Changing World of Authority Control

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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

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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 users 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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New View of UBC

• User perspective - to display script/language(s)
  of ones 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

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Different Entities Same name
Winston Churchill
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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.
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Different Bibliographic Identities

• ??
• Yi Hwang (McCune-Reischauer)
• I Hwang (Revised romanization)
• ?? ??
• Toegye (Pen name)
• ?? ??
• Gyeongho (Courtesy name)
• ?? Hangul
• ?? Hanja

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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
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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, AI, publishers,
  rights management agencies, etc.

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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

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Same Entity/Variant Scripts

Japanese

japanisch
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Switching for Displays

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

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Local System - User View
Users profile specifies Cyrillic/Russian
preferred.
??????????, ???? ?????
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Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
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VIAF ProjectBNF/DNB/LC/OCLC (2005)
Matching algorithms
BNF Names 3,664,124
LCNAF Names 7,092,554
DNB Names 3,025,933
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Enhancing the Authorities
Bibliographic Record
Derived Authority
Enhanced Authority
Authority Record
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viaf.org
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Mark Twain
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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

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VIAF (Beta)

• 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)

• Library of Congress
• Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
• Bibliothèque nationale de France
• OCLC

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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

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Semantic Web Building BlocksLinked Data
Ontologies
Web search engines
Digital world
End-user
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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