Commercial Services for Providing Authority Control: Outsourcing the Process English version presented at the International Conference = I servizi commerciali per l’authority control: dare in gestione il processo Versione italiana presentata alla Conferenza internazionale

摘要

I have focused on the vendors and processes that are now available in the United States and Canada, but I do not claim to know the state of commercially provided authority control here in Europe and elsewhere in the world. I do know that there are serious issues that must be worked out before authority control vendors can cope with the types of international authority control that we have discussed during this conference. Before we can begin to approach commercial processing using a virtual international authority file, the FRANAR issue needs to be resolved. Many interoperability problems must be solved, including issues of MARC/UNIMARC authority format harmonization, and methods that will allow libraries to use a variety of national authority databases for the matching process, and provide the flexibility to select the authorized form that is appropriate for the local users.