Of interest to catalogers:
NEWS from the LIBRARY of CONGRESS
Public Affairs Office
101 Independence Ave., S.E.
Washington, DC 20541-1610
Phone (202) 707-2905
Fax (202) 707-9199
Email [log in to unmask]
http://www.loc.gov/today/pr
September 24, 2002
Press contact: Audrey Fischer (202) 707-0022, [log in to unmask]
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUTHORITY RECORDS NOW AVAILABLE
ONLINE
Library of Congress authority records are now available online on the Library's
Web site at http://authorities.loc.gov. Known as Library of Congress
Authorities, the free online service allows users to search, display and
download authority records in the MARC 21 format for use in local library
systems.
An authority record is a tool used by librarians to establish forms of names
(for persons, places, meetings and organizations), titles and subjects used
on bibliographic records. Authority records enable librarians to provide
uniform access to materials in library catalogs and to provide clear
identification of authors and subject headings. Authority records also provide
cross references to lead users to the headings used in library catalogs.
The Library of Congress database contains more than 5.5 million authority
records. Through the Library of Congress Authorities service, users have
access to these authority records, including 3.8 million personal, 900,000
corporate, 120,000 meeting, 90,000 geographic name authority records;
265,000 subject authority records; 350,000 series and uniform title authority
records; and 340,000 name/title authority records.
The Library is currently working with Endeavor Information Systems to provide
access via Z39.50 (an international standard for information retrieval) and
other features such as the full MARC 21 character set for display and
download of authority data and access to the approximately 2,300 subject
subdivision records in the Library of Congress Subject Headings.
This new service was made available on a trial basis on July 1. During the
trial period, the Library sought feedback from users worldwide to assist in
evaluating the service. User response was overwhelmingly positive. Based on
their input, the Library has made improvements to Library of Congress
Authorities and decided to offer this free service on a permanent basis. The
Library welcomes comments from users, which should be sent via e-mail to
[log in to unmask]
A PowerPoint presentation on Library of Congress Authorities is available at
www.loc.gov/ils/ala02arv.ppt.
PR 02-114
09/24/02
ISSN 0731-3527
Posted by Ann Della Porta
Acting Coordinator
Integrated Systems Office
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540-4010
[log in to unmask]
phone: 202.707.4761
fax: 202.707.4719
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