51. évfolyam, 2005. 2. szám

Archívum

From Filing to Name Spaces – An Outline of the Research History of the Authority Control

DUDÁS Anikó

Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 15. (51.) 2005. no. 2. pp. 223 – 256.

The article offers an outline of the universal and domestic research history of name / title authority control. The core purpose of dealing with authorities arised from processing and maintaining a common information retrieval tool either for a single location or a shared system built upon unified filing rules.

Works on the history of catalogues and cataloguing throw light on the development of entry headings too. Filing rules and means were determined according to the recognition of functions of the catalogues. From the beginning of the 20th century, series of comparative studies examined the concordances of the different rules in order to facilitate development of international cataloguing principles to a unified code.

Research on authority control and authority file systems became a separate research field, as an important part of designing and building on-line integrated library systems. Theoretical approaches analysed the functions and purposes of authority control, while pragmatic approaches focused on adapting international principles in particular standards that assure linguistic, morphological and semiotic uniformity of the access headings, thus the consistency of the catalogue. A number of special guidelines were produced to support standardized data processing; important authority files became visible to the human community; syndetic structure and compatibility of automated systems evolved. Numerous empirical studies were carried out to evaluate authority control. New approaches are reflected in initiatives toward developing information technology which could preserve language and cultural traditions and enable searching in contextual frames. The concept of virtual name spaces arises as well. The article also touches upon a few Hungarian theoretical and pragmatic approaches.

Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Észrevételek