On Monday, July 23, 2007 2:29 PM, Andrew Nagy wrote:
>I struggle to understand why someone would want to "browse" by
>author. Viewing a list of names won't help you find what you
>are looking for unless you know the exact, or close to, the
>name of the author. In which case you would just do an author
>search for that person and then in the results you can narrow
>down to the exact author you want.
>
>For example, let's say you are looking for something by Walt
>Whitman. You do an author search for "whitman" and then you
>see that Whitman, Walt is the most popular author in that
>list. You can then narrow down by Whitman, Walt and find all
>of his works. Or with VUFind you have the option of clicking
>on Whitman, Walt in the search results and view an author page
>on Walt Whitman.
>
>Is this near what you are describing?
This might be what I am describing, and it works ok for a relatively
uncommon name like Walt Whitman. However, suppose I want the works of
Alexandre Dumas, and am beginning my research. I am unaware that there is
Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870 and Dumas, Alexandre, 1824-1895. If I do a
browse author search on simply "Dumas, Alexandre" in LC's OPAC (Voyager), I
get a results list starting:
[ 1 ] 10 Dumas, Alexandre. personal name
[ 2 ] 1131 Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870 personal name
[ 3 ] 167 Dumas, Alexandre, 1824-1895 personal name
[ 4 ] 1 Dumas, Alexandre, 1824-1895. [from old catalog] personal name
[ 5 ] 1 Dumas, Alexandre, d. 1916. personal name
[ 6 ] 2 Dumas, Alexandre, d, 1916. [from old catalog] personal name
[ 7 ] 1 Dumas, Alexandre. [from old catalog]
(where the names and the bracketed line numbers are hyperlinked to the
bibliographic record results). At that point, I learn that there are several
people with that name, and I'll have to be more specific (find out which one
I want). One way to do that would be with the assistance of the author page
you describe, or via any number of reference sources. So, once I determine
that I want the Dumas who lived from 1802-1870, I can click on his
authorized heading and retrieve a list of all his works, and only his works,
not those of someone else of the same name (provided that the cataloger
properly assigned the headings). Attempting the same search in VUFind,
"Dumas, Alexandre" as author, the 1st 3 titles retrieved are:
The great lover and other plays /
by Dumas, Alexandre,
Pictures of travel in the south of France /
by Dumas, Alexandre,
La Princess de Bagdad : Piece en trois actes /
by Dumas, Alexandre,
Clicking on the title to bring up each record, I found that the 1st is
actually attributed to "Alexandre Dumas, pére ; adapted, with an introd.,
by Barnett Shaw" (Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870), the 2nd to the same, but the
3rd to Dumas, Alexandre, 1824-1895. If the statement of responsibility from
is removed and replaced by "by" with a link to the heading, it would be
helpful if the entire heading were included in the display. Otherwise, why
not give the statement of responsibility as it appears on the book (as
transcribed in 245$c)? In any case, having the entire authorized form of the
heading in the initial display of results, and especially in the brief
single record display, would assist users in seeing that the works are by
several people of the same name. That authorized heading should be used as
an exact match search against an index of authorized headings to retrieve
all works by (or about if I'm doing a subject search, or if the catalog has
that as an option along the side of the results) that specific person. When
I attempted to click on one of the hyperlinked Dumas, Alexandre, in VUFind,
my browser (Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP) went to a white screen of
emptiness (perhaps it would have brought something back if I'd given it more
time, though). Adding one of the birthdates in the author search, I get
different search result numbers (146 results for author search "Dumas,
Alexandre"; 157 results for "Dumas, Alexandre 1802"; 146 results for "Dumas,
Alexandre, 1824"). In each case, the 1st few titles are the same.
If I mistype Alexandre as Alexander, I get 1664 results in VUFind, with
little indication that I have the wrong spelling. Among the results is LCCN
48005972, Jefferson and his time, attributed to "Malone, Dumas, 1892-", but
the Staff View shows no mention of "Alexander." Attempting the same search,
Author/Creator Browse for Dumas, Alexander in LC's OPAC, the 1st hit is for
a minimal-level record for which authority work has not been done. The 2nd
line points from Dumas, Alexander, 1802-1870 with a More Info button and
instructs the user to "See: Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870." No similar
reference appears on the heading for 1824-1895, but it could be added to the
authority record.
On the authority record side of things, a search on "Dumas, Alexander"
brings up a listing beginning:
1 1 Dumas, Alexander. personal name
2 0 Dumas, Alexander, 1802-1870 personal name
3 1 Dumas, Alexander, 1802-1870. [from old catalog] personal name
4 1 Dumas, Alexander, 1824-1895. [from old catalog] personal name
5 1 Dumas, Alexander. [from old catalog] personal name
6 0 Dumas, Alexander G. (Alexander George), b. 1896 personal name
7 1 Dumas, Alexander George, 1896- personal name
8 1 Dumas, Alexandram 1802-1870. [from old catalog] personal name
9 10 Dumas, Alexandre. personal name
10 0 Dumas, Alexandre, 1762-1806 personal name
11 1133 Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870 personal name
12 167 Dumas, Alexandre, 1824-1895 personal name
13 1 Dumas, Alexandre, 1824-1895. [from old catalog] personal name
14 0 Dumas, Alexandre, ca. 1726-1802 personal name
15 1 Dumas, Alexandre, d. 1916. personal name
16 2 Dumas, Alexandre, d, 1916. [from old catalog] personal name
17 1 Dumas, Alexandre. [from old catalog]
where the 1st column is the line number, some of which have hyperlinks to
the authority records or are reference hyperlinks to the authorized
headings, the 2nd shows how many bibliographic records in the LC database
have that heading (an improvement might be a hyperlink directly to those
bibliographic records), the 3rd column has the heading, and the 4th tells
what kind of heading it is. This type of display is useful for database
maintenance, to identify headings that need to be cleaned up to be
associated with their authorized form, or that need authority records. It
should also be useful for library users, to be able to find the authorized
heading for the author they want, to be used in the bibliographic side for
searching. It might not be necessary to have the separate screen for this
listing--perhaps a side bar listing the headings could appear along the side
of a results set, and the user could click on something to bring up either
the authority record or the bibliographic records associated with that
heading. Perhaps the sidebar could have a section, related authors (for
other authors associated with the name searched) and an alphabetical
authorized heading display of authors (with complete heading, not just the
1st subfield of the name heading).
I hope this helps. Thank you,
Bryan Baldus
Cataloger
Quality Books Inc.
The Best of America's Independent Presses
1-800-323-4241x460
bryan.baldus_at_quality-books.com
Received on Mon Jul 23 2007 - 18:26:39 EDT