Automatic Authority Control Processing
With the optional Automatic Authority Control Processing product, Sierra can automatically update headings in bibliographic records based on the valid form of the heading in an authority record. For each SEE FROM (MARC 4XX) heading in the authority record, the system searches the appropriate index for a matching entry from a bibliographic record. If it finds a match, Sierra updates the bibliographic heading based on the valid form of the index heading (MARC 1XX) from the authority record.
The process runs nightly and checks every record you load, enter, or update.
Key Considerations
- Automatic Authority Control Processing does not modify authority records. The system does not resolve or report inconsistencies that might arise when the valid heading in an authority record changes and the old form of the heading exists as a SEE ALSO FROM heading (MARC 5XX) in another authority record.
- The system performs an automatic update only when an authority record is loaded, entered, or updated. Loading, entering, or updating bibliographic records does not trigger this behavior. Consequently, this product does not resolve pre-existing heading conflicts unless it is triggered by a modification to the relevant authority record.
- Updates to authority records are not applied to bibliographic headings immediately. Sierra adds these updates to a queue when an authority record is loaded or modified. At a specified time each day (for example, 1:00 AM), the system processes all updates in a batch, and then clears the queue so that it is ready to receive new updates. Authority record updates made on a given day appear in bibliographic headings the next day.
- If the same heading appears more than once in the bibliographic record, the process changes all instances of that heading.
- All bibliographic records in the database are examined during Automatic Authority Control Processing, regardless of whether or not the library's database has been scoped.
- Updates to suppressed authority records do not affect matching bibliographic records. To ensure that matching bibliographic records are updated, set the ASUPPRESS value to '-'.
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The product is designed for MARC21 record formats only.
Automatic Authority Control Processing creates a variety of Headings Reports that describe its activity:
Contact Innovative to enable this product on your system.
For more detailed information on Automatic Authority Control Processing, see:
Automatic Authority Control Processing Overview
For each SEE FROM heading (MARC 4XX) in an authority record, Automatic Authority Control Processing searches the index that contains the authority record's valid heading for a matching bibliographic heading entry. If an authority record appears in both the name and subject indexes, you must process the two authority records separately to change all of the relevant bibliographic headings.
If the 4XX is a 400 field, the author portion (usually subfields a, b, c, d, e, q) must match the complete author portion of the bibliographic field. If the 4XX is not a 400 field (for example, 430, 450, 451), its index entry can match the beginning of a bibliographic field entry (see Partial Matches).
If the system finds a normalized bibliographic field index entry matching the normalized 4XX, and the bibliographic field MARC tag corresponds to the 4XX field's MARC tag (see AUTHTAGS Table), it compares the raw (non-normalized) form of the bibliographic field (as stored in the bibliographic record) to the raw form of the 4XX (as stored in the authority record). (See Comparing the Bibliographic Field to the 4XX Field.)
For bibliographic 650 fields, the system also verifies that the bibliographic heading and the authority record belong to the same thesaurus. (See Note on Comparing Thesauri.)
If the bibliographic record field precisely matches the authority record 4XX field, Sierra replaces the matching portion of the bibliographic field with the contents of the authority record's 1XX field, and changes the MARC tag and indicators for the updated bibliographic field, if necessary. (See Updating a Matching Bibliographic Field.)
For example, if an authority record is indexed in the author index and contains the following 100 and 400 fields:
100 1 |aChavez, Cesar,|d1927-1993
400 1 |aChavez, Cesar Estrada
and an existing bibliographic record contains the field:
100 1 |aChavez, Cesar Estrada
Automatic Authority Control Processing finds all existing bibliographic records that contain 100 (or 700) fields in which the normalized form (that is, as indexed) matches the heading "Chavez, Cesar Estrada". When it finds such a bibliographic record, the system updates that record's 100 (or 700) field using the heading from the authority record's 100 field. The heading in the bibliographic record becomes:
100 1 |aChavez, Cesar,|d1927-1993
The bibliographic record is then re-indexed.
Additional Considerations
- Sierra updates all bibliographic headings that match the 4XX field.
- All bibliographic records in the database are included in the potential update set, even if the database is scoped.
- If the authority record's 1XX field is a subdivision (MARC 180, 181, 182, or 185), the system must search the full subject index for potential matches belonging to a bibliographic record. Consequently, Automatic Authority Control Processing only processes an authority record if its valid heading is a 100-151 field. Authority records for subdivisions 180-185 are not included in Automatic Authority Control Processing.
- The program does not compare the authority record 451 field (Geographic name) to any 'z' subfields found in bibliographic record 6XX fields and does not update any 6XX 'z' subfields.
- If a matching index entry corresponds to another 4XX field, the system does not update any matching bibliographic fields for the 4XX. Rather, it writes the 4XX to the Non-unique 4XX Headings Report.