Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Ongoing Authority Control Processing

Authority control is an essential activity in providing intellectual access to resources and thus distinguishing the library catalog from internet search engines. Catalogers have always provided the authorized headings and cross-references to materials we handle in-house and will continue to do so. As the number of electronic resources has multiplied, however, the Libraries are increasingly batch loading hundreds of thousands of records of varying quality from external sources into Chinook. We do not have the capacity to provide authority control to these records in-house, and it would not be a sustainable practice. Yet, we would not be providing good client-centered service if we ignored them. Therefore, a decision was made to outsource this process so that we may provide authority control for the entirety of the Chinook database.

The Cataloging and Metadata Services Department staff, with the help of the Systems staff, exported a copy of our Chinook database--almost 2.8 million bibliographic records--to Backstage Library Works. Over the winter break, we reloaded all the bibliographic records and the associated authority records. Now the bibliographic records in Chinook have names and subjects in accordance with the National Authority File at the Library of Congress. Chinook now has over 818,000 authority records that provide cross-references--151,000 more than before.

To maintain consistent access in Chinook, we will continue the same process for new cataloging on a monthly basis. For questions and comments, please contact Jina Wakimoto.