Authority Control Processing

Carol Gyger, Fort Collins Public Library

Record vendor - OCLC
• accept OCLC records "as is" (mostly)
• do not load medical subject headings
• do load both adult and juv subject headings
• overlay on ISBN number
• Why we chose this record vendor
• OCLC provides the best hit rate for the bib records we need
• seamless way to bring records into III with "Bibliographic Utility Interface"
• (we did not have this option with Dynix, so it’s been a bonus with III)
• very few modifications to cataloging records need to be made

Authority control vendor - LTI
• provides bib record cleanup and authority records
• cleans up names, adult and juv subject headings and indicator values in bib records
• provides name and adult and juv subject heading authority records
• provides quarterly updates of authority records (reflecting changes made by LC)
• we overlay authority records based on ARN
• Why we chose an authority control vendor
• originally, to bring some standardization to our database (we weren’t doing any authority control to speak of)
• ongoing authority control provides standardization of headings with little staff time needed

III Automatic Authority Control Processing
• automatically changes names and subject headings in bib records based on authority record changes
• provides reports for duplicate headings, cross-thesaurus matches, etc.
• Why we chose this option
• our previous system, Dynix, did most of this automatically, so we were used to the service!
• the automatic processing is better than what we had in Dynix
• couldn’t think of any reasons not to!
• saves staff time

Our current procedure in a nutshell (theoretically)
• load bib records from OCLC (source of most of our records)
• make very few changes to what we get from OCLC
• send our new bib records to LTI once a week for cleanup
• overlay cleaned up bib records back into III
• load any new authority records from LTI that are associated with these bibs
• load quarterly updates of authority records received from LTI

Where we are and where we could go with juvenile materials

Scoping
• we have scopes for materials in our Adult, Children’s, AV, Spanish collections

• this has been an effective way of helping staff and customers locate materials

Subject indexing
• Option 1 (currently using): one subject heading index - adult, juv, Spanish
  Why we chose this option
  • we currently have a mix of adult and juv subject headings on our Children’s collection materials

  • we did not want to give the impression that all Children’s collection materials could be found through a search in the "Children’s Subject Headings" index
• Option 2: two subject heading indexes – adult, juv (what to do with Spanish?)

Subject headings on materials in the Children’s collection
• Option 1 (Currently using): bib records for juv materials are loaded "as is" from OCLC with adult and juv subject headings
  Why we chose this option
  • we thought this would provide more access points to juv records through subject searches and keyword searches

  • does not require a lot of staff time for cataloging, very few changes are made to new bib records

  Disadvantage
  • the subject search within the Children’s scope is somewhat difficult to use – too many subject headings to look through and vocabulary sometimes too complex with many adult subject headings

  • Option 2: dump all juv subject headings and, when necessary, replace them with appropriate adult subject headings
    • add juvenile subdivisions when necessary (e.g. juvenile fiction, juvenile literature)

    • add cross references when necessary (e.g. babies, see infants; pigs, see swine)

    • Pros and cons

    • this would reduce the number of subject headings in a subject search within the Children’s scope

    • vocabulary sometimes too complex with only adult subject headings

  Option 3: Children’s materials have only juv subject headings; adult headings are added, if necessary and appropriate for the material
  Pros and cons
  • this would reduce the number of subject headings in a subject search within the Children’s scope

  • could cause some confusion in searching the adult collection if only one subject index exists on system

  Issues when considering these options
  • how do your customers search?

  • do your adult customers search differently than your young customers?

  • examine reports from "Analyze patron searches"

  • mixing thesauri – does this have adverse effects on searching?

  • look at other library systems who are using other options

  • is retrospective conversion feasible?

  • how would these options effect searching for adult materials?

  Examples of subject searches in various databases

  (number of subject headings found)

  Italy Spain Mexico

  Poudre School District 94 129 187

  (mostly juv materials)

  Arapahoe Library District 473 266 407

  (adult and juv)

  FCPL 422 237 641

  (entire collection)

  FCPL 344 184 517

  (Adult scope)

  FCPL 100 71 200

  (Children’s scope)

  Prospector 74 48 109

  (Children’s Subjects)

   

   

   

   

  Carol Gyger

  Systems Administrator

  gyger@libsys.ci.fort-collins.co.us

  Fort Collins Public Library

  Webopac - http://198.59.47.15/