Headings Reports

Sierra and Headings Reports

Automatic Authority Control Processing

Automatic Authority Control Processing (AACP) is an automatic process created by III.  It is triggered when authority records are updated and designed to find potentially defunct headings.  

It functions in a three-step process:

  1. Compares normalized headings in authority SEE FROM with normalized bib headings in the same index for potential updates.  For normalization rules, please see “Normalization of Headings for Indexing in Sierra” below.
  2. Checks the MARC tags of the bib and authority records to ensure they are in the same thesaurus (i.e. personal name vs corporate name vs LC subject, etc.)
  3. Performs a character-by character comparison between the bib heading and authority SEE FROM heading to determine whether there is an exact match

Normalization of Headings for Indexing in Sierra

Normalization is defined in Sierra as the simplification of headings for indexing purposes. When a heading is normalized, in either a bib or authority record, the following steps take place.

  1. Take the first 150 characters of the string to be indexed
  2. Remove non-filing characters from Title headings (24x, 2nd indicator or SKIP field)
  3. Remove apostrophes and diacritics
  4. Converts ampersand (“&”) to “and”
  5. Retains “+”, “#”, “$”, “%”, and “@”; all other special characters converted to null characters (“spaces”)
  6. Replace subfield delimiters and punctuation with null characters
  7. Collapse multiple nulls to single nulls
  8. Index the first 125 characters of the resulting string

Types of Headings Reports 

Headings reports are generated on a weekly basis. There are several different types of headings reports and not all libraries or clusters receive all types of headings reports. For more information about what you or your cluster receive, or to request training on Authority Control, please contact the MOBIUS Help Desk.

  • Invalid headings: Bib record headings that match an authority record’s SEE FROM (4XX) field.
  • Duplicate entries: Indexed fields that should be unique to a single record (e.g., barcodes, 001 MARC fields) show up in more than one record.
  • Blind references: Authority records for which the 1XX is not used by any bib in the system.
  • Duplicate authority records: Multiple authority records with the same 1XX field.
  • Records busy, not updated: Bib record heading could not be updated because the bib record was “in use”.  No longer seen since Millennium updated to Sierra.
  • Cross-thesaurus matches: Occurs when AACP finds a bib heading that matches an authority heading, but no thesaurus is specified in the authority record.
  • Headings used for the first time: Author, title, or subject headings that are not being used by any other record. (This headings report has actually been turned off for all MOBIUS clusters, save MERLIN.)
  • Updated Bib Headings: Records updated by AACP, if a bib heading matches an updated authority record’s SEE FROM (4XX) tag.
  • Near Matches: Created when the SEE FROM (4XX) of an updated authority record is close to, but not a straight match, to a bib heading.
  • Non-Unique 4XX: Headings in a bib record that match two or more authority records’ 4XX fields.

Headings Reports Ready Reference

A handy guide explaining how each report is triggered, what they tell you, and how to handle the information contained in them. 

Invalid Headings

Library or Cluster? Library
Triggered by? Updates to bib records
What does it tell me? Indexed entry of Heading in a bib record matches the indexed entry of an authority SEE FROM (4xx) heading
What do I do? Check the headings in the bib record and the authority record. Bib heading correct: Do nothing;Bib heading incorrect: change bib heading to the one listed in the authority Main Entry (1xx); If there are lots of incorrect headings, suppress and unsuppress the authority record to trigger Automatic Authority Control

Duplicate Entries

Library or Cluster? Library
Triggered by? Updates to bib or patron records
What does it tell me? More than one bib in the catalog has the same OCLC # OR more than one patron record has the same Barcode
What do I do? Bibs: Check to see if the bib records should be “merged” (transfer attached records from one bib to another and delete the duplicate); Patrons: Not much you can do, unless you can have the patron’s barcode changed.

Busy Matches

Library or Cluster? Library
Triggered by? Automatic Authority Control
What does it tell me? Automatic Authority Control attempted to update a heading in a bib record, but was unable to because the record was “in use”
What do I do? Update the bib heading to the one listed in the authority Main Entry (1xx)

Blind Headings 

Library or Cluster? Cluster
Triggered by? Updates to authority records
What does it tell me? The Main Entry (1xx) in the authority record does not match any bib heading
What do I do? If you want to retain the authority record for any reason (parent heading, etc.), code the record as a Blind (ACODE1 = b);
If you do not want to retain the authority record, code the record as a Delete:

  • ACODE 2 = a (Name), d (Subject), k (Children’s Subject), t (Title)
  • ASUPPRESS = d
  • Add “[DELETE]” at the end of the Main Entry (1xx) heading

Duplicate Authority Records

Library or Cluster? Cluster
Triggered by? Updates to authority records
What does it tell me? Multiple authority records have the same Main Entry (1xx)
What do I do? Look at the authority records to determine whether they are duplicates or whether one is superseded by the other; If so, delete the older record; If not, do nothing.

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