International Journal of Academic Library and Information Science
 

International Journal of Academic Library and Information Science

Vol. 6(3), pp. 50–56, May, 2018. 

ISSN: 2360-7858

DOI: 10.14662/IJALIS2018.021

Full Length Research

A library cannot operate with an inchoate catalogue. A well organized catalogue becomes the image of the library for speedy retrieval and access. Authority control is the creation of a controlled vocabulary in the catalogue that involves cataloguer’s decisions and experience in selecting the form that subject headings, names and titles will use as an authorized entry in the catalogue. The main objective of any library is to make her holdings accessible to her target audience so there must be a process to choose the references to link/support each form and also create relationships to other authorized headings to ensure control and promote integrity of the catalogue.  Since all headings function as access points, authority control systems do well by collocating each heading and differentiating from each other to break a conflict and ensure consistency in content acquisition. The service provision of authority control is getting more purposeful by the degree of controlled access in the library catalogue. Today we witness a large-scale transition from card catalogues to online public access catalogues (from Paris principles to today’s internationally shared authority records enhanced by the World Wide Web). In trying to adapt to this changing workload librarians must be totally breasted with the latest information technology systems and tools, including databases, e- resources, web searches, social media use and more. This paper discusses the place and use of authority control in modern catalogues and best practices for structured access which underscores the preposition of an effective cataloguer-user interface.

Keywords: Authority control, libraries, library catalogues, RDA (Resource Description and Access), AACR2 (Anglo American Cataloguing Rules 2^nd edition) and Authority record

Cite This Article As: Eteng U (2018). Best Practices for Authority Control In Libraries. Inter. J. Acad. Lib. Info. Sci. 6(3): 50-56

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