Today I continued interviewing the cataloging staff about their dealings with authority control.
Clara Kelly
Clara Kelly is the Monographic/Special Collections Cataloging Assistant at Jackson Library. She handles cataloging the Girls’ Books in Series and the Women’s Detective Fiction collections for the Special Collections and University Archives. This collection consists of books that have been donated and that Special Collections have collected. Many of the books in these collections are much older, and therefore may not have authority records. Special Collections decides what names are used for the author, uniform title, etc. Another problem that these books have is that many of the authors used numerous pseudonyms during their careers. Notes of these various pseudonyms are made in separate 700 field entries. Clara has a card file that was started by Special Collections that contains the official uniform entries for authors and titles that they have chosen to use. As new authors are acquired, Clara adds to this card file so that a record can be kept of all authority records created or used. Special Collections may decide to call a series by a different name than the one used by OCLC. This is also kept up in the card file that Clara uses. Clara goes by the form that has been established by Special Collections for these series. Recently Special Collections began adding a 690 field to the Girls’ Books in Series collection, making it so that when someone searches Girls’ Books in Series as a keyword search all 2,706 books in the collection are retrieved. Special Collections is also in the process of working on a list of all the series that are contained in this collection.
Cynthia “Cindy” Slater
Cindy Slater is the AV/TRC Cataloging Assistant at Jackson Library. She catalogs books with LC Classifications of J, K, PR and PS. The PR and PS books are the fiction books of the collection. According to Cindy, fiction books were not routinely given subject headings until the 1970s or 1980s. With the new books she catalogs, she has very few authority issues. They are all copy cataloged so as long as there is a DLC record for them and it looks like it is in order, everything is fine.
Cindy is also the cataloger for the Teaching Resources enter (TRC). The TRC does things differently in comparison with Jackson Library. For starters, call numbers are handled much differently. The TRC uses its own system for call numbers. For example an easy book by an author with last name Andrews would be cataloged as E – AND. When this collection first began, only the first letter of the authors last name was used. This systems creates many duplicate call numbers, which can be very confusing for people looking for a specific call number. (I speak from experience.)The TRC also has lots of kits or other unusual items that have to be cataloged. All sorts of various formats are available in the TRC. For these unusual items, Cindy consults the object, a publisher’s website or she tries to find similar items that have already been cataloged in OCLC. It is important that these items be cataloged so that they can be searched in the catalog.
Cindy has recently taken on cataloging scores, recitals and other AV materials for the Music Library at UNCG. Much of this cataloging is original and has to be done from scratch. The item being cataloged is used for information, but Cindy also will consult a similar record (with DLC cataloging) if she can find one. These types of records have many headings that must be verified. The scores and recitals offer a challenge due to the fact that these were recorded here at UNCG so often there will be no authority records available for the musicians, etc. that are performing the pieces. Many of these recitals do have programs that can be a valuable source of information for these pieces. Cindy has a book that she uses that lists the uniform titles for every composition created by very popular composers, such as Mozart. She consults this book when cataloging the recitals so that she is sure that she is using the accepted title for each piece. If there is ever a questions she will consult a similar DLC record.
Scott Hinshaw
Scott Hinshaw is the Monographic/Archives Cataloging Assistant at Jackson Library. Scott works closely with the University Archives in cataloging materials that originated here at UNCG. The university has had six name changes since its inception in 1891. (1891-1897, North Carolina State Normal and Industrial School; 1897-1919, North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College; 1919-1932, North Carolina College for Women; 1932-1963, Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina; 1963- , University of North Carolina at Greensboro) the 110 field is where UNCG would be located in a MARC record. Subfield b of that field would be where the department of school would be specified for the work being cataloged. Local authority files are created for many of the departments and schools here on campus. Paul Hessling is in charge of creating those authority files. When cataloging an item for the first time, the name that is the accepted name now is used. For example, the university is now known as the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Now an item that was written and first cataloged in 1919 would use the name North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College. Serials when cataloged always include the preceeding and subsequent names of the serial is necessary. The authority record for a uniform title does contain all alternate spellings and names. For example, the authority record for UNCG contains all of its previous names as well. When an authority record does not exist for an item the records is still formated as if one does exist. If the record needs to be created then Paul will go back and create one for it at some point. Local authority records also contain any local practices that pertain to the library that they are created in. Scott also works some with the Special Collections on their Women Vets collections. A problem that he runs into with these is that the Armed Forces have many branches and divisions. These have to be looked up and checked.
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