Introducing name authority into an ETD collection

Abstract

Purpose of this paperThe purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate a workflow for establishing name authority in uncontrolled collections. Design/methodology/approachWe developed a workflow incorporating command-line tools and tested it in our electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) collection. We narrowed the scope of the study to born-digital ETDs in the collection and to contributor names, including chairs and committee members. FindingsThis workflow can save staff time and allows for flexible implementation depending on staff numbers and skills as well as institutional needs. Originality/valueThis workflow could be used by other institutions with little or no modification, as it does not rely on specialized software or extensive expertise.

Remediation by Degrees

“…Unlike a more ambitious remediation effort at the University of Houston Libraries, 27 which was launched in order to bring ETD metadata into harmony with revised metadata guidelines for records contributed to a statewide ETD repository in Texas, staff at Atkins Library did not attempt to standardize or control names of authors, advisors, or thesis committee members. Authority control measures like these have been identified as important for digital collections by both Waugh et al 28 and McCutcheon. 29 Nor did the remediation project address diacritics problems in abstracts or title fields, which have been mostly handled on a record-byrecord basis in Niner Commons, or seek to remediate or entirely remove the most flawed student-supplied keywords.…”

A Case Study of ETD Metadata Remediation at the University of Houston Libraries

“…Waugh et al, Lubas, and Chapman et al have all addressed the challenges of managing controlled vocabularies in ETD collections. 7 Waugh et al discuss the frequency with which metadata creators use various ways to express names in the repository, with each variation being ingested into the repository. These variations have implications for the discoverability of ETDs, as a user must know to search or browse for all instances of a name to obtain the desired documents.…”

“…Waugh et al also note that names play an important role in other ETD administrative functions, such as citation analysis and copyright and licensing management. 8 Chapman et al state that the problem with names is compounded by the limited number of solutions available to institutions. They state that the Use of the Library of Congress Name Authority File is problematic because many authors in institutional repositories have no entry, as they tend to be authors of journal articles and conference papers, not books or monographs.…”