Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Keywords

authority control, cataloging, cataloging standards, catalog indexing, catalog display, catalog design, library catalogs, OPACs, discovery platforms, discovery services

Abstract

Library catalogs do not provide catalog users with the assistance they need to easily and confidently select the person they are interested in. Examples are provided of Web services that do a better job of helping information seekers differentiate the person they are seeking from those with similar names. Some of the reasons for this failure in library catalogs are examined. This article then looks at how much information is necessary to help users disambiguate names, how that information could be captured and shared, and some ways the information could be displayed in library catalogs.

Publication Title

Cataloging & Classification Quarterly

First Page

223

Last Page

232

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2011.560834

Comments

Author Posting. © Bob Thomas, 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Bob Thomas for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, Volume 49 Issue 3, April 2011. doi:10.1080/01639374.2011.560834 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2011.560834)

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Name authority records (Information retrieval); Online library catalogs--Quality

Genre/Form

articles

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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