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Tip for March 11, 2019

You are adding a new patron. You start typing in their homeroom teacher, only to realize you can't remember how to spell it. "Zie" is as far as you've got. What's next? Authority Control has you covered.


There isn't a visual indication that an entry field is managed by Authority Control, but as you type...

  • In version 6, type anything in the controlled field and it will pop up the list of terms.
  • In version 7, type the first three letters, and if it matches a term in Authority Control, a faint shadow text will appear with the full term. Tab out of the field to accept the suggestion, or continue typing to reject it.

But what if the suggested term is spelled wrong, like Zeigler instead of Ziegler? Clean up your terms. 

  1. From Tools, open Authority Control.
  2. Open the Homeroom category. 
    1. v7 - On the left, expand the Patrons category and click Homeroom.
    2. v6 - Set the dropdown menu to Homeroom.
  3. Locate the entry for the incorrect term, Zeigler, then click Edit Term. 
  4. Enter the corrections, then save. 
  5. Alexandria will update all the Zeigler terms in your Homeroom fields to Ziegler. Phew!
Which fields are Authority Controlled?

Everything you see in Authority Control. Some real handy ones besides Homeroom are:

  • Series. Clean up your series so books show up right!
  • Titles > Genre. Make the genre selection in Search and Browse much clearer!
  • Names > Authors. Modify all JRR Tolkien entries to J.R.R. Tolkien, so those books show up under the same author.
  • Medium. So that your patrons don't have to wonder why there is Book and book and BOOK-unmediated and etc. 

See also the following tips: 

Spring Cleaning—Authority Control
Cleaning up your Subject Tags 
I want what I want—Searching by Genre 
Audiobooks Only, Please! (Searching by Medium)

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6 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    Would it be possible to get a list of locations and shelves such as this?

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    1. Myra AUTHOR

      Yes, you'll find those lists in your Tools > Authority Control!

      For copy location, look under Copies > Copy Location (or whatever your location term is). 

  2. Anonymous

    If I want to find which books/items have a messy authority record, how can I find them? Right now I have two records for book, two for cartographic record, If I clean up all of the electronic record mis-entries I'll  have five records for that. I'd like to roll them all into one record instead of having five but that means I need to find those items and change those records.

    1. Myra AUTHOR

      You don't need to find the items themselves—In Authority Control you can see lists of all the various terms used in your catalog, and change them there.

      Using Medium as an example, if I have entries for BOOK, BOOKS, TEXT, and Book, I can change all of those to book in Authority Control and it will update that term throughout the collection. (And it won't create four entries for book, just one!).

      I hope I was able to answer your question (smile)

      1. Anonymous

        Actually I did just that and I still have two entries for book (sad)

        1. Myra AUTHOR

          Hmm... Authority Control can be case sensitive, or it's possible there is a space or punctuation in one of them... Sometimes it may take a few minutes to update, also. 

          But if those aren't the problems, please do call our Support team and they can help you out!

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