Authority control is the practice of creating and maintaining index terms for bibliographic material in a catalog in library and information science. Authority control fulfills two important functions. First, it enables catalogers to disambiguate items with similar or identical headings. For example, two authors who happen to have published under the same name can be distinguished from each other by adding middle initials, birth and/or death (or flourished, if these are unknown) dates, or a descriptive epithet to the heading of one (or both) authors. Second, authority control is used by catalogers to collocate materials that logically belong together, although they present themselves differently. For example, authority records are used to establish uniform titles, which can collocate all versions of a given work together even when they are issued under different titles.

Although theoretically any piece of information on a given book is amenable to authority control, catalogers typically focus on authors and titles. Subject headings fulfill a function similar to authority records, although they are usually considered separately.

Authority records[link]

The most common way of enforcing authority control in a bibliographic catalog is to set up a separate index of authority records, which relates to and governs the headings used in the main catalog. This separate index is often referred to as an "authority file." It contains an indexable record of all decisions made by catalogers in a given library (or -- as is increasingly the case -- cataloguing consortium), which catalogers consult when making, or revising, decisions about headings.

It is to be remembered that the function of authority files is essentially organizational, rather than informational. That is to say, they (ideally) contain a sufficient amount of information to establish a given author or title as unique, while excluding information that, while perhaps interesting to a reader, does not contribute to this goal.

Although practices certainly vary internationally, in the English-speaking world, it is generally the case that a valid authority record must contain:

• A heading
• Any cross references
• Statement(s) of justification

Heading refers to the form of name (or title) that the cataloguer has chosen as the authorized form.

Cross references are other forms of the name (or title) that might appear in the catalog. There are two types of cross-references: see references, which reference forms of the name (or title) that have been deprecated in favor of the authorized form; and see also references, which point to other forms of the name (or title) that are authorized. See also references are most commonly used to point to earlier or later forms of a name (or title).

Statement(s) of justification: In addition to providing a heading and applicable references, a valid authority record should also contain a reference to whatever sources of information the cataloguer used to determine both the authorized and any deprecated forms of the name. This is usually done by citing the title and publication date of the source, the location of the name (or title) on that source, and the form in which it appears on that source.

An example authority record, for author Flann O'Brien, taken from the United States Library of Congress authorities files, is reproduced below. (The original record has been abbreviated somewhat for clarity):

O’Brien, Flann, 1911-1966

Na Gopaleen, Myles, 1911-1966
Knowall, George
Na gCopaleen, Myles, 1911-1966

His At Swim-Two-Birds ... 1939.
His The best of Myles, 1983: CIP t.p. (Myles na Gopaleen (Flann O’Brien))
His Myles away from Dublin, 1985: t.p. (Myles na Gopaleen (Flann O’Brien) selection from the 
column written for ... under the name of George Knowall)
Rhapsody in Stephen’s green, 1994: t.p. (Flann O’Brien (Myles na gCopaleen))

This example contains all the elements of a valid authority record: the first heading is the form of the name that the Library of Congress has chosen to be authoritative. In theory, every record in the catalog that represents a work by this author should have this form of the name as its author heading. What follows immediately below is a set of see references. These forms of the author's name will appear in the catalog, but only as transcriptions, not as headings. If a user queries the catalog under one of these variant forms of the author's name, she would receive the response: "See O’Brien, Flann, 1911-1966." (See also references, which point from one authorized heading to another authorized heading, are exceedingly rare for personal name authority records, although they often appear in name authority records for corporate bodies.) The final four entries in this record constitute the justification for this particular form of the name: it appeared in this form on the 1939 edition of the author's novel At Swim-Two-Birds, whereas the author's other noms de plume appeared on later publications.

Access control[link]

The act of choosing a single authorized heading to represent all forms of a name is often difficult, sometimes arbitrary and on occasion politically sensitive. An alternative is the idea of access control, where variant forms of a name are related without the endorsement of one particular form. See Linda Barnhart's Access Control Records: Prospects and Challenges from the 1996 OCLC conference 'Authority Control in the 21st Century'.

Authority control and cooperative cataloging[link]

Before the advent of digital OPACs and the Internet, the work of creating and maintaining a library's authority files was generally carried out by individual cataloging departments (if it was done at all). This meant that there could be a fair amount of disagreement among libraries over which form of a given name was considered authoritative; so long as a library's catalog was internally consistent, differences between catalogs did not matter greatly.

However, even before the Internet revolutionized the way libraries go about cataloging their materials, catalogers began moving toward the establishment of cooperative consortia, such as OCLC and RLIN in the United States, in which cataloging departments from libraries all over the world contributed their records to, and took their records from, a shared database. This development gave rise to the need for national standards for authority work.

In the United States, the primary organization for maintaining cataloging standards with respect to authority work operates under the aegis of the Library of Congress, and is known as the Name Authority Cooperative Program, or NACO^[1] Authority.

Standards[link]

• ISAAR (CPF) - International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families.^[2] Published by the International Council on Archives^[3]
• MARC standards for authority records in machine-readable format.^[4]
• Metadata Authority Description Schema (MADS), an XML schema for an authority element set that may be used to provide metadata about agents (people, organizations), events, and terms (topics, geographics, genres, etc.).
• Encoded Archival Context, an XML schema for authority records conforming to ISAAR(CPF)

See also[link]

• Universal Authority File (Gemeinsame Normdatei or GND), authority file by the German National Library
• Knowledge Organization Systems
• Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) for representation of thesauri, classification schemes, taxonomies, subject-heading systems, or any other type of structured controlled vocabulary.
• Virtual International Authority File (VIAF), an aggregation of authority files currently focused on personal and corporate names.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Library of Congress authorities records
• A description of authority control services as provided by Backstage Library Works
• A description of authority control services as provided by LTI
• A description of authorities processing services as provided by Marcive

Ricky Donnell Ross
Born	(1960-01-31) January 31, 1960 (age 52)[1] Troup, Texas, U.S.
Alias(es)	Freeway
Charge(s)	Conspiracy to illegally traffic cocaine (100kg)
Penalty	Life, then commuted to 20 years by a U.S. Federal Court Of Appeals
Status	Incarcerated in 1996, released in 2009

Ricky Donnell Ross (born January 30, 1960^[1]), also known as "Freeway" Rick Ross, is an American convicted drug trafficker best known for the "drug empire" that he presided over in Los Angeles, California, in the early-1980s.^[2]

Biography[link]

The nickname "Freeway" came from Ross's ownership of several properties along the Los Angeles-area Harbor Freeway as well as the existence of a freeway near his childhood home.^[3] During the height of his drug dealing, Ross claims to have sold "$3 million in one day."^[4] According to the Oakland Tribune, "In the course of his rise, prosecutors estimate that Ross exported several tons of cocaine to New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and made more than $600 million in the process."^[5]

In 1996, Ross was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of trying to purchase more than 100 kilograms of cocaine from a federal agent. Ross became the subject of controversy later that year when a series of articles by journalist Gary Webb in the San Jose Mercury News brought to light a connection between one of Ross's cocaine sources, Danilo Blandon, and the CIA as part of the Iran-Contra scandal.^[6] The decision in Ross's case was brought to a federal court of appeals where his sentence was reduced to 20 years. His sentence was then reduced further due to being a model prisoner, and he was moved to a halfway house in California in March 2009. Ross was released from imprisonment on September 29, 2009.^[7]

Cocaine use and business[link]

Cocaine introduction[link]

It was through Fraser Brown, a college friend, that Ross was introduced to cocaine. Through Fraser, Ross found a connection to purchase cheap Nicaraguan cocaine: two Nicaraguan exiles, Oscar Danilo Blandon and Norwin Meneses Cantarero. Ross began distributing the cocaine around US$10,000 less per kilo than the average street price, his point of distribution being the Bloods and Crips street gangs. Eventually, Ross purchased his cocaine directly from Blandón and Meneses. By 1982, Ross had received his moniker of "Freeway Ricky," and is claimed to have been selling up to US$3 million worth of cocaine per day—and purchasing 455 kilos of cocaine a week. One of Ross' main dealers was his child hood friend Billy Moulton. ^[4] In addition to cocaine, Ross was also able to purchase surveillance equipment, such as minicameras and recording equipment. Some of the gang members that worked for him bought expensive jewelry and flashy cars as well as weapons ranging from Uzi submachine guns to semi-automatic pistols to fight rivals. Ricky was also known for his rampant use of cannabis, or marijuana, rumored to have allegedly smoked with famous rapper Snoop Dogg and President of Hostess treats Company.

Drug empire[link]

With thousands of employees, Ross claimed he operated drug sales not only in Los Angeles but in places across the country including St. Louis, New Orleans, Texas, Kansas City, Oklahoma, Indiana, Cincinnati, North Carolina, South Carolina, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Seattle. He has said many times that his most lucrative sales came from the Ohio area. He made similar claims in a 1996 PBS interview. According to the Oakland Tribune, "In the course of his rise, prosecutors estimate that Ross exported several tons of cocaine to New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and made more than $600 million in the process."^[8] Adjusting for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, that is more than 1.6 billion dollars. ^[9]

Iran-Contra involvement[link]

Ross's capture was facilitated by his career-long dealer Oscar Danilo Blandon, who "set up" Ross. Blandón had close ties with the Contras, and had met with Contra leader Enrique Bermúdez on several occasions. Blandón was the link between the CIA and Contras during the Iran-Contra affair. Gary Webb interviewed Ross several times before breaking the story in 1996. Ross claims that the reason he was unfairly tried initially was because of his involvement in the scandal. Blandón received a 24-month sentence for his drug trafficking charges, and following his release, was hired by the Drug Enforcement Administration where he was salaried at US$42,000. Blandón was not a U.S. citizen/national, and is the only known foreigner not to be deported following conviction on drug trafficking charges in U.S. history. The INS was ordered to grant Blandón a green card, despite the criminal convictions, to allow him to work for the DEA. The DEA claims that they no longer employ Blandón, and his whereabouts are unknown.^[10]

Lawsuit against rapper Rick Ross[link]

On June 18, 2010, Ross sued rapper Rick Ross (real name William L. Roberts) for using his name.^[11] Freeway Ricky Ross filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Ross in a California Federal Court.^[11] Jay-Z had been called to testify in the lawsuit, as he was CEO of Def Jam when Ross was signed to the label.^[11] The reformed drug kingpin was looking for $10 million in compensation in the lawsuit.^[11]

Also, the release of rapper Rick Ross' album, Teflon Don, was threatened to be blocked by Freeway Ricky Ross. A week after the lawsuit was filed, the rapper responded to the charges: "It’s like owning a restaurant, you’re gonna have a few slip and falls. You get lawsuits, you deal with them, and get them out of your way ... sometimes you lose."^[12] He then denied rumors that he would change his name to "Ricky Rozay" as a consequence of the lawsuit.

After the lawsuit was dismissed on July 3, 2010,^[13] the album Teflon Don was released as scheduled on July 20, 2010. A federal judge ruled that the case should be refiled in California state court because it fell under California state law. Ross refiled the case with the State of California and the federal case is on appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.^[14] The federal case was appealed to higher court, state case was filed in 2011 in California.

Since then Freeway Ricky Ross has refiled in Los Angeles Superior court with several publicity rights claims. Depositions have been ongoing. Trial is set for early May 2012. The case has been since dismissed by a judge in the Los Angeles Superior court. ^[15]

In popular culture[link]

Ross was a key figure in filmmaker Kevin Booth's documentary, American Drug War: The Last White Hope. The second episode of the first season of BET's American Gangster documentary series was focused on the story of Ricky Ross and his connection to the Iran-Contra scandal.^[10] While in Texarkana prison, Ricky Ross became the first federal inmate to create a social networking website.^[16] Ross is played by actor Glenn Plummer in the film, 100 Kilos.^[17] Ross was recently featured in VH1's critically acclaimed Planet Rock History of Crack and Hip Hop Documentary. The documentary was a look into the interconnection between top hip hop talents such as Jay Z, Snoop and Wu Tang and the growth of the Crack Epidemic. Freeway Rick Ross was an integral part of the show, along with the prior listed talents. ^[18]

In the song "My Favorite Mutiny" by The Coup, rapper Boots claims the Central Intelligence Agency directed Ross to distribute crack: "before the CIA told Ricky Ross to put crack in the sack."^[19] The song "Mathematics" by Mos Def contains a reference to the link between Ross and the CIA: "Nearly half of America's largest cities is one-quarter black/ That's why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack."^[20] In the Murs song "The Science" (from his 2008 release Murs for President) the rapper says "...and they gave us dope (Crack)/From the CIA by the way of Nicaragua/Shipped to Rick Ross/He's the Black Godfather." He continues to rap about conspiracies surrounding the CIA's dealings with Ross throughout the song.

American rapper Rick Ross acquired his moniker from Ross, much to the original's chagrin as discussed when Ricky Ross appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast.

Personal life[link]

Rapper Slim da Mobster is Ross' nephew.^[21]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Freewayrick.com Rick Ross's Home Page
• Freewayenterprise.com Rick Ross's Social Media Site
• Jimmy DaSaint and Freeway Ricky Ross's Book Black Scarface
• AmericanDrugWar.com AmericanDrugWar.com
• Profile on the show American Gangster
• Freeway Ricky Ross Timeline - November 2, 2006 Streetgangs.com
• How John Kerry exposed the Contra-cocaine scandal – Salon
• The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions – U.S. Department of Justice
• [Interviewed on Vocalo.org] [1]
• [Interviewed on latalkradio.com] [2]
• Interview with Freeway Ricky Ross by Dominic Streatfeild