Authorities
Contents |
What are they?
Authorities are the preferred form of an author’s name, a corporate body’s name, a geographic, series, uniform title or a topical subject heading. Applying the principles of authority work allows local systems to collocate or pull together, all of the works by a particular personal author or corporate body or all of the works about a topic, person, corporate body, title, or place when a patron performs a search.
Without authorities the catalog would have little collocation. Consequently, a user might not retrieve all of the information needed by or about a person, corporate body, topic, or place. In Michigan Evergreen, authorities are used to enhance the retrieval of items and to provide integrity to the finding mechanisms in the catalogs. Authorities are an integral part of the cataloging process and are equally important to catalogers, reference librarians, and ILL staff who must search local or shared systems.
Access authority records
To view the authority records in the system, click on the Cataloging menu and select Manage Authorities.
The authorities search page will display. The Search term field allows you to enter in the terms you want to search.
The Authority type drop-down menu allows you to select what type of authority record you want to search. The options are:
- Author
- Subject
- Title
- Topic
Search for authority records
Click on the Cataloging menu and select Manage Authorities.
Enter in a term in the Search term field.
Select the Authority type from the drop-down menu.
Click on the Submit button on the far right.
The results will display.
Edit authority records
I am sure I don't need to tell you this, but obviously, you would only be editing authority records if you have a thorough knowledge of MARC authority records. If you do not have a thorough knowledge of MARC authority records, but you want to be able to edit these records after you attain such thrilling knowledge, please contact Megan Dudek.
Click on the Cataloging menu and select Manage Authorities.
Enter in the term you want to edit in the Search term field.
Select what Authority type it is from the drop-down menu.
Click on the Submit button on the far right.
The results will display. Click on the Actions button for the record you want to edit.
Select Edit.
The editable authority record will display in a new window. Make your changes. Click on the Help button to view the keyboard shortcuts for editing the authority MARC record.
Notice that you can check the box next to Flat-Text Editor to change the view of the record if you prefer to edit records this way.
Click on the Save button.
The system will send the message: "Record was saved." Click on OK.
Merge authority records
Click on the Cataloging menu and select Manage Authorities.
Enter in a term you want to merge in the Search term field.
Select what Authority type it is from the drop-down menu.
Click on the Submit button on the far right.
The results will display. Click on the Actions button for a record you want to merge.
Select Mark for Merge.
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