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Problem statement: Cultural heritage, bibliographic and archival communities use different controlled vocabularies for the resources that they manage. These controlled vocabularies may not be recognized by very diverse user communities, and ignored by large commercial information hubs and Internet search engines. Metadata needs to flow among diverse environments and reach users wherever they are. The semantic, hierarchical, and granular relationships in controlled vocabularies are often lost when retrieved outside the environment in which they were created.
Link to: Robert E. Wolverton, "Becoming an Authority on Authority Control: An Annotated Bibliography of Resources," Library Resources & Technical Services 50, no. 1 (2006):31-41.
Created by Lois Reibach, this blog will discuss news and trends in authority control, and new uses of authority data. Developments in controlled vocabularies will also be covered.
"Terminology Services are web-based services for controlled vocabularies. More than 4.5 million terms, 2.4 million concept links, and 2 million contextual data elements are accessible to your applications.
Each vocabulary is fully indexed and searchable. Vocabulary data is retrievable in multiple representations including the MARC authority format, used by libraries, and the SKOS Core Vocabulary used in Semantic Web applications."
Lorcan describes OCLC's Terminology services:
"We have now made a set of controlled vocabularies available as web services for experiment. In effect, these services make a variety of subject vocabularies available as resources on the web in ways that individual vocabulary elements can be found, referenced and recombined in applications. They are 'webified'."
Loracen writes about the problems of linking/sharing national authority files, and how the problem compounds when we add indexing to a discovery layer along with bibliographic records.
The major authority record exchange partners (British Library, Library and Archives Canada, Library of Congress, National Library of Medicine, and OCLC) have developed a plan to allow the addition of non-Latin script data (also known as nonroman script data) to name authority records distributed as part of the NACO program.
The addition of non-Latin script data is scheduled to begin on July 13, 2008
"As previously announced, NACO libraries may begin to add non-Latin script references to name authority records beginning in June 2008. A list of Frequently Asked Questions has just been posted to provide additional information on this project at:
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/nonlatinfaq.html "
Thom Hickey describes a project that is controlling millions of headings in OCLC by linking them to the NACO authority files
"Right now we are working our way through the a set of fairly easy 26 million headings, personal names that match an authority record on multiple subfields."
[I guess 'easy' is relative]
The paper is intended to generate comments useful in making
recommendations for the future direction of PCC series practices and policies. Any individuals or organizations interested in series control policies, practices, and services are welcome to comment.
The task force membership and charges are available
from: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/archive/SeriesReviewTF.html
The WorldCat Identities project alongs users to search and browse over 25 million personal and corporate authors. Udsing data-maing techniques, OCLC Research has pulled information on authors from the WorldCat database, including alterantive forms of names, publication timelines (by & about), genres and subjects.
Get them here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/fred2.0/authorities/
Simon assembled the files, available in MarcXML, by querying the Library of Congress' Authorities website one-by-one over months. He's a patient man."
Lorcan comments on the VIAF (the Virtual International Authority File)
"Longer term, the future of authority control is interesting. Typically, the files will contain names associated with materials catalogued. Now, this is much better than not having any files, however, this will increasingly seem like a rather arbitrary slice of names. Think of what is not included: people who have only published in articles or people who have only deposited stuff in archives, for example."
PeopleFinders.com master database searches dozens of databases with billions of records to provide you with possible current contact information for the person you are searching for. It is always free to search. You can also perform a people search on yourself. S
Our people search reports may contain:
• Full name (including married names,
aliases and a.k.a's when available)
• Date of birth (as reported)
• Address
• Phone number
Results may include:
* Full Name
* Date of Birth
* Relatives Names
* Address
* Phone Number
* Neighbors
The IFLA Working Group on Functional Requirements and Numbering of Authority Records is pleased to announce that a 2nd draft of "Functional Requirements for Authority Data" (previously titled "Functional Requirements for Authority Records") is now available for worldwide review. This draft, updated in response to comments received during the previous review, is on the IFLA web site at http://www.ifla.org/VII/d4/wg-franar.htm .
Comments should be sent by July 15, 2007 to:
Glenn Patton
Email: pattong@oclc.org
"The Program for Cooperative Cataloging is an international cooperative effort aimed at expanding access to library collections by providing useful, timely, and cost-effective cataloging that meets mutually-accepted standards of libraries around the world."
The ACIG Midwinter 2007 presentations includes: Authority Control Vendors--Twenty Questions
Representatives from three MARCIVE, LTI, and Backstage described the services by responding to a common list of questions and further questions from the audience. These speakers were:
- Mary Mastraccio, Cataloging & Authorities Librarian, MARCIVE, Inc.
- Marsha Hunt, Database Services Librarian, Library Technologies, Inc.
- John Reese, Product Manager, Authority Control Team, Backstage Library Works
From EDUCAT:
Taylor, Arlene G. "Teaching Authority Control." Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 38, no. 3/4 (2004): 43-57. Also published in _Authority Control in Organizing and Accessing Information: Definition and International Experience_. Arlene G. Taylor and Barbara B. Tillett, eds. New York: The Haworth Information Press, 2004), pp. 43-57.
It contains several suggestions from people on this list [EDUCAT] as to ways to teach authority control (and also substantiates the very difficult task that it seems to be for all of us to get the point across).