Authority Records

Authority records enable Destiny® to create cross-references that help patrons achieve success in searching.

An authority record contains the preferred form of names, uniform titles, series titles, and subject headings. It may also contain variant, unauthorized, or related headings, and a list of sources consulted in the process of deciding upon the authorized heading and its variant and related forms.

What are authority records?

How do they help my patrons' searches?

How do they help my cataloging?

What are authority records?

In everyday conversation and writing, we refer to people, physical objects, and abstract concepts by different names.

example cars can be called automobiles, motorcars, or even jalopies. If entries in a library catalog were this random, it would be nearly impossible to find everything on a given subject or by a certain author.

The solution is to use authorized headings. One term or form of a name is selected as preferred, meaning that all related catalog entries should use that heading. Typically, this decision is made by the national library or by private publishers (for example, the Library of Congress or Sears).

Each authority record contains a single authorized heading (1XX tag). It also contains unauthorized headings (4XX tags) and related authorized headings (5XX tags).

How do they help my patrons' searches?

Authority records help your library patrons find the resources they need.

When a bibliographic record contains the authorized heading in an indexed subject or author heading field, Destiny uses the information in the authority record's 4XX and 5XX tags to create cross-references in the Catalog.

• If a patron searches for an unauthorized heading (in a 4XX tag), a See: reference in the Browse list links the patron to the authorized heading (in the 1XX tag).
• If a patron searches for a related authorized heading (in a 5XX tag), a See also: reference points the patron to other authorized headings.

For example, suppose your collection contains bibliographic records with the subject heading Folklore, and the following authority record:

A subject search for Folk beliefs results in Folk beliefs See: Folklore in the Browse list.
A subject search for Mythology results in Mythology See also: Folklore.

In both cases, the cross-references link to the bibliographic records that have Folklore as a subject heading.

How do they help my cataloging?

Authority records are tools that you can use to improve and maintain consistency in your bibliographic records. They can also reduce the time you spend cataloging by putting the correct terms at your fingertips.

Once you have created or imported authority records, you can retrieve the authorized forms for names, titles, and subjects when you are cataloging bibliographic records.

Adjacent to each heading field, you find a button or an icon that allows you to find the correct heading and copy it to the bibliographic record you are working on.

• In the MARC Editor, it is the magnifying glass icon .
• In the Easy Editor, it is Find Heading.
• In Update Titles > Global Update Headings, it is Find Heading.