Comparing the Bibliographic Field to the 4XX Field

Automatic Authority Control Processing (AAPC) compares the raw (non-normalized) form of the bibliographic field to raw 4XX fields. AAPC only compares 4XX field contents from the first occurrence of subfield "a" to the first occurrence of subfield "t", "e", "u-z", or "0-9" (or to the end of the field if none of those subfields exist). The matching algorithm is sensitive to case, subfield delimiters, and punctuation (except ending punctuation in the bibliographic field).

The following types of matches are possible:

Name Matches

Name-Title Matches

Partial Matches

Near Matches

See also Note on Comparing Thesauri.

Name Matches

If the bibliographic field is a name entry (a non-6XX that does not contain a subfield "t"), AACP compares the name portion of the bibliographic field to the name portion of the 4XX. The name portion consists of the subfields indexed in the author index. For example:

ENTRY    : alawrence david herbert 1885 1930
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NUM  : b1079772
NEW FORM : a100 1|aLawrence, D. H.|q(David Herbert),|d1885-1930,|eauthor
OLD FORM : a100 1|aLawrence, David Herbert,|d1885-1930,|eauthor
AUTH 4XX : b400 1|aLawrence, David Herbert,|d1885-1930
AUTH NUM : a1003088

The following describes each line of the example:

ENTRY
The entry in the index that matched the 400 field in the Authority record.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NUM
The record number of the bibliographic record to update.

NEW FORM
The modified 100 field that AACP writes to the bibliographic record. This field is created by combining the "correct" subfields from the authority record's 100 field with the subfields that are unique to the specific bibliographic record. In this case, the authority record's 100 field is:

1001 |aLawrence, D. H.|q(David Herbert),|d1885-1930

The NEW FORM includes the subfields "a", "q", and "d" from the authority record, as well as the "e" subfield from the original bibliographic record.

OLD FORM
The original 100 field from the bibliographic record.

AUTH 4XX
The 4XX field in the authority record that matched the bibliographic record's 100 field.

AUTH NUM
The record number of the authority record.

All of the subfields for a name (or title) portion must be contiguous in the bibliographic field. The following bibliographic field is an example of an incorrectly cataloged field:

a1001 |aLawrence, David Herbert,|eauthor,|d1885-1930

The indexed form of this field is "alawrence david herbert 1885 1930", which matches the indexed form of the 4XX in the example above. However, since subfield "d" in the bibliographic field is separated from the rest of the name portion by subfield "e", the bibliographic field fails to match the raw form of the 4XX field. AACP does not update the bibliographic field.

Name-Title Matches

If the bibliographic field is a name-title entry (a non-6XX that contains a subfield "t"), AACP compares the name portions of the bibliographic field with the 4XX. It also compares the title portions (the subfields that were indexed in the title index). In this type of match, the name portion, title portion, or both name and title portions, of the bibliographic field can be updated. In the following example, the system replaces both the name and title portions of a bibliographic field:

ENTRY    : alawrence david herbert 1885 1930
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NUM  : b121364
NEW FORM : a100 1|aLawrence, D. H.|q(David Herbert),|d1885-1930.|tCambridge
edition of the letters and works of D.H. Lawrence |f1979
OLD FORM : a100 1|aLawrence, David Herbert,|d1885-1930.|tCambridge edition of
the letters and works of D.H. Lawrence|f1979
AUTH 4XX : b400 1|aLawrence, David Herbert,|d1885-1930
AUTH NUM : a113987

If the bibliographic field is a name entry that matches the name portion of a name-title 4XX field, and a 240 field in the bibliographic record matches the title portion of the 4XX, the system can replace the 240 field. (See Updating the 240 Field in a 1XX-240 Pair.)

Partial Matches

If the 4XX is a 400 field, AACP does not check for partial matches.

If the 4XX field is a 410, 411, 430, 450, or 451 field, a partial match can occur if:

For example, assume the following 4XX and bibliographic entries appear in the subject index:

Authority record:      a113988 "tire tubes"
Bibliographic record:  b121364 "tire tubes river rafting"

Assume the authority 4XX entry is from a 450 field and the bibliographic entry is from the following field:

d650 0|aTire tubes,|xRiver rafting

Because the beginning of the index entry for the bibliographic field matches the entire index entry for the 4XX field ("tire tubes"), and the remainder of the bib's index entry ("river rafting") is from another subfield, Sierra considers the bibliographic field a potential match for the 4XX field.

In a partial match, the system replaces only the matching portion of the bibliographic field. The example bibliographic 650 field is updated as follows:

ENTRY    : dtire tubes river rafting
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NUM  : b121364
NEW FORM : d650  0|aInner tubes,|xRiver rafting
OLD FORM : d650  0|aTire tubes,|xRiver rafting
AUTH 4XX : e450  |aTire tubes
AUTH NUM : a113988
008/11 Value

In the example above, the 008/11 value of the authority record is "a", which matches the second indicator of the 650 field. (See Note on Comparing Thesauri.)

Near Matches

AACP does not update the bibliographic field if the raw (non-normalized) form does not match the 4XX due to differences in:

For these near matches, the system writes the bibliographic field and the 4XX into the Near Matches Headings Report.

The following are examples of near matches:

Case differs:

ENTRY    : alillo don de
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NUM  : b116235
OLD FORM : a1001 |aLillo, Don de
AUTH 4XX : b4001 |aLillo, Don De
AUTH NUM : a113978

Punctuation differs:

ENTRY    : dmongomery co md
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NUM  : b119512
OLD FORM : b651 0|aMontgomery Co. (Md.)
AUTH 4XX : b451 |aMontgomery Co., Md.
AUTH NUM : a113794

Subfield delimiters differ:

ENTRY    : aroosevelt theodore mrs
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NUM  : b120623
OLD FORM : a1001 |aRoosevelt, Theodore,|bMrs.,|d1861-1948
AUTH 4XX : b4001  |aRoosevelt, Theodore,|cMrs.,|d1861-1948
AUTH NUM : a113979

Diacritics in title portion of an Author/Title field:

ENTRY    : apettersson allan 1911 1980 doda pa torget
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NUM  : b2121907
OLD FORM : a4001|aPettersson, Allan,|d1911-1980.|tD{u00F6}da p{u00E5}a torget
AUTH 4XX : a4001|aPettersson, Allan,|d1911-1980.|tDoda pa torget
AUTH NUM : a1192156

Non-filing indicators in selected authority record fields:

ENTRY    : tjossey bass social and behavioral sciences series
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NUM  : b1164331
OLD FORM : t440 4 The Jossey Bass social and behavioral sciences series
AUTH 4XX : t430  0 Jossey-Bass social and behavioral sciences series
AUTH NUM : a1192156

Note that, in this example, the hyphen in "Jossey-Bass" in the authority record is not considered a match for the space in "Jossey Bass" in the bib.

Note on Comparing Thesauri

If the bibliographic field is a subject entry (MARC 650), AACP verifies that the bibliographic field and authority record belong to the same subject headings system (that is, the same thesaurus). In a 650 field, the value of the second indicator specifies the thesaurus. In an authority record, byte 11 of the 008 field specifies the thesaurus.

Correspondence between 008/11 byte and 650 second indicator

Subject Heading System/Thesaurus Authority 008/11 byte Bibliographic 650 second indicator
Library of Congress Subject Headings a 0
LC Subject Headings for Children's Literature b 1
Medical Subject Headings c 2
National Agricultural Library Subject Authority File d 3
Canadian Subject Headings k 5
Repertoire des vedettes-matiere v 6
Local authority record* n 4

*The Database Maintenance Option Automatic Authority Control for local subject headings enables local authority record comparing.)

Exceptions

AACP does not update a bibliographic 650 field if any of the following are true:

  • The second indicator value is "7" or " " (SPACE).
  • The authority record's 008/11 value is "r", "s", or "z".
  • The authority record lacks an 008 field.