[Koha] authority files -- does anyone have them?

[Bigwood, David]

Christine,

Years ago, when we did our retrospective conversion, we purchased the
authority files. Since then I have downloaded any needed as I catalog.
They are freely available at http://authorities.loc.gov/

I have also submitted additional cross references, new headings, and new
LC classification numbers through the SACO program. There is no formal
training, just follow the guidelines and you too can enhance the LCSHs.
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/saco/

Until such time as our catalogs validate headings against the LC site
on-the-fly and then send patron search requests to the LC site and match
their term against the files and then submit that for searching against
our catalogs I can't see authority files going away. Even then not.
Because there can be local enhancements. Here in Texas a group of school
librarians are adding the state education standards to the LC authority
records so that teachers can search on the standard and pull up
materials for their class. A big job, but when divided across many
librarians across Texas not quite so daunting.

The trend seems to be quite the reverse. Everybody on the Web is getting
into the thesaurus, ontology game. There are more controlled
vocabularies now than ever.

Sincerely,
David Bigwood
bigwood at lpi.usra.edu
Lunar & Planetary Institute
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/library/whats_new.shtml
Catalogablog
http://catalogablog.blogspot.com


-----Original Message-----
From: koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz
[mailto:koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Christine Forte
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 10:37 AM
To: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
Subject: [Koha] authority files -- does anyone have them?

dear friends,

i'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has downloaded, created, or
purchased authority files for their catalog. 

(is everyone getting by just fine w/o them?) 

i like to see the authority lists for subjects, because i find it can
help or inspire my searches, but  maybe the trend is that authority
files are slowly becoming obsolete.

best regards,
christine

 

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