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

Andrew Napolitano
Andrew Napolitano at CPAC in February 2010.
Judge of the New Jersey Superior Court
In office 1987–1995
Appointed by	Thomas Kean
Personal details
Born	Andrew Paolo Napolitano (1950-06-06) June 6, 1950 (age 62) Newark, New Jersey, United States
Alma mater	Princeton University Notre Dame Law School
Occupation	Judge Attorney Media Personality
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	Biography on FoxNews.com

Andrew Paolo Napolitano (born June 6, 1950) is a former New Jersey Superior Court Judge. He is a political and senior judicial analyst for Fox News Channel, commenting on legal news and trials. Napolitano started on the channel in 1998.

Early life, judicial and academic career[link]

Napolitano was born in Newark, New Jersey. He is a graduate of Princeton University (he was a founding member of the Concerned Alumni of Princeton^[1]) and Notre Dame Law School. Napolitano sat on the New Jersey bench from 1987 to 1995, becoming the state's youngest then-sitting Superior Court judge. He also served as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University School of Law for 11 years. Napolitano resigned his judgeship in 1995 to pursue his writing and television career.

Media career[link]

Prior to joining Fox as a news analyst, Napolitano was the presiding judge on the television show, Power of Attorney, in which people brought small-claims disputes to a televised courtroom. Differing from similar formats, the plaintiffs and defendants were represented "pro bono" by famous attorneys. The show ran in syndication during the 2000–2001 season.

From 2006 to 2010, Napolitano co-hosted a talk radio show on Fox News Radio with Brian Kilmeade titled Brian and the Judge.

Napolitano hosted a libertarian talk show called Freedom Watch that aired daily, with new episodes on weekdays, on Fox Business Channel.^[2] Frequent guests on Freedom Watch were Congressman Ron Paul, economist^{[citation needed]} Peter Schiff, and Lew Rockwell. Napolitano has called himself the "Ayn Rand of Fox News" and has also promoted the works of Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and Ludwig von Mises on his program. The show originally aired once a week on Wednesdays at 2:00 pm on Fox News' Strategy Room. On September 14, 2009 it became a show that airs three to four times a week. On June 12, 2010 it debuted as a weekly show on Fox Business. The show was dropped along with several programs in February 2012 when FBN revamped its entire primetime lineup.^[3]

Napolitano regularly substituted for television host Glenn Beck when Beck was absent from his program. After Beck announced he would be leaving Fox News, he asked Napolitano to replace him.^[4]

Writing career[link]

In 2004, Napolitano wrote the book, Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks its Own Laws, a criticism of the American justice system.

In 2006, his second book, The Constitution in Exile: How the Federal Government Has Seized Power by Rewriting the Supreme Law of the Land was published.

A third book, A Nation of Sheep, was released in October 2007.

In April 2009, Napolitano's fourth book, Dred Scott's Revenge: A Legal History of Race and Freedom in America, was released.

In March, 2010, Napolitano's fifth book was released: Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History.

In October, 2011, Napolitano's sixth book was released: It is Dangerous to be Right When the Government is Wrong: The Case for Personal Freedom.

Politics[link]

Napolitano is a pro-life libertarian, more commonly known as libertarian conservatism.^[5]

He is a strong advocate of the Constitution, viewing it as a contract that must, according to rule of law, be interpreted the way its authors intended or else be invalid. He therefore asserts that the Federal government has a very limited set of powers, that it is exceeding, and that the Bill of Rights limits its valid actions in all circumstances.

The Constitution applies to persons, not just citizens. If you read the Constitution, its protections are not limited to Americans. And that was written intentionally, because at the time it was written, they didn't know what Native Americans would be. When the post civil war amendments were added, they didn't know how blacks would be considered, because they had a decision of the Supreme Court called Dred Scott, that said blacks are not persons. So in order to make sure the Constitution protected every human being: American, alien; citizen, non-citizen; lawful combatant, enemy combatant; innocent, guilty; those who wish us well, those who wish us ill...they use the broadest possible language, to make it clear: Wherever the government goes, the Constitution goes, and wherever the Constitution goes, the protections that it guarantees restrain the government and requires it to protect those rights.

• Judge Andrew Napolitano & Alan Colmes discuss Gitmo, discussing the Supreme Court rulings on the scope of the protections in the Constitution.

Napolitano has called consumer advocate and frequent presidential candidate Ralph Nader a hero of his.^[6]

Napolitano believes that the 9/11 incidents including the subsequent collapse of the World Trade Tower buildings in New York City did not take place as the US government has publicly communicated. “It's "hard for me to believe that" World Trade Center building 7 "came down by itself," said Napolitano, “twenty years from now, people will look at 9-11 the way we look at the assassination of JFK today. It couldn't possibly have been done the way the government told us."^[7]

Personal[link]

Napolitano splits his time living in Manhattan and Sussex County, New Jersey where he owns a farm that produces maple syrup.^[8]

Napolitano is not related to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, whom he sometimes jokingly calls "Cousin Janet."^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Freedom Watch With the Judge
• Judge Andrew P. Napolitano website
• Brian and The Judge
• Judge Andew P. Napolitano's bio at foxnews.com
• Andrew Napolitano at the Internet Movie Database
• Draft Judge Andrew P. Napolitano website
• The Judge's Farm – Vine Hill