[Koha] Using authorities in Koha 3.02

[David Allen]

I'm having trouble understanding how Authorities (mainly author) is 
supposed to work. I'm sure part of it is me not understanding the work 
flow, but equally it looks as though something is not functioning. Koha 
version is 3.02.11.000

My understanding is that when cataloguing a book I should check whether 
the author is already in the catalogue and whether the current form of 
name is the same as that already existing, preferable to that existing, 
or that the existing form should be used.

When I create a new record (or import one) I click on Tag Editor for 
field 100$a, and a search screen comes up. I enter an author surname 
(for an author already in the catalogue, or for one already in the 
authorities and click search. Whether I search default or personal name, 
I get a no records found message.

If I go into Home/Cataloguing/Authorities and search either author or 
default, and any combination of the other fields I get no results found, 
if I choose Personal Name and leave everything else blank I get an error 
500.

If I leave everything here blank and click on submit I get a list of 
every Authority in the system, running to 67 pages to search through! If 
I click submit on the blank search box that comes up in response to 
clicking on Tag Editor for field 100$a, I get an error 500 message.

BiblioAddsAuthorities is set to allow, and authors that I have entered 
myself or imported appear in the list of authorities. However the main 
part of the catalogue was imported in bulk. I should like to import some 
(or all) of the authors there into authorities, but I can see no way to 
do it from within Authorities, a Marc screen come up that requires 
keyboard input and does not allow tag editing.

Where I have imported records with variant names I would like to combine 
the biblios under one name, and delete the other. I can't see any way to 
validate biblios into an author authority.

I've looked at the manual, which shows me plenty of screen shots and 
definitions, but doesn't tell me how to use it, so either the system, or 
my intuition (or both) are at fault.

Any help gratefully received...

David Allen

-- 
David Allen
London