Robert Bremer

1
Authority Control Interest GroupOCLC Update

• Robert Bremer
• Senior Consulting Database Specialist
• WorldCat Quality Division
• OCLC
• June 29, 2008

2
MARC Update

• MARC Update changes were implemented in June.
• Changes to the Authority Format include
• Implementation of field 034
• New geographic area code for Kosovo
• See Technical Bulletin 255 for details.

3
Indexing of LCCNs in Field 667

• LCCNs appearing in the field 667 note Formerly
  on undifferentiated name record ltLCCNgt are now
  included in the OCLC Authority LCCN index
• When searching by LCCN, catalogers can more
  readily identify cases where personal names
  previously on undifferentiated authority records
  are now established on separate authority records
• Presence of the word undifferentiated triggers
  the indexing of the LCCN contained in that field

4
Indexing of LCCNs in Field 667 - Example

• An LCCN search for nr90009620 on now retrieves
  the following records

5
Macro Updates to Name Authority Records

• Conversions completed in late January
• Pound sign to the musical sharp 538 records
• Superscript zero to the degree sign 45,433
  records

6
Macro Updates to Name Authority Records

• In February we began removing unnecessary
  terminal periods from pre-1990 name authority
  headings
• 1.2 million candidate records identified via a
  scan
• About 510,000 records processed so far
• About 340,000 have been modified to eliminate the
  terminal period
• Macro uses tables to recognize common spelled-out
  personal and corporate names as well as initials,
  abbreviations, etc.
• About 1/3 of the changes require a manual review

7
Non-Latin Script References - Connexion

• Changes made to the Connexion client software
  (version 2.10) to allow input of non-Latin script
  in authority records
• Changes made to authority record indexing to
  accommodate non-Latin script (including a new
  vernacular script index)
• Changes to online validation to be installed July
  13th to permit input of non-Latin script in
  authority records

8
Non-Latin Script References Validation

• Non-Latin script fields that will be available
  July 13th are
• 400, 410, 411, 430, 451, 667, 670, and 675
• Also being implemented for future use are
• 700, 710, 711, 730, and 751

9
Non-Latin Script References Scope of the
Pre-Population Effort

• Personal and corporate names only (no conference,
  geographic, or name-title/uniform title headings)
• Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew,
  Japanese, Korean scripts only (no Tamil or Thai)
• References added to name authority records
  following MARC21 model B directly in 4xx fields
• Estimated 486,000 name authority records to
  modify
• Pre-population will begin after July 13th via use
  of a macro
• Finish October-November timeframe if all goes well

10
Example Arabic

• Ref status b
• 010 n 00907735
• 100 1 Baba'i, Muh?ammad ?Ali
• 400 1 ??????? ???? ???
• 667 Machine-derived non-Latin script
  reference project.
• 667 Non-Latin script reference not evaluated.

11
Example Chinese

• Ref status b
• 010 n 00049754
• 100 1 Kow, Mei-Kao, ?d 1946-
• 400 1 ???, ?d 1946-
• 667 Machine-derived non-Latin script
  reference project.
• 667 Non-Latin script reference not evaluated.

12
Example Cyrillic

• Ref status b
• 010 n 00093163
• 100 1 Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich, ?d 1952-
• 400 1 ?????, ???????? ????????????, ?d 1952-
• 667 Machine-derived non-Latin script
  reference project.
• 667 Non-Latin script reference not evaluated.

13
Controlling More Headings in WorldCat

• This past spring OCLC Research staff have started
  work on a project to control about 26 million
  personal name headings in WorldCat
• This initial project is limited to personal names
  containing at least two subfields which match
  authority headings
• As of last week 15.7 million headings had been
  controlled
• Subfield ?d OCLCG in field 040 indicates that a
  record has been modified by this process
• Main advantage is that headings are automatically
  updated if the authority heading changes in the
  future

14
Questions?

• Robert Bremer
• bremerr_at_oclc.org