Authority Control

Subject indexing

• MESH
  • http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html
  • provides online search for medical subject headings by NLM (US National Library of Medicine).
• Library of Congress Subject Headings – Principles of Structure and Policies for Application
  • http://www.itsmarc.com/crs/shed0014.htm
  • A guide to the structure of LCSH and a general guideline to assigning subject headings.
• Thesaurus for graphic materials
  • http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm1/
  • Sometimes used for indexing visual materials instead of LCSH (use source code subfield $2lctgm).
• Thesauri
  • http://www.library.umass.edu/catalog/class.html#thesauri – List of online subject thesauri.
• GENRE/FORM terms
  • LCGFT for Moving Image Material
  • Library of Congress is constantly updating the genre/form terms for moving image material. Cataloguers of AV items may want to peruse these updates available from LC. An example is provided at http://olacinc.org/drupal/capc_files/GenreFormHeadingsList.pdf

Authority Control Tools

• Authority Control: A Basic Glossary of Terms
  • http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/cts/ac/def.html
  • This website compiled from various sources provides a list on basic glossary of terms and definitions by University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.
• Authority Control Bibliography
  • http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/cts/ac/ac_bib.html
  • This website provides a list of Authority Control Bibliography by the staff from Central Technical Services, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. The list is arranged in alphabetical order.
• Authority Tutorial
  • http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/techserv/auth_tutorial/auth01.htm
  • The MARC Authority training tutorial provides a means to study and practice the creation of authority records incorporating MARC coding. These standards are utilized by automated library systems that support authority control.
• Become an Authority on Authorities
  • http://weblib.lib.umt.edu/faculty/johnson/mla2004/Become an Authority on Authorities.ppt
  • This PowerPoint slides cover the outline of what is an authority record; basic of MARC; MARC component of authority records in OCLC and LC authority files; creating of cross reference and FQA.
• Functional Requirements for Authority Data
  • http://www.ifla.org/VII/d4/FRANAR-ConceptualModel-2ndReview.pdf
  • This is the IFLA Working Group on FRANAR (Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records). The IFLA Division of Bibliographic Control and the IFLA Universal Bibliographic Control and International MARC Programme (UBCIM) established the Group in April 1999. The documentation outlines the definitions and purposes of the model.
• NACO (Program for Cooperative Cataloguing)
  • http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/naco/
  • This is the official NACO Home Page. It comprises all the useful information relating to NACO and gaining access to NACO Participants Manual (3rd ed.), including NACO FAQs; series information for NACO participants; literary author numbers in NARs (053); links of interest; documentation, tools, rules, etc. Even LCRI’s Cataloger’s Desktop is acting up.
• Web World of Authority Control
  • http://net.lib.byu.edu/~catalog/catalogwebsite/authority/heads/about.html
  • This is a bibliography listing that includes tools, thesauri, Library of Congress sites, articles, workshops, journals, ALA committees, listservs, libraries and vendors that deals with authority control. This list is an attempt to help Authority Control Librarians and other librarians to do authority work more efficiency.

Geographic Names

• Library of Congress Geographic Names and the World Wide Web
  • http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/geogname.html
  • This website consists of geographic names in general.
• The National Geospatial – Intelligence Agency (NGA)
  • http://geonames.nga.mil/ggmagaz/geonames4.asp
  • This website is for geographic names outside the United States.