Authority Control in dPanther:Use Controlled Vocabularies for Names

Zhonghua DuMetadata and Cataloging Services LibrarianFlorida International University Libraries

-- Metadata Authorities Workshop of the dPanther Users’ Group

July 7, 2015

Outline

1) Review the concept of authority control2) Look into the authority control in dPanther3) Discuss name authority control

1) Authority Control

The definition of authority control

Establish unique forms of terms—names, subjects, and titles

Maintain these terms to keep them consistent Use established terms as headings in the metadata

records of the library catalog/digital database

The significance of authority control

Disambiguate the items with similar or identical headings Different authors can be distinguished from each other Two different authors published under the same name

Collocate materials that logically belong together but which present themselves differently One person published under different names

Help provide accurate and effective service to users Users will get the information they need Users won’t get unrelated information or miss any information

The example of authority control

Without authority control, the database will have many headings from many different resources

Twain, MarkTwain, markTwain, Marek, 1835-1910Twain, Mark, 1835-1910Twain, Mark. 1835-1910Make Tuwen, 1835-1910…

With authority control, the database will have only one proper heading

Twain, Mark, 1835-1910

Authority record of Mark Twain from LC/NAF

Name used in Latin resources

Name used in Chinese resources

Name used in other language resources

2) Authority Control in dPanther

dPanther introduction

Is a Florida International University digital repository Hosts digital collections of cultural, historical, scholarly,

educational, and community resources Includes rare books, manuscripts, maps, photographs,

and oral histories

Metadata fields in dPanther

TitleResource TypePhysical DescriptionLanguageIdentifierHolding LocationSource InstitutionAuthor/Creator PublisherPublication Place

Publication DateSubjectGeographic CoverageCoordinatesAbstractNoteAggregationsGenre…

Metadata fields that can use authority file

Field Type Authority File

Creator Personal NameCorporate NameConference Name

LC/NAF

Authority control in dPanther

dPanther has already applied authority control, but can be improved

Authority control in dPanther--dPanther homepage

Authority control in dPanther--dPanther collections example

Authority control in dPanther: 1-- With authority control

Author facets

Collocated all his work under the authorized heading

Authority control in dPanther: 2-- Without authority control

Inconsistent headings – multiple forms of the same name

3) Name Authority Control in dPanther using LC/NAF

LC/NAF (The Library of Congress/NACO Authority File)

Is one of controlled vocabularies currently used in dPanther

Is widely used across the world Includes different types of names

Personal names, Corporate names, Conference names, Geographic names, Uniform titles, Series titles, etc.

Is created and maintained by the LC and NACO members

Access LC/NAF

OCLC client The OCLC authority file contains records received from the

Library of Congress (LC) and records added by Name Authority Cooperative Program (NACO) participants.

VIAF (Virtual International Authority File): https://viaf.org/ combines multiple name authority files including LC/NAF into a

single name authority service Library of Congress Authorities:

http://authorities.loc.gov/

Search LC/NAF : 1 – Search interface of OCLC Client

names can be searched by: personal names, corporate names, geographic names, conference names, etc.

Search LC/NAF : 2 – Search interface of VIAF Can search by all headings or by personal names,

corporate names, geographic names individually

Search LC/NAF : 3 – Search interface of LC Authorities Search by name authority headings for all

types of names.

Read Authority records: personal name

Read Authority records: LC authority record prefixes

LC assigns authority record control numbers (LCCNs) to all authority records. The control number consists of an alphabetic prefix plus eight or ten digits. The alphabetic prefix indicates which system created the authority record

System Assigned Prefix(es)British Library nb - for name headingsLC n - for name headings

OCLC no - for name headingsRLIN nr - for name headings

Read authority record: Personal name

Authorized heading coded in 100 or labeled as personal name headingAuthorized heading coded

in 100 or labeled as personal name heading

Read authority record: corporate name

Authorized corporate nameAuthorized corporate name in 110 field

Improve authority control in dPanther -1

Inconsistent with the authorized heading

Improve authority control in dPanther -2

Incorrect usage of the heading

Correct type of the heading But Inconsistent with the authorized heading

Improve authority control in dPanther -3

Improve authority control in dPanther -3 Authority records