Introducing name authority into an ETD collection
| Published date | 03 June 2014 |
| Pages | 271-283 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LM-08-2013-0074 |
| Date | 03 June 2014 |
| Author | Laura Waugh,Hannah Tarver,Mark Edward Phillips |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,HR in libraries |
Introducing name authority into
an ETD collection
Laura Waugh, Hannah Tarver and Mark Edward Phillips
UNT Libraries, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and evaluate a workflow for establishing name
authority in uncontrolled collections.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors developed a workflow incorporating command-line
tools and tested it in the electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) collection. The authors narrowed
the scope of the study to born-digital ETDs in the collection and to contributor names, including chairs
and committee members.
Findings – This workflow can save staff time and allows for flexible implementation depending on
staff numbers and skills as well as institutional needs.
Originality/value – This workflow could be used by other institutions with little or no modification,
as it does not rely on specialized software or extensive expertise.
Keywords Institutional repositories, Electronic theses and dissertations, ETDs, Authority control,
Metadata quality, Name authority
Paper type Case study
1. Introduction
Establishing name authority control represents a key component for usability in digital
collections. As the number of digital objects increases, there is a corresponding
likelihood of greater inconsistency and problematic search results. Inconsistencies
can stem from the changing of a person’s name, pseudonym s, entry error s,
differences in formatting, similarities in names, or even multiple people with the
same name. All of these prove problematic when establishing a name authority
control mechanism.
Although a number of organizations provide bodies of name authority records
online, these authority files have limited scopes depending on the goals of the
organizations. This presents a particular problem for universities that collect and
curate works created by members of their communities, many of whom do not have
representation within the established authority records. Local bibliographic catalog
records, the Library of Congress (LOC) Authorities, the Virtual International Authority
File (VIAF), and even Wikipedia offer various authorized versions of names; however,
many university community members do not have authority records. Other local
sources may not prove sufficient, as campus-wide directories and faculty profiles
generally rely on an author-submitted version of a name.
One large category of university-produced materials consists of electronic theses
and dissertations (ETDs). The University of North Texas (UNT) was among the first
in the USA to require electronic submissions of theses and dissertations (TD),
beginning in 1999. A partnership between the UNT Toulouse Graduate School and
the UNT Libraries led to the creation of the ETD collection, housed within the UNT
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-5124.htm
Received 21 August 2013
Accepted 6 September 2013
Library Management
Vol. 35 No.4/5, 2014
pp. 271-283
rEmeraldGroup PublishingLimited
0143-5124
DOI 10.1108/LM-08-2013-0074
An earlier version of thi s paper was present ed at the 16th Inter national Sympos ium on
Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD), in Hong Kong, on 23-26 September 2013, http://
lib.hku.hk/etd2013/
271
ETD collection
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