Cascading Subfields

Presentation to the Cataloging Congress

5 October 2001

Spencer M. Anspach

What is Cascading?

• Cascading, in the Unicorn context, is the process by which authority validation (linking a heading on a bibliographic record to an authority record) can be made to ignore certain subfields.

• Cascading only affects the process of authority validation. It does not affect indexing (keyword or browse) or display; it does not directly affect the heading on the bibliographic record.

How Cascading Works

• Subfields are cascaded from right to left

• Subfields are cascaded only until– a matching authority is found– a non-cascaded subfield is encountered– beginning of field is reached

NOTE

• Cascading is a integral feature of Unicorn and is happening now:– |w in many fields (artifact of OCLC automated

processing)

– |4 and |e from authors

– |? and |= from all fields

Examples

• Authority record:– Higman, G. |q (Graham)

• Bib entry:– Higman, G. |q (Graham) |e ed. |w cn

• Authorization:– Higman, G. |q (Graham) |e ed. |w cn (no match)– Higman, G. |q (Graham) |e ed. (no match)– Higman, G. |q (Graham) (match)

(**Note that spaces were added around the subfields for clarity of display.)

 

Tag (and second indicator value for subject) Subfield

111, 411, 711, 811 n, d, c

600/0, 600/2 v, x, z

610/0, 610/2 v, x, z

611/0, 611/2 n, d, c, v, x, z

630/0, 630/2 v, x, z

650/0, 650/2, 650/9 v, x, z

651/0, 651/2 v, x, z

Proposed Subfields to Addfor Authority Cascading

111, 411, 711, 811 - n, d, c• Authority record:• CIRET Conference

• Bib records:• CIRET Conference |n (16th : |d 1983 : |c Washington, D.C.) |? UNAUTHORIZED

• CIRET Conference |n (19th : |d 1989 : |c Osaka, Japan) |? UNAUTHORIZED

• CIRET Conference |n (24th : |d 1999 : |c Wellington, N.Z.) |? UNAUTHORIZED

• Authority record:• CIRET Conference

• Bib records:• CIRET Conference |n (16th : |d 1983 : |c Washington, D.C.) |= ^A172391

• CIRET Conference |n (19th : |d 1989 : |c Osaka, Japan) |= ^A172391

• CIRET Conference |n (24th : |d 1999 : |c Wellington, N.Z.) |= ^A172391

• Authority record:– International Conference on Number Theory |d (1997 : |c

Zakopane, Poland)

• Bib record:– International Conference on Number Theory |d (1997 : |c

Zakopane, Poland)

111, 411, 711, 811 - n, d, c

In this case, the effect will be the same as currently:

• If authority record is present, heading will be authorized

• If authority record is absent, it will be marked unauthorized

650 - v, x, z• Authority record:• Endowments

• Bib records, currently:• Endowments |v Statistics. |? UNAUTHORIZED

• Endowments |x Finance. |? UNAUTHORIZED

• Endowments |z Alabama |z Mobile. |? UNAUTHORIZED

• Endowments |z Hungary |x Periodicals. |? UNAUTHORIZED

• Endowments |z Scotland |x History |y 19th century. |? UNAUTHORIZED

• Bib records would become:• Endowments |v Statistics. |= ^A345607

• Endowments |x Finance. |= ^A345607

• Endowments |z Alabama |z Mobile. |= ^A345607

• Endowments |z Hungary |x Periodicals. |= ^A345607

• Endowments |z Scotland |x History |y 19th century. |? UNAUTHORIZED

610 - v, x, z• Authority record:• Dante Society of America.

• Bib record, currently:• 110:2 : |a Dante Society of America. |= ^A38038• 610:20: |a Dante Society of America. |x Periodicals. |? UNAUTHORIZED

• Bib record would become:• 110:2 : |a Dante Society of America. |= ^A38038• 610:20: |a Dante Society of America. |x Periodicals. |= ^A38038