Authority Control is central to cataloging. Every system has what's called an authority file, a "master record" against which all records are compared. Why is this needed? Well, let's take the obvious case. Let's say you have a book of literary criticism by Samuel Clemens. Making a record for this book would seem to be fairly straightforward. Under author, you put "Clemens, Samuel."
But then what happens when a fan of Tom Sawyer wants to browse your entire library of Mark Twain's works? Without proper authority control, your book of criticism will be passed over entirely. In most authority files, all of Clemens' works are filed under Mark Twain, with a search for Samuel Clemens redirecting to Twain.
Issues of Authority Control also pop up in dealing with various subjects. The animal lover searching for dogs should get the same results as the zoologist searching for canis domesticus. A search for a biographical work on John Ronald Reuel Tolkein should redirect to J.R.R. Tolkein.
So that's Authority Control. Time is getting short, so my next post will launch into the systems with the Dewey Decimal System.
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1 comment:
That was interesting. Who determines the authority control? Is there a standard? I think that explains why sometimes I get what I am looking for and other times my search comes up lacking. I would like to know more.
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