Searching Name Authorities (Library of Congress Authorities Help)

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <HEAD> <title>Searching Name Authorities (Library of Congress Authorities Help)</title>  <META name=keywords content="name authority searching help record search overview subject names title name title search library congress authorities catalog help page file guide"> <META name=description content="Searching Name Authorities - Finds "name authority" headings for Personal authors and creators include editors, performers, photographers, artists, etc. and Group authors and creators include corporate entities, government bodies, conferences, etc. These headings have been established by the Library of Congress (and cooperating partners) and are used in LC Catalog records."> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf8"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="opac-auth.css" type="text/css"> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" link="#003333" vlink="#660000" alink="#CC0000" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" background="images/help-background.gif">  <TABLE WIDTH=770 BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=0 CELLSPACING=0> <TR valign=top> <TD width="200"><a href="#content"><IMG SRC="images/help-imagewhole.gif" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="182" border="0" alt="Skip Persistent Navigation"></a> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tr> <td> <a href="http://authorities.loc.gov/" class="link">Authorities Home</a> <a href="/help/contents.htm" class="link">About Library of Congress Authorities</a> <a href="/help/auth-faq.htm" class="link">Frequently Asked Questions</a> SEARCHING: <a href = "/help/combinedsearch.htm" class="link">Search Overview</a> - <a href="/help/subj-auth.htm" class="link">Subject Authorities</a> - <a href="/help/name-auth.htm" class="link">Name Authorities</a> - <a href="/help/title-auth.htm" class="link">Title Authorities</a> - <a href="/help/nt-auth.htm" class="link">Name/Title Authorities</a> - <a href="/help/keyword-auth.htm" class="link">Keyword Authorities (All)</a> <a href="/help/history.htm" class="link">Search History</a> <a href="/help/unicode.htm" class="link">Diacritics & Special Characters</a> SEARCH RESULTS: <a href="/help/disphlpA1.htm" class="link">MARC Display</a> <a href="/help/disphlpA2.htm" class="link">Labelled Display</a> <a href="/help/headings.htm" class="link">Headings List</a> <a href="/help/refer.htm" class="link">References/Scope Notes</a> <a href="/help/savemail.htm" class="link">Save, Print, Email</a> OTHER TOPICS: <a href="/help/thesauri.htm" class="link">Headings List Types</a> <a href="/help/icons.htm" class="link">Icons, Buttons & Tabs</a> </td> </tr> </table> </TD> <TD width=570><img src="images/help-topright.gif" width=570 height=105 align="left" alt="Library of Congress Authorities Help Pages: use the browser's back button to resume searching"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10"> <tr> <td><a id="content"></a> <h1>Searching Name Authority Headings</h1> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top">Select the search type Name Authority Headings on the main search screen to browse... <ul style="margin-bottom:0px"> <li>Personal authors and creators, including editors, performers, photographers, artists, etc.</li> <li>Group authors and creators, including corporate entities, government bodies, conferences, jurisdictions, etc.</li> </ul> </td> <td style="vertical-align:top"><img src="images/name-auth.gif" width="194" height="84" border="0" align="right" alt="Image of the Search Type window with Name Authority Headings selected"></td> </tr> </table> Name authorities are established by the Library of Congress (and cooperating partners) and used in <a href="https://catalog.loc.gov/">LC Catalog</a> records. <table width="100%" border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#003300" bgcolor="#FFFFEE"> <tr> <td bgcolor="#FFEEAA"> Most personal and group authors/creators are searchable as both Name Authority Headings and Subject Authority Headings. To ensure retrieval of all relevant records, however, it is recommended that the Name Authority Headings search type be your primary search type. Subject headings for Geographic Names (151 field in MARC 21) may also be searched using the Name Authority Headings search type. </td> </tr> </table> <h2>Name Authority Search Examples:</h2> <table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5 width="95%" align="center" border=1> <tbody> <tr bgcolor=#ffffcc> <td width="30%">Name type . . . </td> <td width="70%">Search Examples . . .</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="30%">personal name</td> <td width="70%">weber carl maria von napoleon i emperor</td> </tr> <tr> <td height="30" width="30%">compound last name</td> <td height="30" width="70%">de la mare walter</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="30%">government agency</td> <td width="70%">united states congressional budget office california administrative office</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="30%">organization</td> <td width="70%">battelle memorial institute metropolitan museum of art</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="30%">company</td> <td width="70%">american telephone and telegraph</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="30%">conference</td> <td width="70%">international symposium on antarctic glaciology</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="30%">geographic subject (MARC tag 151)</td> <td width="70%">ararat mount turkey</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <h2 id="tips">Search Tips:</h2> <ul> <li style="padding-bottom:5px">Retain punctuation found in the middle of words and numbers Punctuation (e.g. semicolons, periods, hyphens, slashes, etc.) found at the end of words or phrases is ignored. However, you need to retain punctuation found in the middle of words and numbers (e.g., U.S. and US display in different places in Headings Lists).</li> <li style="padding-bottom:5px">Truncation is automatic Searches are automatically truncated and retrieve name heading authority records that begin with the words or phrases entered. You do not need to use the question mark (?) for truncation.</li> <li style="padding-bottom:5px">Personal author/creator <ul> <li>Enter the last name of an author/creator followed by the first name: mitchell margaret <li>If you are unsure of the spelling of an author/creator's last name, enter as much as you know: dosto (omit first names, titles of nobility, etc.) <li>Retain the hyphen in a hyphenated name: evans-pritchard <li>For names with connectives (van, von, der), follow the conventions of the person's country or language: gogh vincent van </li> </ul> <li>Group authors/creators (government agencies, organizations, conferences) <ul> <li>As with individual authors, search enough of the name to distinguish it from other names</li> <li>Search hierarchical names in full descending order: united states congress <li>Search both acronyms and full names to retrieve all relevant catalog records. Search US as well as United States <li>Proceedings of conferences and meetings can be found by searching on the full name of the conference: international symposium on x-ray microscopy</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h2>How to View Authorities and References:</h2> Your search results will be presented as a browsable <a href="/help/headings.htm">Headings List</a> of name headings in the <a href="https://catalog.loc.gov/">LC Catalog</a>, whether the headings have authority records associated with them or not. <blockquote> Note: Headings in the LC Catalog that end with the legend "[from old catalog]" were assigned before the online cataloging era and may not be associated with a records in Library of Congress Authorities. In addition, the Headings List may display headings from in-process catalog records for which authority records will be made in the near future. </blockquote> You will be placed at the point in the Headings List most closely matching your search words. To browse through the Headings List, select <img src="images/s-prev.gif" width="100" height="20" align="absmiddle" alt="Previous Button">to view headings that precede your search words alphabetically or scroll down to view headings following your search words. To retrieve authority information, references, and/or notes for a heading, select the icon shown to the left of the heading. <img src="images/headings-name.gif" width="550" height="351" border="1" alt="Image of the Name Authority Headings List display for Mississippi River"> Please consult the following Help Screens for more detailed information: <ul> <li><a href="/help/headings.htm">Headings List</a></li> <li><a href="/help/thesauri.htm">Headings List Types</a></li> <li><a href="/help/refer.htm">Authorized, References, and Scope Notes</a></li> <li><a href="/help/disphlpA1.htm">MARC Display</a></li> <li><a href="/help/disphlpA2.htm">Labelled Display</a></li> </ul> <hr noshade size="1"> Use the browser's [Back] button to exit help and resume searching. >><a href="#contents">Top of Page</a> </td> </tr> </table> </TD> </TR> <tr bgcolor="#FFEEAA" valign="middle"> <td>   Still need Help?   <a href="contact-authorities.htm">Contact the Help Desk</a> </td> <td align="right" style="padding-right:10px"> Library of Congress Authorities - <a href="http://authorities.loc.gov/">http://authorities.loc.gov</a> Library of Congress Catalog - <a href="https://catalog.loc.gov/">https://catalog.loc.gov</a> The Library of Congress Home - <a href="https://www.loc.gov/">https://www.loc.gov</a> </td> </tr> </TABLE> </BODY> </HTML>

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Searching Name Authorities (Library of Congress Authorities Help)