 Hello and welcome to week one of the authority control class. My name is Emily Nimsikhan and I'm in the cataloging librarian at the Nebraska Library Commission. Since in this class we're going to be talking about authority control, it's probably a good idea to start with a basic definition of the concept. Here are a couple of different definitions from various sources. Here is a definition from the online dictionary of library and information science. And their definition of authority control is that it is the procedures by which consistency of form is maintained in headings, such as names, uniform titles, serious titles, and subjects, used in a library catalog or file of bibliographic records through the application of an authoritative list called an authority file to new items as they are added to the collection. A sort of more informal definition from a book called cataloging without tears says that authority control is all about ensuring consistency in the access points provided by the catalog. The most obvious part of it is making sure that all people adding data to the catalog are using subject headings and creating name headings in the same way. In the computer age it is also important to keep tabs on typing errors in the database as mistyped keywords will not be retrieved in a normal or at least correctly spelled keyword search. So you can see that those two definitions have quite a few aspects in common. And I would say there are three important points you should remember. You should take away from those definitions. Number one, remember that authority control applies to access points, sometimes a whole called headings. Technically, according to the current cataloging rules, RDA, headings is not the right term to use, otherwise access points is, but you'll hear the words headings use a lot still. The elements, these headings or access points that need authority control in a catalog record are personal names, which can be in Markfield's 100, 700, or 600, corporate names in Markfield's 110, 710, and 610, conference names in Markfield's 111, 711, and 611, subjects, Markfield's 650 and 651, series titles, which can go in Markfield's 810, 811, and 830, or uniform titles, which can be in Markfield's 130, 730, 630, or 240. Now that's a big upper level overview. We will go into more detail about each of these in the coming weeks. A second important point to take away from those definitions is that consistency is very important when you are applying authority control. And very simply, consistency is important because it helps your library users find the materials they are seeking. And finally, the last important point to take away from these definitions is that this consistency is determined by referring to an authority file. And we will go into this in much more detail in the coming weeks as well, but just basically keep that in mind for now. The Library of Congress authority file is used by many libraries. It is available for free at authorities.loc.gov online. If you have an access point that does not have an authority record in the Library of Congress authority file, you can establish your own local authority record so that every item by that person or about that subject in your catalog can be linked to an authority record even though it's not in the Library of Congress authority file.