From initial rendering to ongoing updates, Backstage works with your bibliographic and authority files to cover portions of your authority
control process or its entirety. We break this down into two categories: Basefiles, which perform initial or one-time processing and cleanup of your catalog to establish a baseline of what is matched and what is not, and ongoing, which establishes a regular maintenance schedule to preserve the health of your catalog in the long term. You can keep your catalog up-to-date with a combination of Current Cataloging and either Authority Notification or Bibliographic Update services.
Basefile processing establishes a foundation for the authority database and sets up a catalog to receive certain types of notification services down the road. First, the bibliographic file gets cleaned up: that means making certain that subfield breaks are where they should be, subdivisions are split correctly, and access points follow RDA formatting. Organized bibliographic files allow for the greatest level of authority matching. While processing a Basefile, it is also the best time to incorporate DEI terminology because any ongoing services will monitor and enhance those local authority file adjustments.
At the conclusion of a Basefile project, the library receives an updated authority file, cleaned bibliographic file, and a list of ‘unmatched’ and ‘partially matched’ headings – these lists are necessary for libraries that wish to receive notifications about newly matched headings in their ongoing processing services.
As an ongoing authority control method, we use Current Cataloging to keep, as the name suggests, library catalogs current. Libraries will send us any new bibliographic records that have been added to the catalog as well as any changed bibliographic records that they feel may benefit from reprocessing, such as when access points have been added or altered. In return, Backstage delivers any new authority records that were not previously in the library’s file to match the headings in new records as well as the bib records from that batch.
Current Cataloging is a primary ongoing authority control process and is typically paired with either Authority Notification or Bibliographic Update services, depending on the level of reporting and processing that a library needs.
Best for libraries that want robust reporting on their authority processing, Authority Notification is going to examine existing authority records and flag the ones, each batch, that have been updated, replaced, or deleted. The information we collect during the initial Basefile process and a library’s Current Cataloging processing provides everything necessary to supply this information as well as any new authority records that have been published. The revised records are pushed to the library catalog. This requires no downtime!
Authority Notification is frequently the preference of libraries whose ILS is able to trickle batch updates down to the bib from the authority record.
The purpose of our Bibliographic Update service is to reauthorize and deliver any updated authority records that are relevant to the entirety of a library catalog, not just the new records. We also deliver any of the bibliographic records that, as a result, then contain changed headings. We do this by keeping a copy of the library database on file. Before batches, the library sends us any bib records that have been changed or deleted since the last processing date through our FTP. We use this to update our file and we synchronize the new authority changes with the library’s bib records. This requires downtime since we work with a duplicate to the library catalog and any changes that might be made to the original database during processing would be overlaid when we’re done.
Bibliographic Update is frequently the preference of libraries whose ILS is unable to trickle down authority changes and needs to have the bibliographic files manually updated.
Authority control is a bit like the digital version of tidying and organizing your library. This short video helps to visualize how our Basefile Processing, Current Cataloging, Authority Notification, and Bibliographic Update services interact with your catalog.
What services were you receiving from your former authority control vendor? Did you receive regular, ongoing authority control? Did you receive notifications? How often were you receiving updates? And are there any places where you might want to explore changing the process up as it pertains to frequency and depth of reporting?
Your new vendor will need to reestablish a baseline for processing depending on what reporting you need to receive in ongoing authority control. The contracting process may involve a few back-and-forth discussions to nail down the nature of your catalog and how best to service it. All projects involve sampling, and sampling to the depth you need to feel confident about how your records are going to look before we start your project.
We work with libraries coming from a variety of systems, including those that are able to perform authority control updates on their own:
Alma, Polaris, and SirsiDynix, to name a few. For these libraries, we perform Current Cataloging and their choice of Authority Notification or Bibliographic Updates.
At the end of the day, processing for these ILS remains the same! We simply tailor the output and delivery files to pick up or augment authority control processing that the ILS provides already.
At Backstage, our leading philosophy is that every collection is different and flexibility is key. Be sure to ask questions and we will endeavor to find a processing solution that best balances your catalog’s needs and preferred budget.
How do we approach diversity, equity, and inclusions concerns in the catalog? What terms can be changed, and what thesauri are available to draw from? Will local terms be overwritten by changes to the Library of Congress terms? Are there examples of other libraries doing this work?
We establish a processing profile as the first step and run samples to ensure the results fit your preferences. Join Vice President of Automation, Casey Cheney, in a step-by-step breakdown of the portal and what to expect when you start authority control processing with Backstage.
Discoverability begins with the health of the catalog, and authority control processing is one of the strongest tools in a library’s belt for ensuring patrons can access the materials they’re looking for. This blog breaks down authority control: what is is, why it is, and why we do it.
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