewMatch service routinely have their unrecognized terms reviewed. Whenever these terms match a newly established term, the new authority record will be supplied. The records will not be supplied if:

A library opted to not include genre terms in authorities processing, or;

  1. They do not have NewMatch option, or;
  2. The genre terms were matched to GSAFD.

Notification customers will receive the new LCGFT authority records whenever these terms match to the temporary MARCIVE genre records. These are records provided by MARCIVE to validate genre terms before LC began creating genre authority records. We are tracking these terms, so when they are established in LCGFT we will supply a delete record for the MARCIVE genre record previously supplied, and replace it with the LCGFT record. These temporary genre records are identified by a “shg” prefix in the control number. There are genre-like terms in LCSH used as the basis for some of the MARCIVE genre records for which there will never be a replacement in LCGFT.

Each library will have to decide how they want to handle these “local” authority records. Libraries are welcome to continue to use them, but it would also be appropriate to review these and replace any with nationality, language, or other demographic qualifiers with the unqualified LCGFT term.

Any bib records sent through Overnight Authorities Processing can be matched against the current LCGFT file and receive matched authority records.

If you do not have one of these services or you have a split between genre thesauri and would like to have assistance with making changes, please contact your MARCIVE representative, or send an email to [email protected].

Written by Mary Mastraccio, MLS

MARCIVE Assists LC in Creation of LCGFT Authority Records

Written by Joan on December 18, 2014. Posted in General

Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT), is replacing the former Guidelines on Subject Access to Individual Works of Fiction, Drama, Etc. (GSAFD).  While many libraries still use GSAFD terms in their catalogs, this controlled vocabulary list is no longer updated by the American Library Association.  LCGFT provides a live, developing international standard for genre and form access to individual works of fiction, drama, poetry, humor, and folklore, etc. in all formats. Subject headings describe what a work is about, while genre/from terms describe what a work is.

For example a subject heading of 650 _0 $a Western films is a work about Western films.

A genre heading of 655 _7 $a Western films $2 lcgft is a work that is a Western film.

In March 2015 the Policy and Standards Division (PSD) will approve approximately 390 genre/form terms for literary works.  MARCIVE played an important role in this venture, as we created MARC authority records for the proposals from a Word document provided by the Working Group on LCGFT Literature Terms.  We also created records for 175 “general” genre/form terms, which are schedule for approval in January 2015.  Not stopping with only literature terms, MARCIVE went on to create 563 records for music genre terms, which PSD plans to approve in February 2015.

The generation of these authority records by MARCIVE saved the Library of Congress and the Working Groups hundreds of hours of manual labor. This will significantly decrease the time libraries must wait for their approval and distribution. The addition of over 1,000 genre terms to the LCGFT list in early 2015 will noticeably improve management and retrieval of materials in any library collection.  MARCIVE customers with Notification or NewMatch Services will automatically receive any of these authority records if their history file reflects their use.

Written by Joan Chapa, with contributions from Mary Mastraccio and Carol Love.

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MARCIVE will be exhibiting at the IUG Annual Conference which takes place March 24-28, 2024. Join us in Detroit, MI!

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MARCIVE will be closed April 8th, 2024.

The Significance of Authority Control in Library Catalog Searching

MARCIVE processing of Rare Book and Special Collections Cataloging (RBMS) updated, and authority records now available

Homosaurus terms processing added to MARCIVE processing options

MARCIVE Enhances the U.S. Catalog of Government Publications
See the announcement from GPO's FDLP News & Events 

15 new libraries to be added to the Cataloging Record Distribution Program for FREE cataloging