SCILS Cataloging Policy
Approved 4/22/2008
Authority Records Policy
Overview
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Authority records are records
that control the format of certain MARC fields
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They insure that every insistence
that an uniform title (130, 730), person or company (1XX, 7XX),
subject(6XX), or series(4XX) occurs in a field that it is formatted the
same
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Authority files also provide
cross references to help patrons access material
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It creates unique records so that
people or corporations with similar or the same name have a unique access
point
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|If there were no control over
how 1XX fields were listed then finding all the material by an author would
be very difficult.
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For example: The authority
Record for Mark Twain is listed as “Twain, Mark,|d1835-1910.” Without
this catalogers could list his work under “Clemens, Samuel Langhourne,”
“Clemens, Samuel L.”, “Clemens, Samuel,” “Clemens, Sam,” etc.
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These standards are described
fully in OCLC’s Bibliographic Formats which should be referred to for a more
in-depth look at the MARC fields.
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Subject authority records usually
are only available for the main subject headings with no subfields
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For example: There is an
authority file for “Child witnesses” but when “Fiction” is added it
makes it “UNAUTHORIZED” because there is not an authority heading for
“Child witnesses|vFiction.” So the “UNAUTHORIZED” can be misleading.
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Authority records usually
contain the heading, a justification for heading, and any cross references,
but can also contain recommending call numbers and reference for the heading
Individual
Responsibility
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Do not
manually check for authority files on records that are obtained through copy
cataloging because cost in both time and money is prohibitive for the
benefit
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Do
find authority files for original records if are fully cataloged and not
“brief” records
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|sAuthorized or |?UNAUTHORIZED
are not subfields that are manually added by the cataloger but a
system-generated message whether there is an authority record in the system
for that field
Marcive
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SCILS gets monthly authority
updates
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Whole collection is sent for
authority work approximately every 5 years
Approved: 4/22/2008