MARS Authority Control

Karen, our librarian and resident RDA expert let me know about a little update on the RDA front. I think it’s well worth your time to take a look, especially if you’re feeling a little stressed about RDA.

The last I heard, RDA is still scheduled to be published this month, and I know many are anxiously awaiting it.  (Either in excitement or trepidation!)  I saw this link to slides from an update about RDA given to the California Library Association Annual Conference on November 2.  It not only gives a good overview of RDA and its underlying models, but goes over the new data elements in RDA and some basic differences between RDA and AACR2 with examples to illustrate them.  There are also helpful links.  I really love the title:   “Help!  The new Cataloging Code is Coming!”  This presentation will surely help.

http://alcts.ala.org/crgwiki/images/1/10/RDA_CLA_Presentation.pdf

Many people know what the Library of Congress Authority Record Database is and how it can help their library. But what do you know about the other large authority collections? Nate Cothran, Product Manager of MARS Automation Services and expert on the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) sheds a little light on it for us:

The Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) is a collection of 131,000 authority records about the visual arts and architecture maintained by the Getty Institute. Though the AAT is updated every month, the licensed version—which Backstage uses—is sent out once annually.

Within the authority record itself, the AAT entry lists the main heading in the 155 tag:

001 __ 300015529

155 __ $abird's-eye views$B(<views by vantage point or orientation>, views,
<visual works by form: image form>, <visual works by form>, <visual works>,
Visual Works, Visual and Verbal Communication, Objects
Facet)$I1000015529$TDescriptor$GN/A$HCurrent$VUndetermined$L70052/American
English$AN/A$ON/A$8300015529.1

The 155 $a is the part of the heading that will be reflected in your updated bib heading:

 655 __ $abird's-eye views

I can see what you’re thinking on this: How is it that the authority’s 155 above contains so much more information than the bib’s 655 field? Sometime in the last year, the AAT authority records began including an incredible amount of reference points & additional information encoded into capital-letter & numbered subfields. Unless your system is able to incorporate this extra data, the pertinent information you likely prefer to retain resides in the main (lower-cased) subfields.

In order to bring the authority records received from AAT back into a more manageable structure, Backstage can remove all of the capital-letter subfields as well as the numbered [0-9] subfields. This makes the loading into your system error-free in case your system balks at the extra subfields it has to somehow categorize on the fly.

So this revised authority heading:

001 __ 300015529

155 __ $abird's-eye views

Now matches cleanly and updates easily within your ILS system.

At least now you’ll know what to look AAT in your Art & Architecture Thesaurus authorities.

http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/aat/about.html

Authority Control Interest Group (ACIG)

About twenty years ago I attended my first American Library Association Conference.  I was relatively new to the library world and really looking forward to the ALA experience.  I had heard so much about the great meeting being held about all topics known to “Library” Mankind.  It was a long time ago, and I don’t remember the details of any of the meetings I attended with the exception of one.  It is as clear today as it was some twenty years ago.  I stepped into a rather large conference room, standing room only, as I recall.  There was a panel of experts placed at the very front of the conference room on a stage with microphones for each and pitchers of water placed strategically on the table for all to share.  There was a standing microphone placed in the middle of the isle and as the panel completed their discussion, an anxious group of librarians lined up behind the microphone to say their piece.  Soon an angry tirade of heart felt opinions emerged.  I don’t remember the exact discussion, but I do remember it had something to do with the creation of an authority control record for “nuns”.* I was amazed at the passion and at times anger expressed in the varying opinions.  I remember thinking to myself, “What is wrong with these people!”

That, ladies and gentlemen, was my first introduction to what we know today as the ALA Annual Session of the Authority Control Interest Group.  Oh yes, there is great passion in authority control.

So, you may ask: what is the Authority Control Interest Group (ACIG), and why should I care?    We will start with the group’s history and mission.  The ACIG was established in 1984 by Barbara Tillett.  Its original name, “Authority Control in the Online Environment Interest Group” highlights the original purpose of the group, which was to bring about awareness to technical service librarians who were moving to the online environment. At that time most of the existing ILS systems had not configured authority control into their ILS systems.  In 2006 the name was shortened to, “Authority Control Interest Group”.   The goal of the group was to provide a forum for discussion of issues related to authority control for online cataloging.  The forum is used to raise the level of awareness on authority control issues and to encourage ideas for new approaches to authority control.  Each year officers are elected to coordinate overall activities of the interest group.  The group is co-sponsored by the LITA and ALCTS divisions of the American Library Association.  A program is presented at each ALA conference.  The programs typically address what is new in the world of controlled vocabulary.  A representative for the Library of Congress typically gives an update of what is going on with authority control within their organization.  OCLC usually sends a presenter to update the library world on OCLC involvement with authority control.   The rest of the panel usually consists of people who are either experts in an area the group is focusing on for that particular meeting, or people who have done research in the area that the group is focusing on for that meeting.  The sessions are usually well attended.  You can expect several hundred for the summer session.

Upon completion of the presentations, the ACIG group gathers to have a business meeting.  All who are interested are invited to attend.  In this meeting officers are elected and the next conference presentation is discussed.  Over the next six months, the Vice-Chair works with the library community and the ACIG committee to put together a presentation for next conference.

I have been involved with the Authority Control Interest Group for the last four years.  I found it a very good vehicle for keeping a pulse on the authority control world.  The group is always looking for volunteers and welcomes new members.  For more information on the ACIG please visit their wiki site at http://wikis.ala.org/lita/index.php/Authority_Control_IG

*Out of curiosity, I looked to see if there was a heading for nuns and there is.  It is listed below.  For the life of me, I don’t remember what the debate was about!

LDR                   00385cz   2200145n  4500

001                     sh 85093287

003                     DLC

005                     19961001105801.6

008                     860211i| anannbab|          |a ana |||

010                     $ash 85093287

040                     $aDLC$cDLC$dDLC

150         0         $aNuns

450         0         $aSisters (in religious orders, congregations, etc.)

550         0         $wg$aChristians

550         0         $aMonasticism and religious orders for women

Record Info

Ctrl No: sh 85093287

Record Date: 10/1/1996 10:58:01 AM

Last Updated/Loaded: 3/4/2009 1:56:25 AM

Usages: Subject

Rec Status:

**Post by John Reese, Chief Operating Officer of the Utah dept. of Backstage Library Works

Judy, one of the project managers would like opinions from multiple librarians on a question we are facing right now. Here’s what she had to say.

Hello Everyone, we are looking for feedback from our community:

MARC Proposal No. 2008-06 requested that $x ISSN’s be allowed in 8XX fields (http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2008/2008-06.html) and the proposal was approved by Library of Congress on October 2, 2008.  Just recently OCLC has decided to begin allowing $x too (see their July 2009 Technical Bulletin 257 found at:  http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/worldcat/tb/257/default.htm.

With LC’s switch from 440 to 490 and our programming changes to accommodate this, many of you are now getting $x ISSN subfields in your Bibliographic 8XXs.  This has been causing some concern and at least in one scenario, it creates a problem situation as follows:

original bib headings:
490_1 $aSTI/PUB ;$v1343
490_1 $aSafety reports series,$x1020-6450 ;$vno. 58
830_0 $aSafety reports series ;$vno. 58.

after processing:
490_1 $aSTI/PUB ;$v1343
490_1 $aSafety reports series,$x1020-6450 ;$vno. 58
830_0 $aSafety reports series ;$vno. 58.
830_0 $aSafety reports series,$x1020-6450 ;$vno. 58.

The resulting 830s happened this way because the 8XXs must link up with 490-1’s.  The system assumes the first 8XX belongs to the first 490-1 so it retained “Safety report series ;$vno. 58.”  Since it “thought” there was no 8XX for the second 490-1 an 8XX was created for it.  Unfortunately it was the first 490-1 that was missing a linking 8XX.

What is your practice regarding 8XX $x?  Since this is now an allowable subfield and we follow LC procedures, what will this do to your system?

Your feedback would be very welcome and much appreciated. Feel free to comment on this blog or talk about it on our Forum at:  http://ac.bslw.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34

Thanks,
Judy

You may have noticed that we’ve recently changed the name of this blog from MARS Authority Control to MARS Automation Services. Why the change? I’ve asked our Chief Operations Officer of the Utah location, John Reese, to explain why. Here is what he had to say.

***

Before the purchase of MARS from OCLC, Backstage Library Works ran several bibliographic automated products.  These services include Non-MARC or Brief MARC Record Upgrades (Machine Matching), Deduplication and Consolidation of bibliographic data, Union Database creation, Marcadia and Custom Programming.  Prior to this week, these services were run independent of the MARS 2.0 Automated Authority Control Service.  Backstage is happy to announce the consolidation of all of the above mentioned services and MARS 2.0 Automated Authority Control under one division to be called, “Backstage Library Works Automated Services.”

We found that there was a lot of overlapping in client needs involving authority control with the above mentioned automated bibliographic services.  All of these services require technical knowledge of the automated process.  At Backstage we are now sharing this valuable resource under one umbrella, Automated Services.  We look forward to having one department work with your sales representative in offering the most efficient automated solution for you.  Below is a list of all of the services under our newly formed Automated Services department.  If you have question about this change please contact John Reese, jreese@bslw.com.

MARS 2.0 Automated Authority Control:

MARS 2.0 service is one of the oldest and most reliable automated authority control offerings on the market. With our new system upgrade introduced in 2008, managing your authority records has never been easier.  MARS 2.0 offers name and subject authority control based on the Library of Congress name and subject authority databases (and other available National databases like MeSH, NLC, etc.).  The authority control process standardizes name, subject, series and Uniform title headings.

Automated Machine Matching:

This service offers several options to upgrade non-MARC or brief MARC records to full MARC bibliographic records.  This process searches electronic records against Backstage Library Works database and the Library of Congress Bibliographic Database to return a full standard MARC record.  There are over twenty million records to match against in this database.

Automated Deduplication:

Backstage Library Works offers a deduplication process that consolidates bibliographic or authority records in a library’s database(s).  This process is performed according to the profile specifications of the library and is often used when a library or a library consortia is forming or adding new libraries.

Union Database Creation:

Library consortia or library districts often require a central database for their consortia to work from. Backstage helps libraries create Union Bibliographic as well as Union Authority databases.

Marcadia:

Marcadia is an automated batch copy cataloging service offered jointly by OCLC and Backstage Library Works.  This product finds, evaluates and delivers catalog records from OCLC WorldCat.  It is based on search records you supply from your local system and a selection criterion you provide.  Marcadia selects matching records from WorldCat and delivers them to you.

Custom Programming:

It has been a long standing Backstage Library Works’ tradition to customize our services to the needs of our libraries.  Many libraries require special programming to accommodate either earlier cataloging practices that no longer meet current standards and need to be changed or special programming to create unique processes for their library.  Backstage takes pride in its ability to accommodate these special needs.

Authority Control is a specialized subset of library science and has it’s own unique vocabulary. To help librarians and administrators who may be dealing with authority control for the first time we’ve created, and are continuing to create, resources for both authority novices and experts. Today, we’ve asked our resident Authority Librarian to give us a brief and basic overview of Authority Control. We hope it helps.

Some basic authority control terms:

Authority control

The term used in library and information science to refer to the practice of consistent use and maintenance of the forms of names, subjects, uniform titles, etc. used as headings in a catalog. Authority control fulfills two important functions.

1)  It enables catalogers to disambiguate items with similar or identical headings.

2)  It is used by catalogers to collocate materials that logically belong together, although they present themselves differently.

Authority control can provide the underlying structure of the catalog when this process is used to create links between bibliographic records and the authority file.

Authority work

The process of determining the form of a name, title, or subject concept that will be used as a heading on a bibliographic record; determining cross references needed to that form; and determining relationships of this heading to other authoritative headings.

Authorized Heading

The form of an entry, i.e., the word(s) or phrase(s) chosen to provide an access point to the bibliographic record in the catalog or database.

Cross-reference

An alternate heading which directs the user to either the established form of a heading or to related headings Through the use of see and see also references, authority control creates a syndetic structure that guides the user to the materials sought.  This structure forms the pillar of authority control and makes possible efficient access to resources

See Reference – variant forms from the chosen, or authorized form of the heading.  They are used to lead the searcher to the proper form of the heading.

See Also Reference – Related form of a heading that is also an authorized heading.

Authority record

A record which shows a heading in the form established for use in the catalog; lists the cross-references to be made to and from the heading, cites the sources consulted in establishing the heading, and includes any other information that would be pertinent to the heading and its use.

Authority file

A set of authority records listing the chosen form of a heading and its appropriate cross-references. Types of authority files include name authority, series, and subject authority files

Library of Congress file are widely used.  They have separate name and subject files, but they are indexed together for searching at http://authorities.loc.gov/ In addition to using a national authority file, individual institutions may have local authority files.

Global change

The ability to change every occurrence of a specified string of characters in a catalog, usually by using one command to change all representations of a heading from one form to another form.  This is facilitated by actually linking the authority headings to the bibliographic records.

We have even more resources, including an extensive and growing terminology page on our Wiki.

Adding a Juvenile Subfield $v to your Library of Congress Heading

Children’s subject headings are a separate file within the LC subject file. They are designated by a second indicator of 1 in the 650 tag. The adult representation found under Library of Congress Subject headings uses a $Juvenile qualifier. The LC Children’s authority file contains just over 950 authority records.

In the automated authority control world many of our libraries are interested in changing all of their children’s subject headings to their Library of Congress equivalent.  We have always had the ability to search these children’s headings against their adult equivalent.  Recently, our clients requested that we add a juvenile subfield $v at the end of a heading that we flipped from Juvenile to Adult.  That was easy enough to do we simply added a $vJuvenile at the end of the tag once the heading was flipped to an adult heading.  However, this still did not adequately define the type of juvenile subdivision we wanted to represent the heading.

We knew that there were fixed fields within the bibliographic record that more precisely defined the type of Juvenile book we were looking at.  What we decided to do is base the juvenile designation on these specific codes.  If the bibliographic record is a book format (leader/06 = ‘a’or ‘t’) then we check byte 33 of the fixed field to determine what type of juvenile heading this is.  There are fourteen different characters that define the Juvenile book from Comic Strips to Speeches.  However, there is not a valid subfield $vJuvenile …. for each representation.  What we decided to do was translate the ones that did have a valid representation to that heading.  For instance if byte 33 was a ‘d’ we created the juvenile heading $vJuvenile drama.   The following charts indicate what heading are assigned to what code in byte 33.

= “1″ : add “$vJuvenile fiction”

= “d” : add “$vJuvenile drama”

= “h” : add “$vJuvenile humor”

= “p” : add “$vJuvenile poetry”

All headings that did not have a valid subfield $vJuvenile representation in byte 33 were defaulted to Juvenile literature.

We also looked at leader byte six to determine if the bibliographic record was something other then a book and assign an appropriate juvenile designator to the headings.  For example, if leader byte 6 is ‘e’ or ‘f’ for maps we add $vMaps for children or if byte 6 is a ‘g’ and byte 7 ‘m’ or ‘v’ we add $vJuvenile films to the adult heading.  The following example illustrates what this change will look like once your juvenile headings have been converted to Library of Congress.

Examples

        Child heading:

        650   1 $aRain forests.

        650   1 $aCollies$vFiction.

        Matched LC adult with "Juvenile" description added:

        650   0 $aRain forests$vJuvenile literature.

        650   0 $aCollies$vJuvenile fiction.

For a more detailed account of subfield $vJuvenile assignments please review section 3.8 of our planning guide: http://ac.bslw.com/community/wiki/index.php5/Profile_Guide_Step_3.8

Backstage Library Works is pleased to announce Heading Tracker, a much-anticipated enhancement to the MARS^™ Authority Control Service. This enhancement is free to MARS clients using ongoing authority control services — Current Cataloging, Notification Services, or both.

In response to requests from many of our clients, the MARS team has developed this Heading Tracker enhancement to bridge the gap between antiquated and updated headings provided by the Library of Congress, when LC does not formally establish a see reference to connect the old heading to its new version.

This gap is most often noticeable in the problem whose solution we’ve long referred to as the ‘death date fix’ — where LC adds a death date to a name heading, causing a disconnect between your records with open death dates and the new authorized headings with closed dates — but it shows up in changes to uniform titles and other headings as well.

To resolve this problem, the Heading Tracker subroutine automatically generates a see reference (4XX) in your authority record, using the old Library of Congress heading. This see reference is marked as a local tag with a subfield ‘5′ and Backstage’s institution code: $5UtOrBLW. The see reference is also prefaced with a subfield ‘w’ and the appropriate coding to hide the reference from the library’s public access module: $wnnea.

An example of a see reference (4XX) correcting for the addition of a death date would look like this:
(Note that the $w and $5 are highlighted in yellow.)

001 __ n 50000918
003 __ DLC
005 __ 20090218072944.0
008 __ 800208n| acannaabn |a aaa
010 __ $an 50000918
035 __ $a(OCoLC)oca00036619
040 __ $aDLC$beng$cDLC$dOCoLC
100 1_ $aParker, Fan,$d1908-2004
400 1_ $aPockrose, Fania M.,$d1908-2004
400 1_ $wnnea$aParker, Fan,$d1908-$5UtOrBLW
670 __ $aOCLC, Feb. 17, 2009$b(hdgs.: Parker, Fan, 1908- ; Parker, Fan, 1908- ; usage: Fan Parker)

As with most functions of MARS 2.0, options for the Heading Tracker can be selected in your profile. For instance, if you want to display in the Public Access module, we can do that. If you want the enhancement, but you would rather not include undifferentiated or generic headings, we can specify that, too. The standard options available for this feature are listed below.

• Display in public access, or not. The default will be to not display.
• Create an undifferentiated or generic see reference, or not. The default is to create the reference.
• Clean up see references (other than a 430) by making the second indicator of that tag blank, in compliance with Library of Congress standards. The default is to not adjust the LC-provided indicator.
• Run a second file without Heading Tracker data, directly after the first file, to remove the Backstage-created see references. This provides the connection between old and new headings when importing the files to your ILS, but removes the old references when the second file is loaded. The default is to not provide a second file.

If there are options that you are interested in that are not listed above, let us know and we’ll work to accommodate your needs.

To incorporate the Heading Tracker process on your next Current Cataloging or Notification run, please contact your MARS project manager.

The MARS staff hopes this enhancement will further streamline your automated authority control process. Your input is always appreciated. Contact us if you have questions or concerns.

To learn more, ask questions, or make comments on this enhancement, click over to the Heading Tracker thread on our Control Center Community Forum.

Yours,

John Reese
Vice President, Authority Services
Backstage Library Works
1-800-288-1265 x.249
jreese@bslw.com

An update from Polaris Integrated Library Systems – $z in the 010 tag

Polaris ILS versions prior to version 3.5 do not allow an incoming authority record to overlay if the Library of Congress authority record is replaced by an older version of that authority record.  When a newer record replaces an older record at the Library of Congress a “$z” with the old authority control number is added to the 010 of the new record.  This tells the library that there was an old version of this record and it has been replaced with this new version.  Prior to Polaris version 3.5, the Polaris system would not recognize the $z as the old record and the overlay would not take place.

According to Brad Rogers, Director of Implementation Services at Polaris, version 3.5 addresses this issue with a new dedupe rule added specifically for authority record importing.  Version 3.5 is slated for release by Polaris in just a few weeks.  The following Polaris importing setup screen reflects the change.

Every year in late November early December Backstage Library Works gathers its staff and jointly develops a plan of action for the following year.  Each department evaluates the market and its resources to develop a modus operandi for the New Year.  It is truly a grass roots process that invites all good ideas to be heard and plans to be developed.  The following is the direction the MARS team agreed upon for 2009.

What the automated authority control team would like to convey to our clients and to the library world is that Automated Authority Control is really for every library.  We feel that the automated authority control is a savings to all libraries.  The reduction in time spent by your staff as well as the access rich database the finished product produces is easily quantifiable.

We are implementing a three part approach to improving our product and our services for this year.  We will be focusing as always on service first and foremost.  We think that enhanced automation capabilities will improve our ability to deliver at a very cost effective rate.  We plan on preaching the gospel of authority control this year.  A detailed account for each area follows.

Service:

Our premise is that no matter how good your product is, your company will not progress nor stay in business if you do not deliver service above everything else.  Communications is the key to good service.  We not only want to communicate to our clients we want to reach all people interested in Authority control.  We have moved to do this by creating a communications center that leads to our recently created wiki, our blog and a new authority control form.  Last year we started our client centered listserv.  It has helped a few of our clients get answers to their ILS specific questions. http://ac.bslw.com/community/

Our client vendor relationship continues to be the best in this field.  We hope to improve on our vendor to ILS vendor relationship this year in hopes of making it easier to get ILS specific answers as needed when doing your automated authority control with Backstage.  We also want to establish more web based training for those of you who do not have the luxury of traveling for your organization.

Automation:

The Backstage authority control team is in the business of automation.  Our ability to design products that save you time and money is key to our success. Well designed processes that execute quickly and with minimal human intervention is our goal in automation.  Backstage was very successful in 2008 with bringing in new and large clients.  We deliver faster than any of our competition.  However, we believe we can do better. Our focus for 2009 will be to incorporate more multitasking into our automated processes.

Last year we moved the automated authority control software into the twenty-fist century.  We created a modern process run on today’s technology.  This year will be the year of enhancements.  The following are enhancements being considered by the MARS 2.0 team.

• Death date fix (cost free)
• Juvenile heading enhancement
• Bibliographic maintenance product*
• Auxiliary file improvements
• 781/18X validation
• Union Catalog of client local authority records

Cost Effectiveness:

Over the years the MARS team has developed a close relationship with their marketing and sales staff.  We plan on continuing this great relationship.  Our goal is to help them bring our message to the library world.  That message is this; automated authority control is the most cost effective way of doing authority control in your library and it is for all libraries. We want to bring our message to you.  We will be at all of the major trade shows this year.  We would love to come and see you personally and teach you and your staff about our automated process and the cost benefits.  Our sales representatives and product managers plan on literally hitting the road.  We will gladly visit your staff or present at your conferences. Let us know what your needs are and we will deliver.

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* Currently Backstage maintains all of your authority records on site and delivers to you these authority records when a change occurs.  We would like to take this one step further and maintain your bibliographic database to be delivered to you along with the updated authority records.  This would eliminate relying on ILS reconciliation of new authority records with authorized bibliographic headings.