Authority Control at the University of Louisville Libraries

1. Authority Control at the University of Louisville Libraries Allen B. Ashman University of Louisville allen.ashman@louisvill.edu Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians Conference Evansville, Indiana May 2012

3. Old heading: Harris, R. Cole ‡q (Richard Cole), ‡d 1939- New heading: Harris, Cole, ‡d 1936- Old heading: Browne, Clarence George, ‡d 1907- New heading: Browne, C. G. ‡q (Clarence George), ‡d 1907-1993

4. Reasons Headings Change People die: Clark, Dick, 1929-2012

5. Reasons Headings Change People die: Changes in nomenclature: Old heading: College librarians New Heading: Academic librarians

6. Reasons Headings Change People die: Changes in nomenclature: New works, authors, conferences, corporate headings require more delineation of old headings: Old heading: Doctor Zhivago (Motion picture) New heading: Doctor Zhivago (Motion picture : 1965)

7. Reasons Headings Change People die: Changes in nomenclature: New works, authors, conferences, corporate headings require more delineation of old headings: Research discovers previous dates were wrong: Old heading: Hamilton, Elizabeth, ‡d 1758-1816. New heading: Hamilton, Elizabeth, ‡d 1756?-1816.

8. Reasons Headings Change People die: Changes in nomenclature: New works, authors, conferences, corporate headings require more delineation of old headings: Research discovers previous dates were wrong: Research offers better dates: Old heading: Bernard, Françoise, ‡d fl. 1965- New heading: Bernard, Françoise, ‡d 1921-

9. Reasons Headings Change People die: Changes in nomenclature: New works, authors, conferences, corporate headings require more delineation of old headings: Research discovers previous dates were wrong: Research offers better dates: New delineations made with old subject headings: “Crime and criminals” became two headings “Crime” and “Criminals”

10. Reasons Headings Change People die: Changes in nomenclature: New works, authors, conferences, corporate headings require more delineation of old headings: Research discovers previous dates were wrong: Research offers better dates: New delineations made with old subject headings: People request their birth years be dropped: “Communication from the author, Nov. 23, 2010 ‡b (please remove my date of birth)”

11. Reasons Headings Change People die: Changes in nomenclature: New works, authors, conferences, corporate headings require more delineation of old headings: Research discovers previous dates were wrong: Research offers better dates: New delineations made with old subject headings: People request their birth years be dropped: Others? [Changes in transliterations and cataloging rules]

13. 2011 March 23 9:52 AM 33 seconds

14. Library of Congress OPAC

15. Wikipedia.org

17. Suggested Reading “The Persistence of Superseded Subject Headings in Online Catalogs” Technical Services Quarterly 24 (2006) 27-34.

18. Obviously, headings get changed for multiple reasons and sometimes -- but not other times -- very quickly. So what?

24. Background ILS to 1996 – Lists of new headings that were added to the ILS system were checked for conflicts and the presence of authority records. 1997 - 2008 – Catalogers verified headings as encountered and downloaded authority records as needed. There was no systematic check made of new LCSH headings or headings new to the ILS. 2008  One time major clean-up followed by monthly service from an outside vendor.

25. 2007-2008 Internal discussions Vendors approached at the 2007 ALA Conference Vendor selected and profile created Local authority records deleted, 1.2 million bib records sent to vendor, records returned and reloaded, new authority records loaded, manual clean-up conducted based on printed reports, monthly processing established and continues.

26. Monthly Processing

34. Stats We have been sending about 3,100 records a month. That comes to 37,520 records a year. During 2011 we received 55,745 authority records from our vendor. Labor: Three days a month of a cataloger’s time, a half a day a month of a systems librarian, and a few seconds for each record to mark “Okay to Export.”

35. Things we don’t do! Check unmatched headings reports

36. Unmatched Heading Report

44. Things we don’t do! Check unmatched headings reports. Keep track of unused headings and report them to our vendor. Follow-up on new authority records that are sent.

45. Hypothetical Example Unmatched heading in an existing bib: Smith, Francis Y. Heading in new authority record: Smith, Francis Yvonne, #d 1882-1928.

46. Our Results OPAC is much cleaner. Added efficiency for catalogers. Increased communication across processing units.

47. Unsolicited Advice Consult with colleagues….then do it again! Consider local practices v. national standards. Complete “profile” very carefully and accept any help offered from your vendor. Don’t try to get too clever! Use this as an opportunity to do more than authority work. Clean-up your bibs! Communicate with colleagues after the fact.

48. The Future Non-MARC metadata. How do we control? Can we? WorldCat Local: Perhaps none of this matters! What do you think?

49. Questions/Comments? Allen B. Ashman University of Louisville allen.ashman@louisville.edu