Breakout Sessions from NETSL's Spring Conference
User-Oriented Technical Services: All Things to All People

The Public Face of Authority Control
Martha Beshers (Providence College)

Ms. Beshers presented a very interesting overview of authority control, based on her expertise as a catalog librarian. She focused on the "whats" and "whys" of authority control and how it relates to the public service areas of the library.

What is authority control? It is the process that maintains form consistency and ensures the uniqueness of each access point in a catalog. It also provides a linkage between names, works, subjects, and etceteras that display any significant relationship. Authority control consists of several parts: authority work, authority records, authority files, and standards.

Authority work results in a unique entry for each access point in a bibliographic record, to ensure collocation in a catalog. Its purpose is to ensure that anyone searching that catalog can find all of the works by an author or on a specified topic. With today's online catalogs and databases, it also provides the means to conduct the same search across various catalogs and databases. This is the preliminary process of creating the authority record to establish relationships between names, corporate bodies, and subject heading terms. It also includes locating and recording the data of preferred form, variants, history, scope, and so on to create the unique access point within a standard set of guidelines.

An authority record is the result of the authority work process. It records the form of entry (or access point) established for use in the catalog. It includes linkages from variant forms to the "authorized" form. Additionally, it includes notes as to how the form of entry was determined and its history where appropriate.

An authority file is a set of authority records. It facilitates efficient cataloging and searching in library networks by allowing catalogers to share records. This helps to reduce the effort involved in creating records, avoid duplication of work, and contributes to consistency across catalogs. There are several different types of authority files: local, regional, national, international. The local authority file is created and maintained by the individual library. The regional authority file expands to include a number of catalogs, such as the HELIN consortium in Rhode Island. The national authority file of the United States is maintained by the Library of Congress, to which libraries in the U.S. refer. The international authority file expands to include a number of national authority files and sets the standards which the participant libraries agree to adhere to.

These standards detail how a cataloger determines the "authorized" form of a name, corporate body, title, and etceteras to use and how they should appear in the authority record. Adherence to established standards is what dictates the consistency and effectiveness of authority control. A library that does not follow the standards and general practices of the international authority control as the core component of its authority records will circumvent the purpose of authority control - providing consistent access to or identification of an item in its catalog. This decreases the quality of the catalog. This is crucial in the public service areas of the library where all the patron wants is to find what s/he is looking for, whether it's a particular item, all of a specific author's works, or all the items owned by the library on a particular topic.

At the conclusion of her presentation, Ms. Beshers opened the floor to generate a lively discussion among the attendees as to their own experiences and any questions relating to authority control. There were two main topics discussed. The first topic was the question of outsourcing versus in-house cataloging. Does outsourcing work well? Can it save you money and time? How do you pay/budget for outsourcing if that is the route you decide to take? There were a variety of responses and opinions expressed. Some libraries do a lot of original cataloging of non-traditional items, which would not work well if outsourced. Other libraries that have small staffs or do a lot of copy cataloging may find it saves valuable time and allows their staff to focus on other responsibilities such as collection development and reference. There are also a number of ways that you can pay for it. Libraries can apply for grant funding, especially for initial funding costs and to cover the cost until it is approved/added to the annual budget. The bottom line is that only you know your system and can determine what will work best.

The second topic was the need for effective communication between catalogers and public service librarians in order to make authority control work. The goal of the cataloger is to make the item accessible through the catalog to the user who wants to find that item (whether or not the user has a specific item or just a topic in mind). In order to maintain consistency and accuracy in the catalog, the catalogers need to be informed when there are problems or errors in an authority record in the catalog. The librarians and staff in the public service areas can help flag these problems and bring them to the catalogers' attention so the problem can be corrected. Several participants favored the provision of catalogers doing occasional reference work and reference librarians doing occasional cataloging work to promote better understanding and cooperative endeavors.

Reported by Linda LeBlanc
Conference Intern
University of Rhode Island

IRIS: A Regional Cooperative Effort toward Standardization of Visual Resources Cataloging
Norine Duncan (Brown University)

Norine Duncan, Curator of the Art Slide Library at Brown University, shared her work on IRIS (Image Resource Information System), a custom relational database application developed collaboratively among seven institutions to facilitate the cataloging of "works of visual culture as well as the images that document them." The member institutions of the cooperative project include Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, Roger Williams University, Smith College, Trinity College, University of South Florida, and Wesleyan University. During her presentation, Ms. Duncan discussed the development, implementation, and future of the IRIS project.

As a format, visual resources (i.e. slides, photographs, and digital images) pose unique challenges to catalogers because catalogers must describe the physical entity represented in an image as well as describe the details of that visual representation. Consequently, visual resources catalogers must employ their own standardized vocabularies and cataloging utilities to include the multiple access points necessary to provide a complete description of an item. IRIS is one such example of a customized utility designed for cataloging visual resources.

Developed in FileMaker Pro by Ms. Duncan and technical consultant Kathleen S. Brown with suggestions from cooperating institutions, IRIS is a cataloging application containing fields based on the Core Categories defined by the Data Standards Committee of the Visual Resources Association (http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/~staffaw3/vra/coreinfopage.htm). The use of the Core Categories in IRIS is an attempt to standardize cataloging practices and vocabularies across institutions to promote metadata sharing. During her talk, Ms. Duncan demonstrated how IRIS gracefully incorporates the Core Categories, generates authority tables, maintains value lists for data entry and vocabulary control, and supports the complex cross-referencing inherent in a relational database. Moreover, despite the numerous fields included in each cataloging record, the interface for IRIS does not overwhelm the cataloger. In addition to the fields for the Core Categories, Ms. Duncan explained that IRIS also streamlines work by including scope notes from the Getty Information Institute's Vocabularies: Art & Architecture Thesaurus, Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names, and Union List of Artist Names (see http://www.getty.edu/gri/vocabularies/). Overall, IRIS is an impressive, well-planned system to generate, organize, and retrieve metadata records for visual resources.

Currently, all member institutions of the cooperative project have implemented a local version of IRIS. The system has also been distributed to twelve other institutions. Each institution is now using IRIS independently to create databases of local holdings. However, when an institution obtains IRIS from Brown University, Brown's authority files are included and the local institution may modify or delete Brown's records to match its local holdings. In the future, the original members of the cooperative project plan to create a union catalog to exchange authority records and value lists in order to minimize duplication of effort and record redundancy.

For a look at the end user interface of IRIS, see Brown's web interface, dubbed ANITA (http://128.148.111.9/anita/). For further information on IRIS or how to purchase IRIS for your institution, you may send email to Norine_Duncan+NELAsecure+Brown.edu.

Reported by Andrew Osmond
W.E.B. DuBois Library
University of Massachusetts/Amherst

Access to Networked Information Resources, the Role of Metadata, and Project CORC
Matthew Beacom (Yale University) and Bill Ghezzi (Dartmouth College)

Matthew Beacom explained that Yale has 7,000 cataloging records containing URLs while the entire catalog contains 400,000 records. Metadata supports the fundamental tasks of academics: teaching, research, publishing, and writing grants. For access to texts, Yale uses AACR/MARC and some lists that Matthew calls "naïve metadata" since there is very little standardization in an alphabetical list. The Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is the metadata standard used in Yale's finding aid database (http://webtext.library.yale.edu/finddocs/fadsear.htm). "The EAD Document Type Definition (DTD) is a standard for encoding archival finding aids using the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). The standard is maintained in the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress (LC) in partnership with the Society of American Archivists" (see http://www.loc.gov/ead/).

Beacom also discussed the Data Documentation Initiative (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/DDI/), NESSTAR: Networked Social Science Tools and Resources (http://www.nesstar.org/), and the Visual Resources Association. The Yale visual resources collection has about 500,000 images created with VRA metadata (http://www.library.yale.edu/visual_resources/). Yale's Imaging America project also uses VRA metadata ( http://www.library.yale.edu/art/about.html). Also mentioned was the Federal Geographic Data Committee's Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) (http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/metadata.html).

Bill Ghezzi provided a very good demonstration of OCLC's CORC project. During this part of the session, audience members asked about automatic harvesting and how pathfinders may automatically update URLs.

Reported by Robert Cunningham
NELINET

Access to Forms and Genres: It's What They Want!
David Miller (Curry College)

David Miller, Head of Technical Services at Curry College, led a rousing breakout session at the 2000 NETSL conference. The session examined form/genre access throughout history, and addressed issues and questions surrounding this topic.

Form/genre access designates what a work is, not what a work is about or to what it refers. Examples of form/genre include romance novels, research articles, or a set of dominoes. Why should librarians distinguish forms/genres from subject areas? Miller maintains that subject descriptions and forms/genres serve different needs and that a distinction between the two has not effectively been made. Patrons often want an item itself, not a discussion of the item. A classic example of this is the student who approaches the librarian and says "My professor wants me to find a poem for class." The student is not looking for literary criticism of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," the student wants to find "The Raven" itself. Patrons often find the search for a kind of work is complicated by finding commentary about that kind.

Grouping materials by form/genre is not a new concept. Ancient catalogs grouped similar types of materials together: Psalters were listed with other psalters, homilies with other homilies, sermons with other sermons. Conrad Gesner's Pandectae of 1548 included sections of bucolic poetry, comedies, tragedies, satires, and lyric poems. Today, many libraries offer readers' advisories to their patrons to help them select which western or horror novel to read next.

How do libraries facilitate form/genre access? Shelving and display are two possibilities. Libraries could create separate categories within fiction and literature sections for forms/genres. Spine labels or study guides could reflect form/genre designation. Seasonal displays might also assist patrons. Recent developments in cataloging, including Dublin Core metadata elements, may provide another means of form/genre access. This would prove more complicated, however, because libraries would have to deal with record conversion and altering MARC records.

Despite the fact that patrons may not be able to articulate their desire for form/genre access, their reading preferences indicate that they would like this method of access. Libraries should take their patrons' preferences seriously. Miller used the anonymously published "The Fiction Song" to emphasize the need for form/genre access. Little has changed since the 19th century poem was introduced:

		"... A librarian may talk till he's blue in the face

		About novels, oh, novels, oh, novels! 

		And may think that with patience he may raise the taste

		Above novels, oh, novels, oh novels! 

		He may talk till with age his round shoulders are bent

		And the white hairs of time 'mid the black ones are sent, 				When he hands his report in, still 70%

		Will be novels, oh, novels, oh novels!"

Whether or not librarians like it, access to forms/genres is what their patrons want. We should do our best to provide this service to our patrons. After all, they are our most important customers.

Reported by Julie Ann Iatron
Conference Intern
Simmons College