Building an improved resource discovery experience for users: a cataloger’s experience and perspective

CEAL ConferenceToronto, Canada, March, 2012Jia XuThe University of Iowa

Overview

• To build an improved resource discovery experience for users, an important cataloging procedure is to achieve consistency of bibliographic headings

• The projects/tasks aiming to achieve consistency of bibliographic headings within the records for Chinese videos and filmso Update personal and corporate name headingso Test Aleph functionality on the automatic updating of

bibliographic headingso Examine inconsistency of existing genre/form

headings• What we have achieved and learned

Aleph Authors index search: “Meng, Jinghui”: the results before and after updating the bibliographic heading. “Heading Information” is missing.

Heading Information?

The project to update personal name and corporate name headings

• Technical reasons to update bibliographic name headingso There had been an increasing number of

bibliographic name headings within the existing records that did not match the authorized headings Newly established authorized headings Updated authorized headings Formerly undifferentiated authorized headings

o Aleph functionality has not been robust enough to support the automatic updating of headings within bibliographic records

The project to update personal name and corporate name headings

• Steps toward consistency of bibliographic name headingso Verify the bibliographic heading against the authorized heading

Li, Yu, 1973- ( 李玉 , drt, aus, 红颜 , 苹果 ) o Establish and/or update name authority records

Song, Jia, 1962- ( 宋佳 , act, 淘金王 , 落山风 , 寡妇十日谈 ) Song, Jia, 1980- ( 宋佳 , act, 好奇害死猫 , 闯关东 , 赤壁 ) Yu, Faye, 1971- ( 俞飞鸿 , act, 牵手 , 千年敬祈 ) Chao, Winston ( 赵文瑄 , act, 饮食男女 , 红玫瑰白玫瑰 ) Chu, Chunqiu, 1959- (pen name, 楚春秋 , real name, 徐贵祥 ,

aut, 弹道无痕 , 历史的天空 )o Keep bibliographic headings updated

Updating bibliographic headings requires ongoing efforts and enhanced system functionality

Test Aleph functionality on the automatic updating of bibliographic headings

• OCLC Closed Dates in Authority Records http://www.oclc.org/rss/feeds/authorityrecords/default.htm (Including CJK authority records)

• Special Aleph fields in authority recordso UPD: code: Y or N, determining whether or not to update the

bibliographic records automatically o COR: a see reference for the original authorized heading

• Identified system problemso Does not link the authority record to the bibliographic record(s)

in some caseso Updates the paired bibliographic headings to the authorized

form o Changes the order of subfield 6

???: Missing link between the authority and bibliographic records

???

Aleph updated the bibliographic heading from “Engle, Paul, 1908-” to “Engle, Paul, 1908-1991” successfully.

A test result: if changing UPD code from N to Y in the authority record, Aleph updates the paired fields and moves subfield 6 to the end of the 100 fields.

Examine inconsistency of genre/form headings

• Local policy on the assignment of genre/form terms for foreign films had been changed over the past ten yearso Geographic subdivision for “country of production”

Provide the information in 500 field --> Add the subdivision to five genre/form headings --> Add the subdivision to topical heading “Foreign films” --> No longer subdivide genre/form headings geographically

o “Foreign films” and “Foreign television programs”Assign the headings for foreign films and TV programs --> Do not use the terms (for they are no longer LCGFT terms, but LCSH headings)

o Source thesauriLCSH --> GSAFD and LCSH --> LCSH -->LCGFT

o MARC coding650 --> 655 --> 650 and 655 --> 655

Time period Local policy on genre/form headings for foreign films Relevant fields in bibliographic records: examples

2005 and before

500 __ A foreign film (Country of production). 650 _0 Feature films.650 _0 Foreign films.

500 __ A foreign film (China).650 _0 Feature films.650 _0 Foreign films.

2005-2008 655 _7 Feature films/Short films/Children’s films $z [geographic subdivision]. $gsafd655 _0 Documentary films/Educational films $z [geographic subdivision]. 655 _0 Foreign films.

655 _7 Feature films $z China. $2 gsafd655 _0 Foreign films.

2008-2011 650 _0 Foreign films $z [geographic subdivision].655 _0 Feature films.

650 _0 Foreign films $z China.655 _0 Feature films.

2011- 655 _7 Feature films. $2 lcgftDo not use “Foreign films” instead:257 __ [Country of producing entity] $2 naf(If important)Follow LC SHM H 1913, LC FAQ LCGFT instructions

257 __ China $2 naf655 _7 Feature films. $2 lcgft

Time period Relevant fields in bibliographic records

OPAC browse search Which records can be found?

Feature films – China Foreign films – China

2005 and before

500 __ A foreign film (China).650 _0 Feature films.650 _0 Foreign films.

No No

2005-2008 655 _7 Feature films $z China. $2 gsafd655 _0 Foreign films.

Yes No

2008-2011 650 _0 Foreign films $z China.655 _0 Feature films.

No Yes

2011- 257 __ [China] $2 naf655 _7 Feature films. $2 lcgft

No No

What we have achieved

• Updated 450 personal and corporate name bibliographic headings by matching them with the authorized headings within 1500 records for Chinese videos and films; created and updated 70 personal and corporate name authority records

• Tested how Aleph functions to automatically update name headings (Latin and non-Latin names) in 100s, 600s, 700s, 800s; also, subject headings in 650s

• Examined inconsistency of existing genre/form headings, the first step leading to a potential future project, to fix inconsistency of genre/form headings within existing records for the libraries’ moving image collection

What we have learned

• It is important to look at bibliographic data from user’s perspective• Authority control procedures are the key steps to support user tasks

o The system-generated link between bibliographic and authority records is crucial to control bibliographic headings and to direct users to authorized heading information

o The verification procedure is a key step to match the bibliographic heading against established authorized heading

o Establishing and updating authority records aids catalogers to identify, contextualize, justify the entity; the authority data then aids users to identify, select the entity

• Achieving consistency of bibliographic headings requires ongoing efforts and enhanced system functionality

• Must prepare to transition to implementation of RDA, a standard designed to focus attention on fulfilling user tasks

Thank you!

Questions?

Jia Xu (徐佳 )East Asian Cataloging LibrarianThe University of Iowa LibrariesPhone: (319)335-5029E-mail: jia-xu@uiowa.edu