Alma Resource Management Guide

Authority Control in Alma

Authority Control Procedures and Guidelines for the State of Florida University System and State College System Bibliographic Database (Ex Libris Alma)

Prepared by the Technical Services Standing Committee (TSSC) Authorities Subcommittee November 2022 

For the complete guide of the Authorities review process, please use the link below to go to the complete official document

Alma Authority Control Procedures & Guidelines Document

Introduction 

Authority control in Alma primarily consists of two jobs which run daily. 

1- Authorities - Link BIB Headings – This job searches all authority record fields, including subdivision fields, for complete terms listed in bibliographic records. If exact matches are found, the bibliographic records are linked to the corresponding authority records. If exact matches are not found, the subdivision fields are disregarded, a search of all authority records is performed once again, and the bibliographic records are linked to the matching authority records (binocular icons) that are located during the second search. This job runs first and then corrections are made during the Authorities - Preferred Term Correction job based on the linked headings. 

2- Authorities - Preferred Term Correction – This job performs preferred term correction on all bibliographic records that are linked to authority records using the Authorities - Link BIB Headings job. For example, if a bibliographic record contains the non-preferred term “Narcotics, Control of,” and the associated authority record contains the preferred term “Drug control,” the Authorities – Preferred Term Correction job replaces “Narcotics, Control of” with the preferred term “Drug control.” Note that bibliographic records are also updated with any subsequent updates to authority records. The Authorities – Preferred Term Correction job is the job that will require the most review. 

• The Link BIB Headings job and the Preferred Term Correction job run nightly in all IZs and the NZ in Alma. 
• When the Preferred Term Correction job is run in the IZ, it corrects headings on records that are only in the IZ. If the record is linked to the NZ, the record is not corrected. When the report is run in the NZ, it only corrects headings on records that are linked to the NZ. 
• Normalization rules have been implemented to alter the behavior of the Preferred Term Correction job in order to catch more potential errors in the process. 
• During the testing phase it was determined that the number of correct changes far outnumbered the number of incorrect changes. In other words, the process worked by and large, and the percentage of incorrect changes made was very small. 
• Each institution is responsible for reviewing the results of the jobs in their IZ. FLVC will review the results of the jobs for the NZ. 
• Bibs linked to the CZ: The preferred term correction job does NOT currently update records linked to the Community Zone.

Best Practices 

Determine the best timeframe to review the reports based on your institution’s needs. For some, weekly review might be best, for others a monthly or quarterly review might be optimal. 

If your library has permission to enhance OCLC records, correct the record in OCLC and then overlay the existing Alma record. 

If the heading isn’t in the LC NAF, submit an authority record for the heading to NACO or to the Florida NACO Funnel.