Dissertation Information for Richard P. Smiraglia NAME: - Richard P. Smiraglia
- (Alias) Richard Smiraglia - (Alias) Richard P. Smiraglis
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science
SCHOOL:
- University of Chicago (USA) (1992)
ADVISORS: - Don R. Swanson - Arlene G. Taylor
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - D. Kathryn Weintraub - Abraham Bookstein - Dagobert Soergel
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: AUTHORITY CONTROL AND THE EXTENT OF DERIVATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHIC RELATIONSHIPS
Abstract: This dissertation is about authority control (the means by which access terms are controlled and associated in a bibliographic retrieval system) and derivative bibliographic relationships (associations among families of works that are derived from a common source). A major problem in the structure and use of bibliographic retrieval systems is an absence of explicit linkages. Understanding the derivative bibliographic relationship and incorporating that relationship as linkage would contribute a great deal to improving a bibliographic retrieval system. Descriptive survey research method was employed to investigate derivative works. A sample of 411 works was drawn from the online catalog of the Georgetown University Libraries. Most works are contained in printed, textual materials (books and serials), of which most are published in the U.S. or U.K. in English and have dates of publication later than 1965. 49.9% of all works were derivative, but between 40% and 63% of the derivative relationships are not apparent from bibliographic records. Few bibliographic characteristics can be used to predict which works are likely to be derivative. The strongest predictor is the age of the work. The mean number of members per bibliographic family for all works in the sample was 4.7. The majority of bibliographic families have successive derivations and only a few have extractions, amplifications, or performances. Almost a third of the bibliographic families have only two members--a progenitor and one derivation. Works of history are associated with simultaneous and successive derivations, and literary works are associated with amplification and performance derivations. Age of the progenitor is associated with large numbers of derivations in a bibliographic family. Only a few members of any bibliographic family are held by Georgetown. Less than 10% of the ideational nodes of control were controlled by LC
authority records. Although bibliographic families are in many cases quite complex in their node structure, few contain variant identifying features (such as title-changes). A reconceptualization that would allow the authority record for a heading to become an authority record for an ideational node could greatly improve syndetic depth in the current online catalog. However, to effectively increase the explicit control of works will require even greater changes to our bibliographic system.
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