Why wouldn't a keyword search on "Dumas" accomplish this same goal? The
important thing is that the user does a search, and is presented with a
list of authors that might be of interest, right?
It's not clear to me that an alphabetical list of author names ('author
browse') is the only, or even the best, way to do this. It seems to me
that a 'keyword' search (on _authors_), followed by a presentation of
authors who matched (hopefully taking into account "see also" headings
in the authority record into 'matches') would serve just as well, if not
better.
In an ideal world, when presenting this list to the user, each author
entry could be supplemented by additional metadata to help the user
determine which author is of interest too, additional metadata not found
in the authority record but instead calculate. Such as, most popular
work by given author (found by WorldCat holdings, or by highest
circulation in the local system), and LCSH subjects most represented in
the works of this author. That might help me figure out which Alexadre
Dumas I was interested in, when I might have no idea if it was the one
born in 1802 or 1824. (Seriously, which one of those wrote the Three
Musketeers? I have absolutely no idea!).
The multiple entries showing up due to "from old catalog" is another story.
Jonathan
Bryan Baldus wrote:
> 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
>
>
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Digital Services Software Engineer
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Received on Tue Jul 24 2007 - 07:06:03 EDT