Ben Ide wrote:
We use authority records rather extensively here. The best example that I can use to explain why would be "Mark Twain."
Samuel Longhorn Clemens chose the name Mark Twain as a writing pseudonym, but his pen name became so widely recognized that nearly everyone refers to him that way.
Having an authority record would allow you to redirect people looking for "Samuel Longhorn Clemens" to the recognized name "Mark Twain."
...or "Sam Clemens," or "Marc Twain," or one of the other pen names that he used.
It gets more useful for people like Tchaikovsky, who has multiple recognized alternate spellings of his name.
We also use it to pull together iterations of musical works, which can get more byzantine. (How many "symphony no.3" titles are there?)
Hope this helps.
Welcome to the list, you delurker :) Thanks for the simple explanation on what authorities are. Being a techie, often the library related terminology and concepts can leave me flummoxed. cheers rickw -- _________________________________ Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services Be nice to us or we'll impose democracy on you.