Hi all,
I am new to Sierra and new to my position as Associate Director of Technical Services. The practice here is to add the authority files for the authors because adding the authority file links authors with their works in the catalog. While playing around, I find that authors’ works are still linked to them without adding the authority record separately. Is adding the authority file for authors necessary?
Thanks for your help!
Typically authority files for author information (technically Name entries) would also have aliases (Cross references) that the person might have written under and other notes.
One of the most famous examples being Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain).
Authority file loads would also typically update the author’s death date.
So, if you’re getting the authority files, I would say it is typically a good idea to continue loading them.
I think this is a great question! I am a relatively new cataloging manager/cataloger and sort of struggle to understand authority records living in Sierra. However, we have just started using automatic authority control processing in Sierra and it certainly makes the use of authority records make more sense.
Without AACP and without having author authorities in your Sierra database, you could use LC NAF or OCLC to check author fields when you add new bibs. You can also receive LC notices of author name updates and make manual changes via global update or one by one. It kind of depends on your cataloging staff availability, of course.
As Wes mentions, those “See” references in 4xx fields ensure that your bib records are using the correct authorized form from the 1xx field and do redirect searches - in Sierra at least. Most discovery layers/OPACs don’t seem to use authorities (which drives us all nuts) so you may want to test yours to see if searches for an alias or other form of the name brings up the author’s work by their authorized name. Hope this helps!