Authority Work

Owned by Import Utility
Last updated: Nov 06, 2019 by Alison Downey
4 min read

Department: Technical Services
DRAFT Authority Work Overview with LTI  Marcive DRAFT

rev. 11/6/19

I. Purpose of Authority Work

Authority work is done to:

• Maintain heading (name, subject, series, uniform title) consistency in our catalog.

• Provide cross-references from unused terms or names to the heading that is used.

• Provide users with lists of valid broader, narrower and related headings.

II. Authority Records

• The presence of an authority record in the catalog allows us to do the above. Generally, we load authority records only for headings where cross-references or related references are needed. Authority records in our catalog minimally include the valid heading and at least one invalid heading or at least one related heading. In addition, authority records may include an LC classification number, a scope note explaining how the cataloger or patron should use the heading, or publishing information for a series heading. MARC tags, Sierra tags and Sierra field names for key authority record fields will be attached.

• In the Innovative system, authority records point to bibliographic records but are not attached to them as item and order records are attached. When you look at a bib record, you can not see the authority records associated with it. An authority record will point to all existing bib records with the authoritized heading.

III. Sources of Authority Records

• Library Technologies, Inc. LTI is our vendor who reviews our newly cataloged records and sends us any new authority records associated with our new bib records. We get 300-500 new authority records every 4-6 weeks from LTI. LTI saves us from checking each heading in the OCLC authority file at the time of cataloging.

• OCLC. We no longer rely on LTI to provide us with updated authority records. As updated records are needed, professional catalogers download them individually from OCLC.

• Locally-created. If no authority record exists for a local author, but a cross-reference is needed, a professional cataloger must key in a locally-created authority record.

IV. Components of Authority Work at VU: Overview

• Adding, deleting and editing authority records. Adding records is done according to source of the record (see below). Deleting and editing are done using Sierra functions.

• Running Sierra Headings Reports to check for problems.

• Editing headings in bibliographic records. This is done locally in Sierra by professional catalogers, or remotely in batches by LTI.

• Separate procedures have been or will be created for each of the components below.

V. Components of Authority Work at VU: LTI Authority Express

• LTI is our primary source of new authority records. The records they provide are associated with new, full bibliographic records in the database.

• LTI also verifies and edits headings on our new, full bib records.

• LTI work is done every four to six weeks. 

• A list is made of newly cataloged, unvalidated records. The records are exported to LTI for processing. Validated bib records are overlayed on the unvalidated records, but only access points are changed if needed. Then, new authority records are loaded.

VI. Components of Authority Work at VU: Sierra Automatic Authority Control Processing

• Every night, this Sierra module looks at the invalid headings in any newly indexed authority records. It searches the database for the invalid headings, and automatically updates the bibliographic records with the valid headings.

• Updated bibliographic records are listed the next day in the Sierra Headings Report.

• The function is triggered by adding a new authority record, or suppressing and unsuppressing an existing record to re-index it.

• Note: the function only corrects records that match an invalid heading (a cross-reference) in the authority record. Since cross-references are not made when death dates are added to name-headings, this module cannot be relied upon to find this problem.

VII. Components of Authority Work at VU: Sierra Headings Report

• When this Sierra function is run, it generates a series of reports on headings and selected indexed numerical fields (barcodes and OCLC numbers.)

• The Headings Report is run weekly by CLR Head of Technical Services and before and after each LTI Authority Express load by the librarian doing the load.

• The main authority work features of the Headings Report function are:

o Invalid Headings Report. This reports any new record that is loaded with a heading listed as invalid in our current authority records. Sometimes these are records for older books, but often they are records for new titles and it is the authority record that needs to be updated. We no longer rely on LTI to give us updated authority records, so we have to check on these ourselves.

o Blind Headings Report. When all the bibliographic records associated with an authority record are deleted, the authority record is considered blind. There is nothing left for it to point to. It needs to be deleted from the database or suppressed from the public catalog, so the patron won’t get a confusing message if that heading is searched.

o Duplicate Authority Records Report. Sometimes authority records for names often must exist in both the Author and Subject indexes. If an authority record is loaded twice in the same index, one copy of it must be transferred to the other index. The other cause for duplication is when an updated record returning from LTI does not overlay because the original record is in use.

o Near-match Headings Report. This report identifies records where the heading almost matches a valid heading in an authority record, but not quite. It is a way to catch typographical errors in bibliographic records. Unfortunately, there is a major problem with how this report works. The problem should be fixed with the next Sierra upgrade, Release 2009B.

VIII. Components of Authority Work at VU: Using the OCLC Authority Files.

• The online OCLC authority file is used when a cataloger needs to find an appropriate heading that had never been used in our catalog.

• It is also used to determine if any of our existing authority records have been updated. The updated authority record can be downloaded and overlayed on the old version.

• To be written: 949 field for downloading authority records, explain coding

IX. Components of Authority Work at VU: Creating local headings directly in the database.

• When a local authority record is needed, Sierra Key New Records is used.

• Explain coding

X. Local Authorities

To be updated