Changing World of Authority Control

1. Changing World of Authority Control Presentation by Barbara B. Tillett, Ph.D. Chief, Policy and Standards Division Library of Congress July 11, 2009 ExLibris panel, ALA, Chicago

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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 files • Automatic maintenance when changed at the national level

5. 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

6. 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

7. “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

8. Different Entities – Same name Winston Churchill

9. Different Names – Same Entity • Different forms of names for same entity 600649103226 Barbara Ann Barnett Babs Barnett Barbara Ann Barnett Tillett Babs Barbara B. Tillett Dr. Tillett Tillett, Barbara B.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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

14. Same Entity/Variant Scripts Japanese japanisch

15. Switching for Displays • Library default • User-selected preferences • Client set-up, “cookies,” profile, or future method • Language • Script • Culture (country)/spelling • Labor vs. Labour

16. Local System - User View User’s profile specifies Cyrillic/Russian preferred. Чайковский, Петр Ильич

17. Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)

18. VIAF ProjectBNF/DNB/LC/OCLC (2005) Matching algorithms BNF Names 3,664,124 LCNAF Names 7,092,554 DNB Names 3,025,933

19. Enhancing the Authorities Bibliographic Record Derived Authority Authority Record Enhanced Authority

20. viaf.org

21. Mark Twain

24. 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

25. 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) VIAF (Beta)

26. 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

30. Semantic Web Building BlocksLinked Data “Ontologies” Web search engines Digital world End-user

31. 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