MARS™ Authority Control

Formerly OCLC^® MARS Authority Control, our MARS service is one of the oldest and most reliable authority control offerings on the market. And with new system upgrades introduced for 2008—including a user-friendly web interface and enhanced efficiency, accuracy, and customization—managing your authority records has never been easier.

Backstage offers name and subject authority control based on the Library of Congress name and subject authority databases. The authority control process standardizes name, subject, series, and uniform title headings.

Our Standard Library of Congress Batch Processing...

Pre-processing

Prior to comparing headings against Library of Congress authority files, we prepare the bibliographic information for optimum authority processing.

In pre-processing, we check for inconsistencies in the record headings, standardizing your headings for the authority matching operation. This process corrects errors, deletes or modifies obsolete fields, removes unwanted fields, standardizes punctuation, eliminates obsolete brackets and parentheses, and otherwise prepares the database for processing.

In addition, we apply a custom corrections operation that draws on many years of processing records for client institutions, making further corrections. This process spots inconsistencies such as invalid qualifiers, inversion errors, etc.

Processing

Your record headings are run against the Library of Congress name and subject authority file databases. This process affects and updates these headings:

• Names (100, 110, 111, 700, 711)
• Subject-Names (600, 610, 611, 630)
• Series (400, 410, 411, 440, 800, 810, 811, 830, 840)
• Uniform Titles (130, 240, 243, 730)
• Subject-Topics (650, 651)

Enhanced Library of Congress Batch Processing...

Our enhanced service gives you our full authority processing, but allows you additional input on profiling specifications and decisions. This option includes a limited manual review of common split headings and a report on non-matched headings.

Authority File Output

You can elect to have the matched Library of Congress name and subject files output to the storage media of your choice in preparation for loading onto your library's automation system. These authority files contain "see" and "see also" cross-references, scope notes, and other information relative to each heading.

Additional Authority Control Services

We also offer:

• Full manual review
• MeSH authority control
• LC Children's authority control
• Authority processing using a locally created authority database
• Ongoing authority control processing (notification services)
• The Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
• Guidelines on Subject Access to Individual Works of Fiction, Drama, etc. (GSAFD)
  

Planning guide

Click here for a PDF version of the planning guide. This document will explain, in full detail, our authority control process.

Ready for more information?
Shoot an email to info@bslw.com or call us at 1-800-316-BSLW.