Scope Authority Records

The Scope authority Records option in Admin Corner allows you to re-scope the authority records in your database. The maintenance of authority record scoping differs from that for other record types in that Sierra does not automatically create and update the scopes of authority records when headings are changed or when new authorities are added to the database. Consequently, you will need to periodically tell Sierra to re-scope the authority records in your database using this option in order to ensure that the authority record scoping is current.

The scope of an authority record is a composite of the scopes of all of the bibliographic records that are indexed under the authority record's valid heading (e.g., MARC 100 or 150 field).

When you select the Scope Authority Records option, Sierra asks you to confirm that you wish to update the scopes of authority records:

Scope Authority records now? (y/n) _

Press y to continue. Sierra then prompts for the index entry at which to begin re-scoping authority records:

Start at which index entry (Press <RETURN> to start): a

Since the scope of an authority record is determined by the scopes of the bibliographic records that are indexed under its valid heading, Sierra must step through the heading indexes (e.g., a author, d subject, t title) to re-scope authorities. At the above prompt, enter the index tag and data for the index entry at which you want to begin authority record scoping. The default index entry at which to begin is the start of the author index (index tag 'a').

After you enter an index entry, Sierra begins re-scoping the authority records for that index entry:

Scoping authority records at Tue Mar 18 1997 12:50:41

Press "s" anytime to stop
Finished 100 records, Processing: "aamerican association for the advancement of"
Finished 200 records, Processing: "aanderson richard d"
Finished 300 records, Processing: "aayres robert u"
Finished 400 records, Processing: "abayt phyllis theiss 1936"
Finished 500 records, Processing: "abiegeleisen j i jacob israel 1910"
Finished 600 records, Processing: "abourliere francois 1913"
Finished 700 records, Processing: "abrown paul burton 1942"

You can press S at any time to stop authority record scoping. If you press S, Sierra offers the options to CONTINUE scoping authority records or to QUIT:

C > CONTINUE scoping

Q > QUIT

Choose one (C,Q)

Press C to continue re-scoping authority records at the index entry at which scoping was interrupted.

Press Q to stop the scoping of authority records. If you press Q while Sierra is in the middle of scoping the authority records for an index entry, Sierra displays the index entry and prompt to continue scoping the authority records for that entry, e.g.:

Index entries for "abuskirk richard hobart 1927"

must finish scoping before the program can stop.

Press <SPACE> to continue

Press Space to have Sierra continue scoping authority records for the displayed index entry. Once Sierra has finished scoping the authority records for the index entry, it displays the next index entry to scope and asks for confirmation to stop re-scoping authority records, e.g.:

authority records maintenance stopped at index:

"abuss arnold h 1924"

Are you sure you want to exit (y/n)

Press N to resume scoping at the index entry at which scoping was stopped. In the example above, scoping would resume at the index entry abuss arnold h 1924.

Press Y to stop scoping authority records. Sierra responds:

Selected records stopped at Tue Mar 18 1997 12:56:31

To resume re-scoping of authority records at a later date, you can enter the index entry at which scoping was interrupted. In the example above, you would begin re-scoping authority records in the author index, at index entry abuss arnold h 1924.