[DCRM-L] Automated authority control

[Deborah J. Leslie]

Thanks to John and Manon for their advice. We still welcome any other comments, either on the list or privately, as we continue to work out our local workflows.

-----Original Message-----
From: Manon Theroux [mailto:manon.theroux at gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, 05 February, 2011 16:55
To: DCRM Revision Group List
Cc: Deborah J. Leslie
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Automated authority control

Deborah,

When I was Authority Control Librarian at Yale, we were a Backstage
customer. This was a few years ago, but as I recall:

My highest priorities were the reports for suspicious indicators and
tags, split headings, deleted headings, and changed headings.

I mostly ignored the unmatched headings (since we did not require
catalogers to create an authority record for every heading) though I
would sometimes scan them looking for obviously mispelled headings.

I also mostly ignored the partial heading matches (as I recall, most
were subject headings with free-floating subdivisions and were
perfectly valid, there just wasn't a subject authority record for the
string; now that LC has created so many "validation records" for such
headings, I imagine this report is much shorter than it used to be).

Much depends on the number of staff processing the reports, the level
of their expertise, how much time they have to spend on the reports,
how good your system's global change functionality is, the volume and
type of bib records being sent to Backstage, and the amount of
authority work performed "up front" when cataloging.

A couple of "special collections" issues that I remember:

-- When processing changed heading reports, I'd always have to be wary
of changing headings without dates to headings with dates, but
especially so with provenance tracings.

-- Family name headings in 100 and 700 fields in archival records
would get reported as incorrect (because the names are established in
subject authority records and coded as not valid for name headings);
I'd just ignore them.

Manon

--
Manon Théroux
Head of Technical Services
U.S. Senate Library
SR-B15 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3833


On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 5:16 PM, John Attig <jxa16 at psu.edu> wrote:
> We also use Backstage, so I am familiar with these reports.  Most of our
> cataloging does not involve special collections, but I think I can make a
> few general comments.
>
> First, I think you have two choices:
>
> 1. Which reports are you going to attempt to deal with every month?
>
> 2. Of the remaining reports, which are you simply going to ignore -- or at
> least postpone indefinitely?
>
> We regularly process (a) deleted headings -- we choice to handle these
> automatically; (b) unmatched headings; (c) filing indicators, (d) tagging
> errors.  We have never attempted to deal with partial heading matches.  Our
> ILS handles updated headings, so we ignore that one.
>
> In general, we try to give priority to those reports that have an impact on
> indexing and display, and ignore those that do not have such an impact.
>
>         John Attig
>         Authority Control Librarian
>         Penn State University
>         jxa16 at psu.edu
>
> On 2/3/2011 5:00 PM, Deborah J. Leslie wrote:
>
> The Folger has just recently reinstated automated authority control after
> about 10 years of being without, and are now faced with daunting reports by
> Backstage Library Works, our vendor. We are wondering how other institutions
> with sizeable rare materials collections prioritize clean-up work resulting
> from automated authority control.
>
>
>
> The biggest reports are for partial heading matches, unmatched headings,
> updated headings, and minor heading changes. There are smaller reports, too,
> such as for unauthorized heading use or suspicious filing indicators.
>
>
>
> What do (would) you consider most important and/or attack first?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Deborah
>
>
>
> _________________________
> Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S.
> RBMS past chair 2010-2011 | Head of Cataloging, Folger Shakespeare Library
> 201 East Capitol St., S.E. | Washington, D.C. 20003 | 202.675-0369
> djleslie at folger.edu | http://www.folger.edu
>
>