What is authority control?

Authority control is not mentioned specifically in AACR2, but it is implied in the sections dealing with forms of name. It is the process whereby a library or cataloguing agency establishes authorized forms of name for access points and ensures that they are used consistently for all occurrences of such names.

It applies not only to names; it can be used for:

(Subject headings are not covered in this book.) The main thing to notice is that it concerns the kinds of access point that may occur in more than one item. Although it can apply to uniform titles, it does not usually apply to ordinary titles, because they are so much more various.

Its main purpose is to assist retrieval by ensuring that all items that have an entry under a particular heading use the same form of the heading, so that, for example, all works of a particular author are brought together.

It also provides a means of ensuring that cross-references are consistently made, so that a user who looks for a name under the ‘wrong’ form will be directed to the ‘right’ one. This can range from a compound surname, where the user may be uncertain of the form of entry, to a government department, where the leading term in the heading will be the name of the jurisdiction.

Cross-references can be of ‘see’ or ‘see also’ form.

Why have authority control?

When computers were first introduced into cataloguing it used to be said – and it is still sometimes said now – that there was no need for authority control, on the grounds that, by free-text searching, the user can retrieve any combination of desired words from within the catalogue record. Even if this were possible – and it is still not so in most OPACs – it would not solve the problem of authors who use different forms of their name in different works.