Cataloging101 foundations: Authorities

 Robin Fay
This Photo licensed under CC BY
Authorities: Names
ROBIN FAY, TRAINER
CATALOGING FUNDAMENTALS

@GEORGIAWEBGURL
Robin Fay Training 2019 | More at Edubrary.com
Find me at linkedin,
robinfay.net,
georgiawebgurl.com and
libraryscope.com

Topics
• Changing world of data – social,
mobile, smart, personalized,
contextual
• Relationships
• User focused / FRBR User Tasks
• Authorities, an evolving landscape
This Photo by Unknown
Author is licensed under
CC BY-SA-NC

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Ponder point
How has our work changed in the
last 5? 20 years?
How has the world changed
around us?
How has the internet impacted
our identities?
Does that have impact on what we
do?

Thoughts
Mobile, social, personalized through data, connected

Users ARE CONNECTED IN A METADATA world…
 Semantic Web is a term to used to describe an interconnected virtual world of
data driven by a variety of devices and platforms and diverse ecosystem of data.
Data is interpreted, remixed and repurposed by machines using AI elements,
building new connections through linking to data rather than copying data.
 Data is structured, with a strong focus on relationships, especially via linked
data. The Internet of Things is a common term we are hearing.


The Semantic Web is making The Internet of Things
happen – it is based upon more precise utilization of
data and is heavily dependent upon
■ The code
■ The metadata and its metadata schemas (rules)
■ The ability for machines (including devices and
home appliances) to talk to each other and make
sense of that communication
Linking data makes this process easier since we do not
have to re-enter data, we can just link to it. Instead of
typing in text (a string), we use a link.
LINKED DATA & SEMANTIC WEB

We have a book by Terry Flanagan.
In MARC, 100 1_ $a Flanagan, Terry.
Flanagan, Terry is a text string. If the name changes, we have to
manually update it. Additionally, if we want to build searches
dynamically (all Terrys who are writers…) text strings make that
much harder.
Or we could link to the authority record. The system could display
the name, while what we see on the code side, is just the link.
Just like a website, our code can be separated more from the
display.
Looking forward, we will continue to enhance our data entry and
cataloging to make our records more semantic web compatible.
TEXT STRINGS VS. LINKED DATA

BIBFRAME MARC RECORD WITH LINKED
DATA REPLACEMENT EXAMPLES

BIBFRAME is looking to the future – applies the FRBR
models to bibliographic data
Supports linked data.
BIBFRAME focuses on the data structure and
relationships of implementing FRBR. RDA is the
guidelines for descriptive content.
 BIBFRAME> Break data into smaller bits - move from
a static flat record to decentralized data with links,
links to build relationships.
 BIBFRAME is looking at IFLA LRM model (latter in
this presentation).
 Can be expressed in MARC or other more semantic
web friendly formats (XML, RDF,).
BIBWHAT?

BIBFRAME
Need more
BIBFRAME?
See the resources
at the end of this
presentation.

Robin Fay robinfay.com | LibrarySco
..but we’re kind of still here…
MARC
bibliographic
record

Robin Fay robinfay.com | LibraryScope
We have relationships
everywhere – not only in
real life, but online –
each relationship is a
data point and a data
opportunity
Systems are getting
much better at using AI
(Artificial Intelligence,
i.e., the ability for
machines such as
computers to make
sense of data and use it
create contextual
information and provide
meaning (semantic)

Robin Fay robinfay.com | LibraryScope
Some thoughts: Within –
facilitate better searches
through related works or
different formats;
outside – relationships to
outside resources by
authors such as journal
articles, outside data,
etc.
What opportunities are
there to create
relationships within and
outside of library data?

Smarter machines building dynamic and personalized relationships
Data driven personalization – how can this
apply to the library search process?

Smarter catalogs

Disambiguation = Disambiguation is
the process of identifying which
meaning of a word is used in
context. In others, separating out
entities like titles, names, and
topics. A feature of authority work.
Authoritative resources that are
non-academic, non-commercial,
crowdsourced built on data

 Entities: works, expressions, manifestations, items, person,
families, corporate bodies are identified by the entity’s
attributes (characteristics)
 Examples of attributes: birth or death date, the language of
the person or corporate body, the place of residence or
headquarters, a fuller form of name, gender, etc. Attributes
appear in authority records.
 Preferred name: the basis for the Authorized Access Point
 Authorized access point: is a combination of the preferred
name with any attributes, along with relator codes. For copy
cataloging, this is the name as it appears in the authority
record; for original cataloging, this is the name that the
cataloger constructs as established via specific evidence
which may be used to create a national or local authority
record.)
 Differentiate: break or avoid a conflict, by adding attributes
Authorities Terminology for librarians

Foundations of Authorities
■ In library bibliographic records, authorized
access points includes subjects, names, and
titles (series)
■ They are linked to an authority record (AR).
This Photo by Unknown Author is
licensed under CC BY-ND

■ We use Name Authority Records (NARs) to
establish the official form of the name that we
should use in a bibliographic record. They pull
together all of the variations of a name (which
can be a person, corporate, family).
licensed under CC BY-ND
Foundations of Authorities

Bibliographic vs. Authority records
● A bibliographic record describes the title
including its title, author, extent, subject
headings, and other attributes. (example: oclc
record)
● An authority record describes a person,
place, or series title. It includes attributes
such as the birth date of the author,
biographical information, address, and other
attributes. (example: LC authority record)

In a MARC bibliographic record …
 1XX fields are for main entry (author)
 6XX are for subject entries (and other terms used as
access points, such as genre, form terms)
 7XX are for other entries
So, in a bibliographic record, Mark Twain’s name could be coded in any of these
ways.
100 1# ‡a Twain, Mark, ‡d 1835-1910.
600 10 ‡a Twain, Mark, ‡d 1835-1910.
700 1# ‡a Twain, Mark, ‡d 1835-1910.
XX = range,
e.g.,
100-199

Bibliographic record
Authorized form of
the name as appears
in the authority
record; also links to
the authority record

Authority record
Authorized form of the
name – this is what will
appear in a 100, 600, or
700 field in a
bibliographic record (+
ǂe relator codes)

Describing relationships
We add relator codes (in MARC, ǂe) to provide
the relationship of the person to the title we
are cataloging. The ǂe comes from a closed
vocabulary in the RDA Toolkit.

 Dates are mandatory under RDA.
Differentiating – each person is unique

Evolving relationships and dynamic data
 Think about all of the ways your
personal name data changes over a
lifetime – your name may vary due to
nicknames vs. your formal given name,
a published name, or using a name
with initial due to another similar
name, etc.
 Think about the different roles that
you have – employee, employer,
supervisor, supervisee, colleague,
librarian, parent, child, sister,
brother… . Each role represents a
relationship.

Authority control
Authority Control ensures consistency in various
access points (names, subjects, series, etc.)
Authority control is providing an
authorized/verified form of names, corporations,
series; information which appears in the
appropriate field in the MARC bib record.
Authority Control is a quality control process. Copy
catalogers and metadata workers check the
National Authority File and if they find a match to
their name, use the form in the record.

Authority control
Original catalogers form the name according to
standards and may create a local or national authority
record.
Given the evolving nature of authorities (names and
subject headings change, people die, new subject
headings are created, etc.) authority control
involves regular maintenance of these
headings. In a linked data environment, little
maintenance work would need to be done. Currently,
when a heading changes, the record must be
manually updated, either programmatically through a
script, batch process, or individual record.

Let’s ponder relationships of people to content

Exercise 1 : relationships in library data
 I have the original movie Star Wars in VHS on my desk. The new
version (edition) is Star Wars: a new hope.
 Let’s ponder the types of contributors, creators, and participants
in the movie and their roles in the making of the film.
 Think about 2-3 relationships/roles in the production of Star wars.
(Use the cover from the previous slide, if you wish)
 Is there a relationship between Star Wars, the VHS tape and Star
Wars: a new hope in BluRay DVD? What about Star Wars, the VHS
tape and the new Star Wars animated show, Star War Rebels?
What about Star Wars the movie and the books?

Exercise 1 : relationships in library data
 The different names of authors
 The different roles of authors
(contributor, co-author, publisher,
etc.) – the relationships.
 The relationships between works –
Star Wars, Star Wars: a new hope and
Star Wars Rebels…
 Under AACR2, we were limited in
creating relationships both in how we
could describe them AND we could
accomplish this in MARC. Authorship was
more limited in scope. Families could
not be creators.
 New ways of looking at the items we
describe…

Stepping back to the foundations
 FRBR, FRAD, FRSAD: foundations for Resource
Description and Access (RDA)
 FR = Functional Requirements
 Bibliographic Records
 Authority Data
 Subject Authority Data
In the process of aligning cataloging with modern data
practices and looking to the future, a complete review of
the foundations cataloging occurred prior to developing
RDA. The first conceptual foundation was of 3 distinct
models working together.

Consider the meaning: Functional
Functional is defined as
of or having a special
activity, purpose, or task;
relating to the way in which
something works or
operates.
OR
designed to be practical
and useful, rather than
attractive.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

Consider the meaning: FR
• FR > functional requirements
• For bibliographic records (e.g., OCLC or catalog records) :
the required way they should work – function
• For authority records (e.g., LC authority records) : the
required way they should work – function
• How does that happen? Our data model drives how we
describe (catalog) our materials and resources including
their authorized access points and how we create authority
records
• So, FRBR is the concept, philosophy, and our vision of what
our records should achieve. It does not tell us HOW to
actually do the work. It does not tell us how to code records
or even what to put into a field.

FRBR Family of 3 – Oldschoolin’
Group 1 – FRBR: Products of intellectual or artistic
endeavor (FRBR)
Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item (WEMI!)
Group 2 – FRAD: Responsible for the content,
production or custodianship of Group 1 (Authorities,
FRAD)
Person, Corporate Body, Family
Group 3 – FRSAD: Subjects of Group 1 entities (Subject
Headings, FRSAD; includes Group 1 +2)
Concept, Object, Event, Place
licensed under CC BY-NC

FRBR and thus RDA focuses more on
relationships – intrinsic qualities associated
with people
 Between Persons, Families,
Corporate bodies, Works
 Between Names and Persons,
Families, Corporate bodies,
Works
 Between Controlled Access
Points
Abstract
Tangibl
e
Most of us
create bib
records
here

FRBR
Need more FRBR?
See the resources at
the end of this
presentation.

… resolve inconsistencies between the three separate models..
The result is a single, streamlined, and logically consistent
model that covers all aspects of bibliographic data and that at
the same time brings the modelling up-to-date with current
conceptual modelling practices.
IFLA LRM was designed to be used in linked data environments
and to support and promote the use of bibliographic data in
linked data environments.
 IFLA = International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions (IFLA)
INTRODUCING THE IFLA LIBRARY REFERENCE
MODEL (LRM)

A revised framework; collapsing and simplifying the 3:
No more grouping of entities (former Group 1 = central to model:
WEMI
Group 2 entities (Authorities; FRAD; replaced by superclass
Agent + Collective Agent (corporate bodies, families);
redefined Person (individual) – a hierarchy
Group 3 (Subjects; FRSAD; Concept, Object, Event, and Place –
deprecated)
• Place and Time-span new entities
• Res (super-class of other entities)
Note: super (higher), sub(lower) – hierarchy
INTRODUCING THE IFLA LIBRARY REFERENCE
MODEL (LRM)

Only 1 foundational model to learn
Creates a hierarchy for authorities
Terminology is inline with modern data practices and aligns with
the semantic web community
Adds time-space as a subject entities which web projects,
institutional repositories, and digital libraries commonly use
CONs
New terminology to learn and a new way of thinking about data
and a change for those who have already learned the
foundations of FRBR, FRAD, FRSAD
PROS AND CONS OF THE LRM MODEL

AUTHORITIES REVIEW
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

Authorities at authorities.loc.gov
My name as it should appear
in a 100 or 700 field

Your turn
Why do we create authorities?
What is the purpose of establishing
an official form of a name?

Need for authority work
We need to do authority work
because there is no consistency
present in materials cataloged - a
challenge to users (& us!) - names
and titles vary & change, vendor
records, etc.
 Authority work provides:
 consistent, uniform access to
materials in library catalogs ;
clear identification of authors
and subject headings ; cross
references to lead customers
to the headings used in the
catalog

NEED MORE FRBR IN DEPTH?

NEED MORE BIBFRAME IN DEPTH?

Cataloging101 foundations: Authorities

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