authority control
Enable an agent to recognise, assess and maintain authority control that consistently identifies entities and manages the names and access points used to describe and retrieve them.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an agent to recognise, assess and maintain authority control that consistently identifies entities and manages the names and access points used to describe and retrieve them.
Authority control is the library and information-management practice of maintaining records that identify and distinguish entities and connect their preferred and variant names or titles so that descriptions and searches refer consistently to the intended entities.
It can be Propose an authority record or access point with supporting evidence and explicit uncertainty.; Distinguish namesakes and flag suspected conflation of separate entities.; Connect variant and multilingual names to an identified entity under an applicable policy.; Reconcile descriptive access points against authority files and route uncertain matches for review.; Propose merges, splits or renamings while preserving decision history and affected links.; Audit retrieval, linking coverage and propagation of approved authority changes..
Distinguishing features
A spelling-normalisation operation becomes authority control only when it supports a governed decision about an entity or controlled access point.
Matching name strings alone does not establish identity: the process must accommodate different entities with identical names.
Different names can lead to the same entity without requiring their original forms to be discarded.
An authorised access point is preferred within a stated authority context, rather than asserted to be the universally correct name.
An authority-control decision can affect links and retrieval across multiple descriptive records, rather than merely editing one displayed label.
Scope
+ The authority policy and community within which an access point is authorised
+ Identification and differentiation of persons, organisations, works, places and other entities covered by that policy
+ Authorised, variant and multilingual names or access points linked to identified entities
+ Evidence, uncertainty and review supporting identity and naming decisions
+ Application, reconciliation and maintenance of authority links in descriptive records
- Authentication, permissions and cybersecurity access control
- Political legitimacy, institutional power and chains of command
- Complete bibliographic description and resource cataloguing
- General ontology construction and subject classification beyond their authority-control interfaces
- Comprehensive biographies or histories of the entities identified
Characteristics
- Authority context
- Responsible agency, authority file, applicable policy and policy version Establishes where and under whose rules an access point or identity decision applies.
- Controlled entity category
- Person, organisation, work, expression, place, subject concept or locally defined category Determines which distinguishing evidence and access-point rules are relevant.
- Identity resolution state
- Unresolved, provisionally identified, established under policy, disputed or pending split Separates evidence-based identification from an unreviewed candidate match.
- Access-point role
- Authorised, variant, parallel authorised, historical or deprecated, qualified by authority context Controls how a name supports display, navigation and retrieval.
- Name context
- Language, script, transliteration scheme, usage community and period of use Prevents context-specific names from being treated as interchangeable in every setting.
- External identity mapping
- Target identifier, asserted relationship, supporting evidence and review state Distinguishes confirmed identity links from approximate or unresolved cross-file matches.
- Authority-link coverage
- Percentage of eligible descriptive access points linked to an applicable authority record, with denominator and date stated Shows how much of a defined catalogue actually benefits from authority control.
- Maintenance state
- Current, awaiting review, superseded, merged, split or withdrawn Determines whether an authority record can still be applied and what dependent records need attention.
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 28 questions.
Authority policy and scope The meaning, jurisdiction and operating rules of the authority-control activity.
An agent cannot judge whether a heading is authorised without knowing the community and rules that authorise it.
Control approach
How the implementation understands authority control and what it treats as a controlled instance.
Heading and identity emphasis
Record whether the approach prioritises consistent headings, persistent entity identity or both, and who endorses that approach.
- Does the responsible community define authority control primarily through authorised headings, entity identification or a combination? definition
- What distinguishes a controlled access point from an ordinary label or an unreviewed identifier link in this implementation? boundary
Policy jurisdiction
The agency, catalogue, entity categories and rules to which authority decisions apply.
Applicable authority rules
Identify the governing policy, its version and the limits of local discretion.
- Which agency and policy version govern construction and approval of these access points? provenance
- When local practice conflicts with an external authority file, which decision may the agent apply and which requires review? action
Entity identification and separation Evidence and decisions that establish what an authority record identifies.
Consistent names are insufficient if records conflate namesakes or separate references to the same entity.
Identity evidence
The sources and distinguishing attributes used to support identification.
Supported entity identification
Record the evidence connecting an observed name or resource attribution to a particular entity.
- Which consulted sources connect this name to this entity, and what does each source actually establish? provenance
- Which distinguishing attributes, such as dates, affiliations or associated works, support or contradict the proposed identification? measurement
Identity boundaries
Treatment of namesakes, pseudonyms, organisational changes and other cases where identity boundaries need a policy decision.
Separate or shared identities
Make explicit whether related names represent one controlled identity, multiple linked identities or an unresolved case.
- Under the applicable policy, does this pseudonym or organisational name change require a variant name, a separate authority record or a successor relationship? boundary
- What additional evidence is required before the agent may merge suspected duplicates or split a conflated authority record? action
Names and access points Selection, construction and contextual interpretation of controlled names.
Authority control must connect diverse naming practices to reliable access without confusing preference with universal correctness.
Authorised access point selection
The rules and evidence behind preferred forms and distinguishing additions.
Contextual name preference
Record why a particular form is authorised and how qualifiers distinguish it from competing access points.
- Which rule and evidence justify this authorised form and any dates, titles or other distinguishing additions? provenance
- Is this form authorised globally within the file, only for a particular language or catalogue, or alongside parallel authorised forms? boundary
Variant and multilingual access
Alternative names, scripts and historical forms that support discovery.
Qualified name relationships
Record how alternative forms relate to an entity and where their use is appropriate.
- Which variants are attested names, transliterations, abbreviations or historical forms, and what language, script or period qualifies each? provenance
- Which forms should support search expansion, public display or historical interpretation under the relevant policy? action
Catalogue application and reconciliation How authority decisions are applied to descriptive records and aligned across authority files.
A maintained authority file provides limited control unless its identities and access points are correctly connected to catalogue use.
Descriptive record linking
Association of a resource's recorded access point with the intended authority identity.
Context-sensitive link assignment
Assess candidate links using resource context and retain unresolved assignments where evidence is insufficient.
- What evidence from this resource distinguishes the intended entity from other authorities with the same or similar name? provenance
- Which assignments may be accepted automatically, and which must remain unresolved or receive human review? action
Cross-file alignment
Mappings between independently governed authority records and identifiers.
Mapping semantics and evidence
Distinguish asserted identity from relatedness or approximate correspondence across files with different identity policies.
- Does the external mapping assert the same entity, a related identity or only a candidate correspondence? definition
- Do the two files treat pseudonyms, organisational succession or work boundaries differently enough to prevent an identity-equivalence link? boundary
Authority maintenance and evaluation Review, correction and assessment of authority control over time.
Identity and naming decisions change, and their effects must be traceable across dependent records and retrieval behaviour.
Change and propagation
Controlled handling of revised headings, merged identities, splits and retired records.
Traceable authority revision
Record the grounds, approval and downstream consequences of an authority change.
- What evidence and authorised decision justify the revision, and how can the previous state be reconstructed? provenance
- Which dependent links can be redirected safely, and which require reassessment because a split or changed identity boundary makes automatic reassignment ambiguous? action
Control quality and retrieval
Evaluation of identity correctness, authority-link coverage and discovery through alternative names.
Measured authority effectiveness
Assess whether authority control brings relevant records together while keeping different entities apart.
- Within a defined catalogue sample, what proportion of eligible access points is correctly linked, incorrectly linked or unresolved? measurement
- Do searches using attested variants retrieve the intended entity's resources without including resources belonging to namesakes? measurement
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- The name is interpreted in its library and information-science sense; no recorded sense was supplied.
- The boundary between name authority control and subject or vocabulary control varies across professional communities.
- Standards and identifier schemes are recalled without source consultation; current editions and maintenance arrangements should be checked.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of authority control this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Personal-name authority control
- Corporate-body authority control
- Geographic-name authority control
- Work and expression title authority control
- Subject authority control
- Genre/form authority control
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of authority control this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) - Alphabetic prefix with year and serial-number components for name authority records - Identifies an authority record; it is not exclusively a scheme for identifying people.
- Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) - Numeric identifier - Identifies a cluster linking authority records contributed by participating institutions.
- International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) - 16 characters: 15 digits followed by a digit or X - Identifies public identities of parties involved in creative activities.
- ORCID iD - 16 characters in four groups, with a final check character that can be X - Identifies individuals engaged in research and related activities; can support reconciliation with library authority records.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of authority control this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- RDA: Resource Description and Access, maintained under the RDA Steering Committee, provides guidance for describing entities and recording names, titles and relationships.
- MARC 21 Format for Authority Data, maintained by the Library of Congress with Library and Archives Canada, specifies machine-readable authority-record structures.
- IFLA Library Reference Model, issued by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, provides a conceptual model for bibliographic entities and their appellations.
- ISO 27729, issued by the International Organization for Standardization, specifies the International Standard Name Identifier.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of authority control this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Bringing together works by the same person despite spelling changes, pseudonyms or different scripts.
- Separating different people or organizations that share a name.
- Connecting preferred subject terms with synonyms and related concepts for catalogue searching.
- Reconciling catalogue records across institutions and languages.
- Maintaining continuity when organizations change names or relationships between entities are clarified.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of authority control this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Conflating distinct entities that share names.
- Splitting one entity across duplicate authority records and fragmenting retrieval.
- Treating a preferred name in one catalogue or language as universally authoritative.
- Propagating incorrect dates, relationships or identity matches through shared records.
- Exposing sensitive identity information or retaining outdated and discriminatory terminology.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of authority control this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- National libraries and cataloguing communities can choose different preferred names, scripts and transliteration conventions.
- Subject authority vocabularies reflect different languages, cultural perspectives and institutional policies.
- Implementation varies with local cataloguing rules, cooperative programmes and adoption of international standards.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of authority control this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Access control - Access control determines permissions; authority control establishes consistent references to entities in information resources.
- Entity resolution - Entity resolution determines whether records refer to the same entity; authority control additionally maintains curated names, identifiers and relationships for continuing use.
- Controlled vocabulary - A controlled vocabulary supplies managed terms; authority control maintains the records and reference relationships that govern their consistent application.
- Bibliographic description - Bibliographic description records characteristics of resources; authority control manages consistent identification of entities associated with those resources.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of authority control this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Does the registry intend the bibliographic and cultural heritage sense of authority control, and does it include subject authority control as well as names and titles?
- Which reference sources and practitioner communities should anchor the distinction between heading-based authority control and entity-based identity management?
- Which policies should govern pseudonyms, organisational succession and work or expression boundaries when participating authority files disagree?
- How should self-identification, historical evidence and community naming preferences be weighed when selecting public access points?
- What evidence thresholds, review responsibilities and evaluation samples are appropriate for automated reconciliation in the intended deployment?