Topic Areas
The unit explores the need for authority control, cross-references, authority records, and some of the tools used to maintain consistency in metadata.
Learning Objectives
- Explain how authority control affects collocation within information retrieval systems.
- Interpret authority records and define how cross-references are used to connect variant forms of names within a record.
- Use the Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) to search for and find authorized names for bibliographic entities.
Guiding Questions
- What is authority control?
- How does authority control affect collocation?
Required Readings
Joudrey, The Organization of Information, Chapter 10 (skim p. 405–to the end / 10.2.5 to the end)
Billey, "Just Because We Can, Doesn't Mean We Should"
And please read at least one of the following:
Recommended Readings
- EAC-CPF, Encoded Archival Context
- Jeng, "What Authority? Why Control?"
- Johnson, "Where is Authority Control When We Need It?"
- Joudrey, Introduction to Cataloging & Classification, 11th ed., Chapter 10
- PCC Authority Control FAQ [in Moodle]
- Wisser, "Describing Entities and Identities: The Development and Structure of EAC-CPF"
Relevant Articles from The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science
- Gatenby and Smith-Yoshimura, "Name Authority Control"
- Haak, "ORCID"