Three Authority Control Procedures for a Perfect Fit
We’ve discussed the importance of authority control in the past and how it acts as a principal access point into your catalog. How does it work? What steps have to take place in order to perform authority work and maintain it in a catalog? Types of Processing At Backstage, we break up the process into […]
Trust Your Technical Librarian, Authority Control is a Must!
Authority control can be a difficult concept to visualize for those who don’t encounter it regularly. Bibliographic records and authority records look very similar, but while a bibliographic record describes an item within a collection, the authority record describes and regulates specific headings within the bibliographic record. The two are separate but intrinsically connected. When […]
The Impact of Inclusivity in the Library Catalog
Your library can send powerful messages about how you value readers as individuals, especially if your collection acknowledges and respects the diversity of your local community. In 2019, the documentary Change the Subject shared the story of a group of Dartmouth students who challenged anti-immigrant language in the Library of Congress catalog subject headings. Library […]
Authority Control: Consistency Among the Changes
How do you handle authority records when outdated Library of Congress headings don’t reflect your library’s policies for inclusion?
Authority control enhances discovery in your library’s catalog, disambiguating similar headings while collocating and cross-referencing related terms.
Updates from external sources, like Library of Congress name and subject headings, change the preferred terminology over time. Left uncontrolled, older records will use different terms for a person or topic than newer records, impeding search.
But authority control is more than just housekeeping. Some metadata librarians are using local authority practices to more respectfully recognize marginalized groups or to proactively decolonize their catalogs, replacing outdated terms still in use by national authority files with preferred terminology in their local records.
In this webinar, Casey Cheney, vice president of automation services at Backstage Library Works, explores external and internal changes that can affect headings in a library catalog. She discusses how leveraging automation can help a library’s metadata team manage updates and propagate decisions made at a local level. She also answers audience questions.
Do You Know These 18 Controlled Vocabularies?
Most catalogs use Library of Congress name and subject headings to optimize patron searches. Many libraries use at least a few other controlled vocabularies that relate to areas of emphasis in their collections. And headings from other authority files are likely to find their way into your records from shared sources of catalog metadata. Backstage’s […]
Webinar Debrief: Consistency Among the Changes
The webinar “Consistency Among the Changes” is now available to watch, re-watch, and share. Any librarian will tell you that subject headings are more than just descriptive terms in library metadata. Patrons rely on precise access points that will efficiently search for and recover the materials they’re looking for, and in the last few years, […]
Four Updates to Enhance Your Authority Control
Backstage is always working to improve our services for our clients, and we’ve recently made four additions to expand your options for authority control services.
