Scope of the Authorities File (Library of Congress Authorities)

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <HEAD <title>Scope of the Authorities File (Library of Congress Authorities)</title>  <META name=keywords content="scope contents overview background subject names title name title search library congress authorities catalog help page file guide"> <META name=description content="Scope of the Authorities File."> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf8"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="opac-auth.css" type="text/css"> <script src="https://assets.adobedtm.com/dac62e20b491e735c6b56e64c39134d8ee93f9cf/satelliteLib-6b47f831c184878d7338d4683ecf773a17973bb9.js"></script> </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 name="content"></a> <h1>About Library of Congress Authorities</h1> Search and browse approximately: <ul> <li>.48 million subject and genre/form authority records</li> <li>11.6 million name authority records</li> </ul> Associated references and scope notes are also provided. To search the LC Catalog for bibliographic and holdings information, please switch to <a href="https://catalog.loc.gov">https://catalog.loc.gov</a>. <table width="100%" border="1" bordercolor="#003300" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#FFEEAA"> <tr> <td>Library of Congress Authorities is available free of charge. The Library welcomes <a href="/help/contact-authorities.htm">comments and error reports</a> via email.</td> </tr> </table> Library of Congress Authorities does not currently support: <ul> <li>Keyword searching of MARC fields other than headings fields</li> <li>Search access to subject subdivisions individually</li> <li>Search access to several <a href="https://www.loc.gov/librarians/controlled-vocabularies/">Library of Congress thesauri</a>, including: Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT), Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus for Music (LCMPT), Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (TGM), and the Ethnographic Thesaurus (AFSET)</li> </ul> <h2>About the Headings List Display</h2> Initial search results are presented as a <a href="headings.htm">Headings List</a> -- an alphabetical list of all headings found in the <a href="https://catalog.loc.gov/">LC Catalog</a> that fall nearest alphabetically to the first words of your search. Search results include both headings that have authority records associated with them and headings without associated authority records. Important! Authority records are available only for those headings in the list that display with an icon in the leftmost column. <table width="100%" border="1" bordercolor="#003300" bgcolor="#FFEEAA" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> Note: Because the LC Catalog includes millions of bibliographic records created over many decades and according to a variety of cataloging policies, Headings Lists for searches may include many headings that do not have associated authority records. Examples include headings labelled "[from old catalog]"; name/title headings that under former cataloging practice could be assigned as access points without an authority record; headings consisting of established subject headings from the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) combined with free-floating subdivisions; and subject access points established in a variety of <a href="/help/thesauri.htm">thesauri</a> other than LCSH. </td> </tr> </table> <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> <script>if(window['_satellite']){_satellite.pageBottom();}</script> </BODY> </HTML>

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Scope of the Authorities File (Library of Congress Authorities)