5.1 Access: authority data

The process of description – intended as the identification of an entity through the recording of its attributes – is followed by the creation of access points; access points can be defined as links between entities based on the relationships existing among them. (Access points are discussed by ICP, FRBR – and FRAD in particular – and IFLA LRM, as we saw earlier). The access points according to ICP:

• • provide reliable retrieval of bibliographic and authority data and their associated bibliographic resources

• • collocate and limit search results.

Authority data, according to FRAD, is intended as the authorised form of the name or title of a work, combined with other elements that create access to the description.

The recording of descriptive data is textually faithful to their formulation on the sources of information of the resource. At the same time the authority data are structured according to the logic of the reference norms. The formulation of the access point requires an in-depth analysis of the resource that invokes the sense of the Latin verb intelligere, in terms of understanding exactly the meaning of the data, beyond their formulation on the source. Rossella Dini synthesised the concept: ‘In short, it is a matter of establishing an organisation for bibliographical information that reveals their reciprocal relationships in terms of their intellectual content and genesis’ (Dini, 1991, 144).

The access point is chosen based on features of the work, author and conceptual content. It is never discretional and takes into account conventions (though occasionally conflicting) in literary history and in the other sources of information, such as directories (Dunsire, 2020).

Access point, authorised access point and variant access point are formulations specified by ICP. The principles intentionally avoided the use of the term ‘heading’, a term now deemed obsolete, dating back to the catalogue cards. ICP states:

• • an access point is a name, term, code, etc., representing a specific entity

• • an authorised access point is a standardised access point representing an entity

• • a variant access point is an alternative to an authorised access point representing an entity.

In many databases, an access point can potentially be any data linked to a resource; the data can be combined with any other data, including data inferred from the abstract. The access point enables the catalogue to answer specific questions:

• • which works by an author

• • which expressions of a work