Manage Authorities Interface

In Evergreen to view, edit, merge, and delete authority records you would use the Manage Authorities interface through the Cataloging menu.

Searching for authorities

To search for authorities in your system, first select the Cataloging menu and then select Manage Authorities. Then proceed to fill out the search form.

  1. Type in your Search Term
  2. Select an Authority type, types currently include: Author, Subject, Title, Topic
  3. Click on the Submit button

The authority search results will include the following elements from left to right:

  • Actions menu, which can be used to select actions that affect the corresponding authority record. Actions include: Edit, Mark for Merge, Delete
  • Count of how many bibs are linked to the corresponding authority
  • Main entry of the authority, i.e the authority tag 1xx value
  • Control set value, with LoC being the default, but others can be added
  • Authority Subject heading system/thesaurus, for example a value of "a" means authority originated from the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/marc/authority/ad008.html)

Library of Congress list of thesaurus values:

  • '' = Alternate no attempt to code
  • a = Library of Congress Subject Headings
  • b = LC subject headings for children’s literature
  • c = Medical Subject Headings
  • d = National Agricultural Library subject authority file
  • k = Canadian Subject Headings
  • n = Not applicable
  • r = Art and Architecture Thesaurus
  • s = Sears List of Subject Headings
  • v = Repertoire de vedettes-matiere
  • z = Other
  • | = No attempt to code

Editing authority records

Editing an authority record (or merging two authority records) can cause its linked bibliographic records to also update. For example, if you correct a spelling error in the 150 field of a subject authority record, the relevant 650 field in linked bibliographic records will also be updated to reflect the correct spelling.

Tip

When a bib record is automatically updated as a result of the modification of a linked authority record, the bib record’s "Last Edit Date/ Time" and "Last Editing User" fields will be updated to match the time of the update and the editor of the authority record. If you’d prefer that these fields not be automatically updated, you can set the ingest.disable_authority_auto_update_bib_meta setting to true in the Library Settings Editor.