Collection Cleanup Using Authority Control

Sears and Library of Congress subject headings are always being updated.  New subject headings are added and others become obsolete or changed due to the changing nature of our society's terminology.  As you weed, the items may be gone, but still live on in your Authority Control indexes. Database cleanup can seem like climbing Mt. Everest — it doesn't have to be that way, honest! Think of it as spring cleaning for Alexandria -- thorough, a bit time-consuming, but well worth it.

Some of you may be familiar with the Fly Lady website that helps people conquer the chaotic mess at home by tackling it using 15-minute and 5-minute tasks or routines.  The theory is that you don't have to do it all in one day, just keep doing a little at a time regularly. Those quick "challenges" for each day really do work, so let's apply the same tactics to your Alexandria database using Authority Control and you'll be finished before you know it!

We are going to look at the entire process -- (1) Removal of all Authority Control index entries and rebuilding the Authority Control indexes, (2) Correcting individual index entries, and (3) Merging/removing duplicates. 

Removing All Entries in Authority Control Indexes and Rebuilding the Indexes

We suggest that you periodically (perhaps, every 3-4 years) remove all of the entries in all of your Authority Control indexes and rebuild the indexes.  This will remove all titles you no longer have, subject headings that only were used for items you have deleted, etc. Because this is going to take a while for Alexandria to accomplish (but not for you), start this on a Friday afternoon a little just before you leave.  Your Datastation (server) must remain on while these procedures are being done.

Removing all entries in Authority Control indexes:

• Go to Tools on the menu bar and select Utilities.

• Click on the Authority Control tab and click on the Add (+) icon in the bottom-left corner of the window.

• Set the drop-down menu for Utility Type to Remove All.

• Click on Run in the bottom-left corner of the window.

• Click on Yes when asked if you want to doing an Archive.

Rebuilding the Authority Control indexes:

• Go to Tools on the menu bar and select Utilities.

• Click on the Authority Control  tab and double click in the Build Records area.

• Click on Yes when asked if you want to do an Archive.

• Kiss your computer good-bye and go home for the weekend.

Correcting Individual Index Entries

As you look at the list of the Authority Control indexes, you will notice that the list ia  divided into two groups.  The top half of the list is comprised of the MARC Authority Control indexes.  The second group is the Alexandria Authority Control indexes.

Alexandria Authority Control indexes have been established to handle those areas that are not covered by MARC Authority Control.  They are pretty straight-forward and the information indexed in them is found in just one specific tag or is from a field in a item copy or a non-MARC record such as a patron record  If indicators have been set for the tag/field in which the entry appears, those indicators will follow the entry into the Authority Control index.  The same entry may appear several times in the index with the only difference being the indicators.

Now, let's review a few things about MARC Authority Control indexes using the People MARC Authority Control as an example.  First, we know that a person may be an author, editor, illustrator, joint author, subject, or have a series, so a person may be used in a 100, 600, 700 or 800 tag, but MARC Authority rules call for the information to always be stored in a 100 tag.  If you have used the entry in a field that has indicators associated with it, these follow the entry into the Authority Control index.  Hence, you may see the same person's name entered several times in the Authority Control People index and the only difference may be in the indicators area.  You may also see that a person has been used in a subject and the entry will show the other fields used in that subject heading.

Before we start making those changes, we need to set the Authority Control System Preferences to make certain that any changes that are made in the Authority Control indexes will be made to your individual item or patron record.

To set Authority Control System Preferences:

• Go to Edit on the menu bar and select System Preferences.

• Click on Authority Control in the Management category.

• Check the individual fields for which you want to have Authority Control automatically check your individual entries as you enter information in your patron or item records.

• Click on Automatically update authority-controlled information.

• Check the two remaining boxes, Update Authority Control Records on Import and  Authority Control See Also.

• Click on Save in the upper-right corner of the window.

• Close the  System Preferences window.

We will start with an easy area in the Alexandria Authority Control group and move on to harder areas.  The steps used to correct the Authority Control entries will be the same regardless of the Authority Control index selected.

Don't put commas or periods at the end of the fields.  Alexandria supplies the punctuation where it is needed.  For instance, if a citation is made in the Researcher and you have a terminal period at the end of the name, then, it will appear after the name along with the punctuation that Alexandria provides making the citation incorrectly punctuated.  You may want to eliminate these terminal punctuation marks if you see them in the Authority Control entries. 

To correct an Authority Control index entry:

• Go to Tools on the menu bar and select Authority Control.

• Change the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of the window to the desired index.  For this example, select Site.

• Look at the Site codes that are listed.  (Central Union folks, just look at those associated with your school and your district person should check to see if there are any in the list that are not valid for other schools).  If your code is there and no other "wrong" codes are there, skip steps.

• If there is an incorrect code, double click on that code and a window will open.

• Change the code to what it should be, then, click on OK.

• Repeat this for every incorrect code.

• Click on Save in the upper-right corner of the Authority Control window.

The next areas to work with are Mediums and Grades.  You may discover that some weird mediums are present  — perhaps a cataloger typed an _h instead of _b and a subtitle has ended up in the Medium field.  Maybe someone previously had entered 6th in Grade and you want to change it to 6.  Authority Control is the fast and easy place to make that change.

• Go to Tools on the menu bar and select Authority Control.

• Change the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of the window to Medium.

• Look at the mediums that are listed.  Are there any strange ones?

• If there is an incorrect medium, double click on that medium and a window will open.

• Change it to what it should be, then, click on OK.

• Repeat this for every incorrect Medium.

• Click on Save in the upper-right corner of the Authority Control window. Alexandria will go through your item records and replace the incorrect mediums with the corrected ones.

• Repeat this process for the Grades Authority Control area. 

You are now ready to move on to more difficult Authority Control areas.  Let's look at the Publishers next.  Do you see variations of the same publisher (i.e. A.A. Knopf, A. A. Knopf, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Alfred Knopf, Knopf)?  If so, you must decide on the one that you want to use and, then, change all the rest to the entry you have decided to use.  This will result in many entries that look just the same.  This is perfectly fine because you will be able to remove those duplicates using a utility.

Now for the MARC Authority Control indexes, we will use the People Authority Control index as our example.  Remember, you are going to be working with the entry for the most part and not the indicators unless you are a true MARC expert.  Think consistency.  Think order -- are the fields in the correct order? (example from the Subject area:  Politicians -- Biography -- California  should be Politicians -- California -- Biography).

• Go to Tools on the menu bar and select Authority Control.

• Change the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of the window to People.

• Look at the people that are listed.  Do you see variations of the same person 's name (e.g. Aaseng, Nate, Aaseng, Nathan, (with a comma) and Aaseng, Nathan. (with a period))?  Do some have dates and others do not?

• Decide on the changes that you want to make and, then, double click on one that you wish to change and a window will open.

• Change it to what it should be including adding birth and death Dates (if known), Relator Term, etc.   Remember: Dates do not go in the _a field; they go in the _d field. The Relator term (how the person is connected to the work such as jt. author, editor, illustrator) is entered in the _e field.

• If fields are listed in incorrect order, then, highlight the offending field and use the Up or Down arrow to move it to the proper order position.  When finished with the entry, click on OK.

• Repeat this for every incorrect People entry.  Remember, deleting the entry here only deletes it from the index and not from the records.  Changing it will change it on the records when you click on Save.

• Click on Save in the upper-right corner of the Authority Control window. Alexandria will go through your item records and replace the incorrect people in any instance (100, 600, 700 or 800 tags) with the corrected ones.

Merging/Removing Duplicates

As you make your corrections to the Authority Control entries, you will notice that the same entry may be present multiple times due to your corrections or there may be "near" duplicates -- those entries that have different indicator settings, but the information in the entries themselves look exactly alike.  Alexandria provides a utility to take care of those entries that are exact duplicates (entry and indicators both).  Since this may take some time, we suggest running this utility on a Friday just as you are preparing to leave the library for the weekend.

To remove duplicates:

• Click on Tools on the menu bar and select Utilities.

• Click on the Authority Control tab, then, double click on the Remove Duplicates area.

• When asked if you want to run an Archive, click on Yes.