Changing World of Authority Control

Presentation by

Barbara B. Tillett, Ph.D.Chief, Policy and Standards Division

Library of CongressJuly 11, 2009

ExLibris panel, ALA, Chicago

Authority Control Virtues

“Precision” in searching Syndetic structure of references to help

navigate (the variant forms of name/title/ subject/etc.) – to get from a user’s term to the controlled term (show pathways when multiple possibilities)

Displays to collocate works (resources) Connecting various forms of names used in

different contexts Links to related entities

Earlier than 1889

LC Rules on cards – Consistency/Collocation Determine if the name has been used before What form of name Establish new ones following a standard Document variant forms of name and

relationships to other names

Connect the users to the controlled forms of the name

1984 - ALA LITA call for interest groups ACIG

RTSD/CCS discussion group (Authority Control Interest Group)

Opinion poll (LRTS (June 1985), p. 171-178)Demand for more complete, up-to-date online

resource authority filesAutomatic maintenance when changed at the

national level

What was/is Authority Control? Process for maintaining consistency Single, unique authorized form of name for

each entity Variant forms used as references Sources where variations were found

To control the headings used in a library catalog

IFLA UBC Authority Principles - Old

Each country responsible for authority headings for its own personal and corporate authors

National authority records available for everyone to use

Same form and structure used worldwide

“New” View of UBC

User perspective - to display script/language(s) of one’s own country/preference

Bibliographic agencies still responsible for control in their own countries (or region/cataloguing rules/etc.)

Link forms and identifiers established in “national” or “regional” authority files to create a virtual international authority file

Different Entities – Same name

Winston Churchill

Different Names – Same Entity

Different forms of names for same entity

Barbara Ann Barnett Tillett

Barbara Ann Barnett

Barbara B. Tillett

Babs Barnett

Babs

Dr. Tillett Tillett, Barbara B.

600649103226

Different Bibliographic Identities 李滉

Yi Hwang (McCune-Reischauer) I Hwang (Revised romanization)

퇴계 ; 退溪 T’oegye (Pen name)

경호 ; 景浩 Gyeongho (Courtesy name)

이황 Hangul 李滉 Hanja

If all forms are possible…

Need to explain relationships of various names to end-user to avoid confusion (explain pseudonyms, abbreviations, etc.)

Lewis Carroll

Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge, 1832-1898

What is an Entity? Cataloging Rule and Community Variations Crosswalks and Mappings

- Entities are not always 1 to 1 Differences among cataloguing rules

Ships Events Meetings of corporate bodies Undifferentiated names

Differences among communities Libraries, archives, museums, A&I, publishers,

rights management agencies, etc.

RDA Elements (e.g., Person) Identifiers Preferred name and variant forms of name Dates associated with a person (birth, death,

period of activity) Title (King, Pope, etc.) Other designations (Saint, Spirit, etc.) Gender Places associated with a person (birth, death,

country associated with the person, places of residence)

Affiliations Language of the person Field of activity, Profession or occupation

Same Entity/Variant Scripts

Japanese

japanisch

Switching for Displays

• Library default• User-selected preferences

Client set-up, “cookies,” profile, or future methodLanguageScriptCulture (country)/spelling

Labor vs. Labour

Local System - User View

User’s profile specifies Cyrillic/Russian preferred.

Чайковский, Петр Ильич

Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)

VIAF ProjectBNF/DNB/LC/OCLC (2005)

LCNAF Names

7,092,554

BNF Names3,664,124

DNB Names

3,025,933

Matching algorithms

Enhancing the Authorities

Enhanced

Authority

BibliographicRecord

AuthorityRecord

Derived Authority

viaf.org

Mark Twain

Current Status - VIAF

Personal name files from 12 libraries (15 files) loaded, plus test records from several other applicants

Over10.4 million names 8.5 million clusters Identifiers assigned:

http://viaf.org/viaf/77390479 Preliminary work done on geographic names Unicode throughout UNIMARC and MARC-21 supported

VIAF (Beta)

Library of Congress Deutsche

Nationalbibliothek Bibliothèque nationale

de France OCLC

National Library of Sweden

National Library of the Czech Republic

National Library of Israel Bibliotheca Alexandrina

(Egypt) Vatican Library National Library of

Portugal National Library of Spain National Library of

Australia ICCU (Italy)

LCSH SKOS (id.loc.gov)

To encourage Web applications Provide “elements” and rules for how to string

together to help machine creation/validation and help humans

Future: Social cataloging to continue to build the LCSH vocabulary Easy ways to submit proposed pre-coordinated

strings Easier ways to submit proposals for new and

changed terms

End-user

“Ontologies”

Web search engines

Digital world

Semantic Web Building BlocksLinked Data

Where are we headed? Global sharing

Reduce costs Service to users

Script/language Clusters of data

Various names/ synonyms and identifiers: default or user chooses preferred form

New links