Knowledge Base

Local Authority Records

Local authority functionality has not been enabled for CUNY in Alma. This is a practical decision, not a policy, and may be revisited. If you think there is a need for the creation of a single authority record, please contact OLS so we can put you in touch with NACO catalogers. If you think there is a need for the adoption of another authority vocabulary (such as Homosaurus), please put it on the agenda for the CUNY Cataloging Advisory Committee.

Global Authority Records

Alma provides a set of authority records that are updated and maintained regularly by Ex Libris in the Community Zone (CZ). The most relevant authority vocabularies for CUNY libraries are those maintained by the Library of Congress, especially Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). The following jobs perform authority control in the Institution Zones (IZs) and Network Zone (NZ):

• Link BIB Headings
  • This job searches for matches between terms in bibliographic records and preferred terms in authority records.
    • The job first tries to find a match for full terms, including subdivisions. If an exact match for the whole term cannot be found, the job then tries to match on the term without subdivisions.
    • If the job finds a match, the terms in the bibliographic records are linked to the corresponding terms in the authority records.
  • This job is turned on at CUNY.
    • There are currently two Link BIB Headings Authority Control Rules in place at CUNY.
      • Prevent undifferentiated personal names (MARC 21 authority 008 control field, position 32 = "b")  from being linked.
      • Prevent the heading "Shakespeare, William, $$d 1564-1616 $$x Comedies" from being changed to "Shakespeare, William, $$d 1564-1616. $$t Plays. $$k Selections."
• Preferred Term Correction
  • If the job cannot find a match between terms in bibliographic records and preferred terms in authority records, it looks for matches between terms in bibliographic records and non-preferred terms in authority records. If a heading is found to be a non-preferred term, it is replaced in the bibliographic record with the preferred term.
  • This job is turned off at CUNY.

Whereas the Link BIB Headings job only creates links, the Preferred Term Correction job actually edits bibliographic headings.