Managing Authorities

Introduction

This section describes how you can create, import, view, modify, merge, and delete authority records in Evergreen.

Creating Authorities

Currently in Evergreen to create a new authority record, as opposed to importing an authority record, you need to have a bib record open in the bib MARC editor.

  • For example, if you want to create a new author authority you need to have a bib record that has a bib 1xx or 7xx tag with the main entry filled out.

  • Then you need to right click on that 1xx or 7xx tag. In the context menu that shows up, select Create New Authority from this field, then select either Create Immediately or Create and Edit…​.

  • If you choose Create and Edit…​, after the authority MARC editor opens you need to click on the Save button to finally add the new authority record to your system.

Importing Authorities

  1. Click Cataloging → MARC Batch Import/Export.

  2. You may create a queue to better track this import project. If you do not create a new queue, it will automatically put your records into a default queue named -.

  3. Don’t set a value for Holdings Import Profile, because this doesn’t apply to authority records.

  4. Select a file of authority data and put it in the File to Upload field.

  5. Make sure all the settings are correct, then press Upload.

    The screen displays "Uploading…​ Processing…​" to show that the records are being transferred to the server, then displays a progress bar to show the actual import progress. When the staff client displays the progress bar, you can disconnect your staff client safely. Very large batches of records might time out at this stage.

  6. Evergreen will automatically assign a thesaurus based on the Subj fixed field, which is character 11 in the 008 field.

  7. Evergreen will also try to determine who edited the record (based on the MARC 905u field or the user performing the import) and set the edit date, which you can view when you examine the record in the future.

  8. Once the import is finished, the staff client displays the results of the import process. You can manually display the import progress by selecting the Inspect Queue tab of the MARC Batch Import/Export interface and selecting the queue name. By default, the staff client does not display records that were imported successfully; it only shows records that conflicted with existing entries in the database. The screen shows the overall status of the import process in the top right-hand corner, with the Total and Imported number of records for the queue.

If you are importing authorities from an external vendor and want to track this, you may wish to set a unique Record Source. This source will be visible in the MARC Editor and in the 901$s field of the imported authority records.

Setting up Authority Record Match Sets

  1. Click Cataloging → MARC Batch Import/Export.

  2. Click Record Match Sets.

  3. If you have sufficient privileges, you will be able to click on the New Match Set. If you are unable to do so, check that you have the ADMIN_IMPORT_MATCH_SET permission.

  4. Give your new set a descriptive name, an owning library, and a match set type of authority.

  5. Click on the blue hyperlinked name of the match set you just created to add criteria.

  6. You can match against MARC tag/subfield entries or against a record’s normalized heading.

Evergreen’s database stores normalized authority headings in a format that includes the thesaurus. This way, record match sets will not match terms from other thesauri, even if the term is very similar.

Evergreen’s internal identifier is in the 901c field. If you have previously exported authority record — perhaps for an external vendor to do authority cleanup work — and you want to import them back into your catalog, you may wish to include the 901c field in your match set.

Viewing and Editing Authority Records by Database ID

The authority record retriever allows catalogers to retrieve a specific authority record using its database ID. Catalogers can find those IDs in subfield $0 of matching fields in bibliographic records.

To use the authority record retriever:

  1. Click Cataloging → Retrieve Authority Record by ID.

  2. Type in the ID number of the authority record you are interested in. Don’t include any prefixes, just the ID number.

  3. Click Submit.

  4. View or edit the authority record as needed.

Manage Authorities Interface

In Evergreen to view, edit, merge, and delete authority records you would use the Manage Authorities interface through the Cataloging menu.

Searching for authorities

To search for authorities in your system, first select the Cataloging menu and then select Manage Authorities. Then proceed to fill out the search form.

  1. Type in your Search Term

  2. Select an Authority type, types currently include: Author, Subject, Title, Topic

  3. Click on the Submit button

The authority search results will include the following elements from left to right:

  • Actions menu, which can be used to select actions that affect the corresponding authority record. Actions include: Edit, Mark for Merge, Delete

  • Count of how many bibs are linked to the corresponding authority

  • Main entry of the authority, i.e the authority tag 1xx value

  • Control set value, with LoC being the default, but others can be added

  • Authority Subject heading system/thesaurus, for example a value of "a" means authority originated from the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/marc/authority/ad008.html)

Library of Congress list of thesaurus values:

  • '' = Alternate no attempt to code

  • a = Library of Congress Subject Headings

  • b = LC subject headings for children’s literature

  • c = Medical Subject Headings

  • d = National Agricultural Library subject authority file

  • k = Canadian Subject Headings

  • n = Not applicable

  • r = Art and Architecture Thesaurus

  • s = Sears List of Subject Headings

  • v = Repertoire de vedettes-matiere

  • z = Other

  • | = No attempt to code

Editing authority records

Editing an authority record (or merging two authority records) can cause its linked bibliographic records to also update. For example, if you correct a spelling error in the 150 field of a subject authority record, the relevant 650 field in linked bibliographic records will also be updated to reflect the correct spelling.

When a bib record is automatically updated as a result of the modification of a linked authority record, the bib record’s "Last Edit Date/ Time" and "Last Editing User" fields will be updated to match the time of the update and the editor of the authority record. If you’d prefer that these fields not be automatically updated, you can set the ingest.disable_authority_auto_update_bib_meta setting to true in the Library Settings Editor.
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