[Dspace-general] Authority files

[MacKenzie Smith]

Hi Glen,

I apologize for not replying earlier. As far as I know, there is no 
general approach to name authority control via the DSpace submission UI 
today. You're probably remembering the experiment we did with OCLC using 
their name authority Web Service, which worked quite well except for the 
fact that most of our DSpace submitters aren't published book authors so 
they weren't in the authority file. That's the main problem with 
authority control in IRs... who has the authoritative list of names?

If you have a name authority list to use, then if it's small you could 
make the author field a drop-down list. If it's large (as I'm sure it is 
in your case) then you would need a Web Service like OCLC's that 
contained all your names.  MIT is working on something like that with 
our campus HR system, but we don't have it working yet -- maybe in six 
months? And if it works here then you might be able to do something 
similar for your own institution.

Best,

MacKenzie

> Hello,
>
> Has anyone made better progress on the incorporation of local 
> authority files into Dspace?  Or has anyone solved the duplication of 
> local names within Dspace in a semi-automated way?
>
> I remember the discussion of authority files on this listerv back in 
> late 2005 (see 
> http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/dspace-general/2005-December/000802.html) 
> and I was curious if there was any update.
>
> Thanks,
> Glen
>
>  
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *Glen Wiley
> Metadata Librarian
> *Metadata Services
> 107E Olin Library
> Cornell University
> Ithaca, NY 14853
> --/ Our Vision is to be internationally recognized and respected as a 
> center of metadata expertise. --
> /gsw55 at cornell.edu
> 607-254-5445
> http://metadata.library.cornell.edu/
>
-- 
MacKenzie Smith
Associate Director for Technology
MIT Libraries